Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Mt Whitney Hiking preparation

Three of us planning to hike Whitney as day hike on Sept 11th. I am wondering what kind of preparation we need to do successfully summit. I did half dome last year but took about 12 hours. I think I am in better shape now as compared to last year. We live in bay area so mostly we are doing Mission Peak back to back and Black Mountain hikes. We are doing about 15 mile hike with 3k-5k elevation almost every week for the last 2-3 months. We did couple of 20 mile hikes with 5k elevation. Our goal is to do Mission Peak 3 times back to back in a day sometime next month as it covers about 20 miles with 6.5k elevation but it doesn’t cover the continuous elevation gain as in Whitney hike.
We are planning to do Mt Dana 2 days before the Whitney hike on the way. Is this training enough? Is it a good idea to do Mt Dana 2 days before the Whitney hike?

This is our plan to Acclimatize to higher elevation:

Day-1: Drive from Bay area to Tioga pass and do Mt. Dana in the Afternoon/Evening. We may not be able to finish it but we would like to go to at least 12k elevation and stay at Mammoth Lakes that night. Our worry is that we are driving from Bay area to Tioga pass and planning to do Mt Dana on the same day and this is going from 0 to 13k in one day, will this create any adverse effects and will tire us more just before Whitney hike?

Day-2: Drive to Lone Pine from Mammoth Lakes. Spend couple of hours each at Whitney Portal and Horseshoe Meadows. No plans of hiking, just rest as much as possible.

Day-3: Do Mt Whitney starting at 3am.

We are first times so we want to make sure we are preparing well enough. Any feedback or suggestions really appreciated.

Thanks

I think the biggest question mark is the ability to go from sea level up to 13k in an afternoon. Mt. Dana is short but steep. It can be done in 4-5 hours from what I've heard. Definitely not by me!

If you can get up there, it would be a good thing. Any time spent in the higher elevations prior to your hike will be beneficial to your chances of success. Almost all of my successful Whitney summits all have fallen after a week long trip up at the June Lake Loop, which is near Tioga Pass where you're going. Every time I've tried to go straight to Whitney from home, it's been a turnaround somewhere between Trail Camp and Trail Crest.

I'm from Fremont and Mission Peak is a great place to prep. 2 to 3 times in a day at a good pace of a little more than an hour from Stanford Ave each time is a great test of fitness.

For altitude, last trip, I hiked from the portal and hung out at lone pine lake for an hour or two the day before "the hike," but stayed in lone pine overnight. I didn't have any altitude problems, though I did also take diamox.

This trip, I'm going to just do the lone pine lake hike but stay overnight at the portal. Not sure about diamox just yet...