I have greatly appreciated the information shared in this message board and thought I'd post a little about our dayhike to the summit on *Thursday, July 11.* Sorry, I don't have too specific of times, correct terms, etc for each landmark on the trail.
(This was my 2nd trip - we attempted last October '07, but were turned back on the switchbacks due the snow. We understood that the snow would ice over by the time we would have been coming back down in the afternoon. We had Yak Traks which work great on snow, but would not have been safe enough to descend the switchbacks.)
I was in a group of 6. One person had previously summited 3 times. The rest of us were 1st timers.
* Stayed in the Dow Villa Motel - very happy with our rooms, and pool and jacuzzi.
Arrived Tuesday night, the 8th. On Wednesday, 9th, did a hike starting about 7am to Lone Pine Lake to stretch out the legs, get used to the weather, etc. Mosquitos were immediately upon us when we got out of our car at the Portal.
Repel 40% DEET seemed to work well for us at all times.
*Thursday morning. Got up at 3AM to get ready. Drove to portal (takes about 20 minutes from Lone Pine).
* Started on trail at 4:40am. Probably about 20 others were starting at the same time.
* Made it to trail crest at 9:40am. Took a long, much needed rest there.
Great water source for refilling your bladder/bottles near the beginning of the switchbacks.
* I arrived at Whitney Summit at 11:40am. Our group was stretched out between the trail crest and summit, so we hung out until about 1pm as the last of our group made it.
We had set our turn back time to 1pm, to be safe in case of afternoon storms. As we were well on our way down about 3 or 4pm, we did see dark clouds and heard thunder.
* Arrived back to portal about 6pm.
* 7pm - beer, pizza, jacuzzi
* Weather was GREAT! Wore shorts, long sleeve dress shirt (Van Heusen), and a light vest. LOVE Smart Wool medium hiking socks with New Balance trail running shoes. My feet feel great.
* Trail conditions were fine. There is one 20 (?) foot section of snow to walk on the summit trail.
** HIGHLY* recommend hiking POLES!
* My last words -- definitely do some good, long training hikes with the shoes, socks, daypack, poles, food, sports drinks, etc that you plan to take to Whitney. Don't try anything for the first time on Whitney. All of the advice on the message boards is great! But, TEST out what you will wear/eat/drink or makes you feel comfortable under long, challenging, or stressful conditions.
Hope this is useful for someone. Thanks.
