Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Am I ready? Uh, no. You're not.

I'm not sure I'm ready for the 60 mile, 4 day trip I planned, and at this time last year I feel like I had done more to ready myself for my first Whitney ascent. Last year I was greatly fearing that the much younger guys I was going with (them from late 20's to mid 30's, while I'm 47) were going to need to carry me down from the mountain. I had just heard so many stories about how hard it was. So I took training and diet seriously, and made it. Yes, it was hard, but I still made it, Portal to Portal, in 14 hours and change.

So now I've been trying to not get over confident about things, and get lax in my training and lifestyle. I think my trip through Cottonwood pass up to Whitney, and back down same, is going to tax me beyond what we did last year, just from the total miles per day. I'm getting wild-eyed looks from my younger friends, about the prospect of essentially hiking an average of 15 miles a day for 4 days straight. Am I crazy? I don't know, but I'm going to have to double-time the training if I expect to make it to the summit via the west side, after 2 days of 30 miles. I think I'm going to have to lower my expectations about how much fishing we do on this trip for sure. I can't wait.