I’ve been up most of the high peaks around Whitney, but I somehow missed Wotans Throne, right next to Trail Camp. I was thinking about going alone, but one of my climbing partners mentioned wanting to climb Mt. Muir. And if we’re climbing Wotans Throne and Mt. Muir, we might as well tag Mt. Whitney again while we were at it. My easy trip to Wotans Throne had become a three-fer!
We started up at 5:15, didn’t fiddle around much except for a long break for water at 12,400’, and were on the summit at 12:02. Then we sat around watching the usual antics. One guy took several picture of his buddy holding the giant Whitney sign, and neither of them noticed that he was holding it upside-down. Another guy had a really dark, full beard, the hairiest legs I’ve ever seen, dark blue nail polish, and a pink skirt. Someone else was walking around asking whether anybody had any Tylenol/Alieve/Advil for a headache. I gave him mine. I usually don’t even notice the altitude, let alone get a headache.
After 45 minutes, we started down, took more time than we should have climbing Mt. Muir, and then made our way down the switchbacks. My partner had lost interest in Wotans Throne, so he hiked out while I headed off cross-country. Wotans Throne turned out to be a nice class 2 to easy class 3 climb, though I was tired and not moving very fast. When I got to Trail Camp, I took a caffeine pill, perked up, and made it to the trailhead at 7:50. The total time was 14:35. If I had skipped Wotans Throne, and only done Whitney and Muir, my time would have been about what it was in 1988. | 
