Hi All! We will be leaving the Portal on August 1st and camping at Trail Camp, hopefully summitting on the 2nd and coming back down to the Portal in time for good grub. Can I ask what is your decend time coming down from the summit? Or average time it takes to decend, if available?? I would like my mom & son to meet us at the portal when we come down, but I am having a hard time guessing how long it will take us to go 10.5 miles (after hiking up appox 4.4 miles). We are definitely on the slow side of walking, usually averaging about 1.6 - 2 mph on the way up and about double that on the way down...but that is Baldy and this is Whitney!!

Have been so excited for weeks, but it is now actually becoming real. We leave a week from today to acclimate!!

Thanks so much!!!

I tend to leave Trail Camp for the summit at 05:00 and arrive at about 09:30 (a bit on the slow side). I then leave the summit at about 11:00 to 11:30 and am back at TC at about 14:00. I generally take about an hour to pack my tent and gear plus eat a snack. I stop again at outpost for about 20 minutes to have another snack and then head the rest of the way down. I'm at the portal at about 18:00. Not particulary fast, but I generally have sore feet towards the end. Hope this helps. BTW I do Baldy frequently and I generally average 1.5 MPH up and 2.0 down. So I am probably a lot slower than you guys.

I'm generally on the summit at dawn and am fight traffic all most of the way across the west side and down the switchbacks.

I have never done 2 MPH from the summit to Lower Trail Crest, where I get my gear together. From Trail Crest, I can average close to 3 MPH the rest of the way while moving. I will stop at Trailside Meadow for a head dunk and foot soak and maybe one other stop depending on how tried I tired I am. We are generally down around 1:30 to 3...depending on the number and length of stops. Then it's a shower and on to either the Bonanza or The Pizza Factory.

Thank you both! I didn't have time to read the new topics coming in (and this response) before we left last Monday (7/30) so I just printed them out and took them up to read while we camped and acclimated at the portal. Everyone on this board and on the mountain has been so helpful, kind, and encouraging throughout the whole process that it has been overwhelming. Both my husband & I reached the summit on Thursday 8/2/2012 at about 12:50 PM. I will write a TR as soon as I can wrap my head around the fact that we did it and make my thoughts clear.

Thank you all!!!

Congrats on reaching the summit and making it back home! Hope there are pictures of your hiking buddies at the summit in your TR.

Thanks Wazzu! Our digital pictures are huge in size and I had a hard time uploading them yesterday. The dumb little point-and-shoot might have been on some other setting...I am not sure yet. I dragged my film SLR and took three rolls, I will those developed this week. Of course, one hiking buddy was with us and I took a few shots of her at the summit. I left the other one with our son. =)