Gary:
The Sierra has great climbing on high peaks from Horseshoe Meadow all the way to Sonora Pass. Then there is a whole different kind of climbing on Mt. Shasta. Reno is the place to be, if the jobs ever come back. It's about 3.5 hours to Mt. Shasta City, 3 hours to Yosemite, 3.5 hours to Bishop, and maybe 5 hours to Whitney Portal. Oh, yeah, it's 40 minutes to Mt. Rose, where I can breathe some thin air any time I have two gallons of gas and a few hours to kill.
Whitney is the high-profile prize because it's the highest peak in the 48 states, but there are hundreds of other worthy peaks in California. Even ordinary mortals can reach many of them as a day trip with no heavy pack, no bear canister, no permit, no fees, no quota BS, and no crowds. I once signed a register that had fewer than ten entries in it, and one of them was Norman Clyde from the mid 1930's.
My point is that you shouldn't tie yourself to Whitney by buying an overpriced cabin. See it all. It sounds like the bug has bitten your daughter too. She might decide that living near the mountains outweighs the hassle of moving and changing schools. You should take her climbing as much as possible before she discovers boys and heads off to some party school to further her education.
