All in all, it was a great experience. It wasn't as daunting as it is made out to be in people's dramatic accounts and epic YouTube videos. Mt. Whitney is not some far off exotic place. It's very accessible and surmountable if you are in good shape.
Keep in mind that, on youtube, there is a whole lot of showboating. Everybody wants to make others feel envious of their experiences and their abilities on the mountain. So videos of hikes in places like Whitney, Shasta, etc are usually highly dramatized with such things as epic sounding music and summit stills showing dramatic outpourings of emotion. The reality is somewhat different, even if no less spectacular.
Speaking of Whitney being less daunting in reality, I also found Shasta to be FAR less daunting than it is made out to be. Granted, I did Clear Creek with no snow, which is basically a trail hike to the summit. Maybe I would have felt differently if I had done a glacier route or even Avalanche Gulch. Then again, people even make dramatic videos out of the Clear Creek hike up Shasta.
