Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion First Attempt June 30th

Forty three years ago, my brother, cousin and I were dropped off at a park somewhere in northern California and hiked (by our selves) about 5 or more miles up a trail in the Sierra's, spent the night by a lake, and came down the next day. I was 8 years old, maybe just turned 9. My brother, the oldest was 12. The three of us are doing this again June 30th. (overnighter)My cousin (Charlie) is in the best shape, being a ski bum from Park City. My brother and I are ex-smokers and in decent shape.(more or less) We both are in "training" trying to prepare for Mt. Whitney. My biggest concern is Altitude, being that I live in Southern MD, basically at or below sea level. I plan on training some in western MD....foothills compared to CA....but it's all I have. Super fired up for the challenge and looking forward to the trip. I hope to be posting successful news come July 4th. Great information here, Thanks. Will

I hope you have a set of crampons, ice axe, gaiters and basic snow skills. There is a fair chance they will be required.

My guess you might need at minimum some type of traction device. There are 10 weeks to your trip...more or less. In that time Mother Nature will either be benevolent or a real mother, that is, it will warm and a lot of winter will melt away or it will be cool and June 30th will look like May 1st most years.

Welcome, lilschnetz!

June 30 is pretty early, so the heavy snow this year will most likely leave quite a bit for you to navigate, especially in the 99 switchbacks area above Trail Camp.

You can be sure there will be a well-traveled boot track through the area. What we don't know is whether you will be able to stay on the switchbacks, or if everyone will still be going straight up through the snow field just west of them. (Need to find Bob R's picture!)

Either way, if there is still snow, you will need to be careful about the slippery conditions. Early morning and later in the afternoon, the snow can ice up and become dangerous. Please be aware of that, and be careful.

Regarding the altitude, if you spend several nights just prior to your hike at elevations like Whitney Portal (>8000) or Horseshoe Meadows (10,000'), you will enjoy your hike more and be much more likely to succeed. Most of the people here in Cali also live between 0 and 500' elevation, too, so their altitude experiences are similar to yours.

Thanks for the reply's and updates. My Park City cousin has crampons for each of us, and we're working on obtaining ice axes.....I'm going to keep praying for Mother Nature to keep it warm for the next 10 weeks. Unfortunately, I'll only get a bit more than 24 hours for acclimation to altitude.We arrive the day before accending...I'm hoping my training will help. I also heard about taking Ginkgo and (don't laugh) Chlorophyll drops a week or two before the trip.....supposedly will increase red blood cells. Comments? I also was considering bringing personal O2. Any of this make sense or worth the effort.

Look up Diamox -- it will be better than anything else.

This is worth reading:  recomendations for an acclimatization route up the summit?