Well before the holidays began, Josh "Monsoon" Monson and I decided on a weekend in January to attempt a winter ascent of Mt. Whitney's east face. I've been into the Whitney wilderness area 3 times before this trip. Twice were failed attempts to scale the Moutnaineer's Route (MR) on Mt. Whitney in the winter. Josh had already been to the summit via multiple technical climbing routes in summer conditions. My other visit was my first big climb: Mount Russell, CA (14,086'),
via the Fishhook Arete (5.9) in the fall of 2007.