I really appreciate everyone's honest advice. This seems to be a great forum, with a lot of helpful and knowledgeable folks.
Upon considering all of your advice, I have decided to shelve a Whitney attempt for some point in the future when I have more experience, and during a season in which weather will be more favorable. I did consult with the guide service mentioned, and the gentleman I spoke with made it sound like a great outfit, should I decide to go guided at a later date.
I did want to chime back in and answer some of the questions you have raised during this discussion.
So far as my local adventure club is concerned, I am very lucky to be a member of such a great organization, in such an unlikely place as Pittsburgh. The club has been in existence since 1947, and has put on the mountaineering school annually for a quite a long time, so there are a plethora of experienced winter mountaineers able to take each year's class on graduation trips to various summits without the aid of professional guides. Some of the more serious individuals, have bagged difficult summits in the Alps and the Himalaya, so there is no shortage of very experienced folks willing to donate their time and knowledge. I don't wish to sound too arrogant about my club, as I myself am nothing special among these giants, but we have many club members who have since moved from Pittsburgh to go out west, and they all say they have been unable to find anything like the club we have here back home. So, I am very lucky indeed.
Speaking of former club members who moved out west, I am in communication with an individual now living in Los Angeles, about a possible Mt. Baldy attempt for my trip. He warns that although it has been dry recently, that if there is much snow, Mt. Baldy would also require a full alpine kit and relevant experience in using it. So, I definitely have some more research and weather watching to do for that potentiality.
As to my aviation experience and previous exposure to altitude, all of the flying I have done as a pilot, has been in unpressurized general aviation aircraft. The highest altitude I can remember being at (uh-oh), was a cross-country instrument flight in which I filed for 9,000 ft MSL, and en-route, requested that I bump up to 10,000 ft. FAA regulations state for unpressurized aircraft, that at altitudes between 10,000-12,000 ft MSL, a pilot must use supplemental oxygen if flight is to occur within that range for longer than 30 minutes. Above 12,000 ft MSL, the pilot must continuously be on supplemental oxygen. None of the planes I have ever flown had supplemental oxygen, and all of their service ceilings would have been near the 10,000-12,000 ft mark anyway.
I haven't strained or physically exerted my body at altitudes above 12,000 ft before, although if it's worth anything, I have never experienced any significant or very noticeable negative effects from the altitudes I have been at. I can always notice that something is somehow different with the air, deep breaths aren't nearly as satisfying and restoring, I see how I become winded more quickly, and how my performance isn't nearly as great as it would be at home, at a much lower altitude. However, I have been lucky to avoid some of the symptoms I have seen with my friends on trips between 8-11,000ft, which include splitting headaches, nausea, and lethargy. I do not allow this fact to let me discount the serious nature with which hypoxia and altitude sickness should always be treated however, as my pilot training taught me well.
"The Freedom of the Hills" is my new Bible, so I am on the path. I thank you all again for all your thoughtful advice, and I look forward to lurking in this great forum, until the day when maybe I can offer some mountaineering advice of my own.
All the best,
Mike
