After two failed attempts, I finally made it to the summit of Whitney. I spent three days camping at Onion Valley campground, at the base of Kearsarge Pass. It is a great place to get some acclimation as the campground is at 10,200;, the trail to Kearsarge Pass is an easy 11 miles round trip, and you have great scenery all the way. Each campsite has a huge bear box to use. After Onion Valley, I went over to the Bristlecone Pine visitors center, hiked their 4 mile trail, then off to the trail head to White Mountain, where I spent the night at 12,000' with no one else there. Started the trek to the summit at 4:30am the next morning to the chorus of coyotes howling in the background. Pretty cool to hear that! Didn't see another soul all the way to the summit, but passed about 8 hikers who were on their way up as I was coming down.Late that afternoon I got a room at the Dow Villa, and spent the night there, and took it easy that whole day. Up to this point, all my hiking was solo. Next morning, 1:30am, I met up with our group and started the Whitney trail at 2:00am. Made the summit around noon with good weather all the way. We filtered water as we went to save on the weight. While at the top, the clouds started to build up, and when the wind kicked in the temperature dropped about 20 degrees very fast. I started back down, with the wind kicking up til below Trail Crest. About half way down the switchbacks a few snow flakes started coming down-maybe a blessing from the gods for allowing me to make the summit?? My time back to the Portal was 5 1/2 hours. Some comments about my trek: everyone I came across were great. In fact, at Kearsarge Pass a young man introduced himself and started a conversation with me. I thought I recognized the name: Michael Garica. He is a frequent contributor to this board and what a great source of information. Take food you enjoy to eat. I took only Gu, no Power bars or Cliff bars. I had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, gorp, snickers bars,etc. Much easier to eat, swollow, etc. Word of caution: I did take some almonds but found out quickly that at altitude you don't have a lot of saliva, so you end up having a tough time getting them down!! Remember to stop and take a look around, enjoy what you are doing. Don't press on when you are tired, take a few minutes to check thing out, the flora/fauna,etc. Have a great time on the trail, and keep hiking. Bobd
