This will be a very long post, but I hope it will be a useful and interesting one for many people.
My wife and I had a wonderful experience hiking Mount Whitney in one day on the "traditional" trail. We live in Connecticut (hence the name "flatlander") and rarely see elevations above 2,000 feet, let alone 14,494 feet (or 14,496.811 - whatever it really is). We are also both in our late 40's, and, though we hike frequently, are not in tip-top physical condition. We decided to give Mount Whitney a try when an acquaintance from Florida - a person who helped get us hiking in the mountains more than 25 years ago - told us last year that he wanted to climb Whitney, an experience he hoped would be the "pinnacle" of his hiking career (pun not intended, but almost unavoidable). He wondered if we were interested. With trepidation, we agreed, and he secured the day-hike permits last February.
Unfortunately, he did not complete the hike because he was not as prepared as he should have been. However, we DID reach the summit, and I hope our adventure will help others who read this message board gain the confidence to give it a try.
Living in Connecticut, we obviously have no way to train to hike at high elevations. Also, our highest peak in New England, Mount Washington, is only 6,288 feet high, and the trails to the top generally require less than 4,000 feet of elevation gain. So all we could do to prepare (short of flying out several months early) was hike as much as we could. We did several weekend hikes of 6-8 miles, with 1,000 feet or so of gain just to build our legs and stamina. Three weeks before our hike we did an 8-mile (or so) hike with 2,000 feet of elevation gain.
We flew into Las Vegas on July 22 and headed straight for Death Valley, where we climbed Telescope Peak on July 23. Telescope Peak is slightly higher than 11,000 feet, and the trail requires a 14-mile round trip and about 3,000 feet of elevation gain. It was a great warmup hike. We breathed more heavily in these altitudes, but found the trail both "doable" and delightful (though moderately strenuous).
On July 25, we stayed in Big Pine, CA and hiked from Glacier Lodge (west of Big Pine) on the North Fork of the Big Pine Lakes trail, which leads to several stunning glacial lakes and provides access to the Palisade Glacier. We hiked to Fifth Lake, which, again, gave us a 14 or 15-mile round trip and over 3,000 feet of elevation gain with the high point being above 11,000 feet. The scenery was, again, terrific and the trail was moderately strenuous.
On July 26, we hiked a short trail in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine forest (elevation above 10,000 feet) on the White Mountain road east of Big Pine. On July 27, we hiked the White Mountain Peak trail, which requires a 15-mile round trip and over 3,000 feet of elevation gain, but starts above 11,000 feet and ends above 14,000 feet. The first five miles of this trail seemed comparatively moderate, but it wore us down, and the last two miles - down a short steep slope, then up the steep cone of White Mountain Peak along switchbacks, was extremely difficult for us. We do not know if it was the higher altitude, but this trail scared us. If we had this much trouble getting to 14,000 feet from 11,000 feet, and after only seven miles, could we do Mount Whitney in one day?
We had not been using trekking poles up to this point, so we decided to rent a pair in Lone Pine to give us every advantage on Mount Whitney. For all we know, they may have turned the tide for us. We started our Whitney hike on July 29 at 4:30 A.M. at the Portal. Using headlamps on the hike (for the first time) was fun, as was hiking in the mild temperatures before dawn. We made steady progress, arriving at Lone Pine Lake just after dawn. That progress continued right up through Trail Crest, which we reached shortly after noon. We made several rest/snack stops along the way, with a longer stop at Trail Camp, but we were both using hydration packs, allowing us to have water whenever we needed it. We each carried about three liters of water and two liters of a sports drink that tasted awful but may have helped.
The view from Trail Crest was awe-inspiring to us flatlanders and we felt so good about making it that far that we couldn't think about quitting. We kept on hiking, after a brief and small lunch, thoroughly enjoying the windows and the views of Hitchcock Lake, Guitar Lake, and the Sierra crest. But the last mile became very, very tough. The altitude finally started hitting my wife and she started to feel a bit disoriented. We were just past Keeler's Needle - could we do it? We decided to try moving in short segments of 50 feet or so, each followed by a rest and catching our breath. In this painfully slow manner, we made it to the top at about 2:45. We had been told it would take about 1 1/2 hours to go from Trail Crest to the peak; it took us almost twice that long.
Everything was worth it - the thrill of making what had seemed an unreachable goal many months (as well as two days) earlier, and the awesome views. Fantastic!
We made good time on the way back, but got caught in a rainstorm at Trail Camp, lasting almost through Mirror Lake. We were quite exhausted by the time we reached Lone Pine Lake, and we agree with everyone who says those last 2 1/2 miles back to the Portal (most of which we did in the dark with our headlamps) is the wosrt part of the hike. We arrived back at the Portal at 9:00 P.M., so the entire trip took us 16 1/2 hours. Had the Trail Crest - Summit portion been easier for us, we probably could have carved another hour off of that.
Our advice to others who are in similar positions or shape:
1. The four warmup hikes we took in the week before Whitney were great practice and seemed to acclimate us pretty well up (at least up to 11,000 feet), even though we returned each night to motels in the Owens Valley.
2. The hydration packs were marvelous. I, particularly, use lots and lots of water when hiking, and having it readily and immediately available is extremely important.
3. After the difficulty we had on White Mountain Peak without trekking poles, and the relative comfort on the similar slopes of Whitney, it's hard for us not to conclude that the poles were also very helpful (especially in the stream crossings on the way back when we were very tired).
4. Make sure you have headlamps!
5. Having one of Doug's enormous pancakes the day after the hike was a real treat. It took us two days (seriously) to finish it.
Thanks to the Whitney Portal Store gang for their great hospitality and for this message board (which we also used frequently to prepare before we flew out to Las Vegas). Thanks also to the kind folks who summited before we did, then cheered us when we got back to Outpost Camp.
