my friends and i decided to try summiting mount whitney before the weather made it impossible, so we targeted monday, october 4 as our date.
we started our journey at 4:20am, arrived at the summit at 1:10pm and made it back to whitney portal at 8:00pm. the conditions on top were difficult, but we snuck in just before the weather took a turn for the worse.
it was an exhilarating and exhausting trip, but one i will never forget! if anybody is interested, i kept a photo journal of the day:
http://aimhighwillisaimhigh.blogspot.com/2010/10/summiting-mount-whitney-part-2.html