Ronald, again congratulations on the summit! Your detailed TR was very inspiring, and I applaud your determination and perseverence. Quillansculpture and I were up on the summit just 5 days earlier, and the feeling doesn't soon go away.
Your TR brings back some memories of my first time up this mountain last year, a solo dayhike with a 16-pound pack. That 16 pounds was way too heavy - your 25 pounds must have been pure torture. Next time ditch all that heavy bottled water in favor of a feather-light filter and re-fill as you go. No shortage of water on this mountain below below 12,400 feet. Three liters will generally get you from Trail Camp to the summit and back. If you can get that daypack down to 10 pounds or less - about average for a Whitney dayhike - your next summit will go a lot quicker and more pleasantly.
I'm glad Doc Rod convinced you to forge ahead with your plans. As he said, in the summer you are never alone on this mountain and most people will gladly assist a fellow hiker however they can. Glad you got the encouragement you did on that final backstretch to the summit. I'm also betting that on your way back down to Trail Crest you did the exact same thing! Between your comments about headache, nausea and wanting to sleep I suspect you may have been experiencing some AMS, but clearly not enough to stand in your way. Just a great job of obtaining your goal and you should feel very, very proud - particularly since you say you're not a regular hiker. Or are you? Now, that is . . .
I was going to give you a tip on photo posting, but I see that Bee has bee-aten me to it. It's easy once you have a hosting site like Flickr set up with a free account.
Again, congrats on a wonderful (though painful) experience - hope to meet you on the mountain some day.
