It was Dec 2012 that the guy Steve mentioned barely survived a five-jacket night under a rock near the Whitney Summit. Doug and I were still talking about him this past August when I was at the Whitney Portal Store.
Mike is honest in admitting a lack of experience with equipment, altitude, etc for doing this in December and Bob and Steve have articulated well what the better option would be.
Bob, just for clarification....there is no medical or physiological comparison between sitting in an airplane at moderate altitude and working hard in inclement conditions on Whitney. The workload and other environmental factors worsen the effect of any degree of hypoxia alone, and vice versa. By the way, commercial pressurized aircraft have an equivalent altitude of 8,000 ft, although the newer, stronger "plastic" plane is more like 6,000 - 7,000. It is thought by aircraft medical departments that some travelers symptoms of fatigue, nausea and headache are actually altitude illness, especially on long haul flights. If Mike is a general aviation pilot and flying an unpressurized aircraft, then he may have been exposed to higher altitudes (lower pressure)than on commercial flights, but sedentary is just not the same. Bad decisions can leave either mountaineer or pilot on the mountain forever.
Harvey
