Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Day hike times

Congrats, Phatphil, quite impressive indeed.
Perhaps if Peakgrinder spent more time acclimating, he too might be able to shave some time off his impressive times too.

Whoa Paige, careful you don't want to be calling Phastphil Phatphil do you? He might run us both over next time on the trail. I know it was a mistake, just kidding. Longer time to acclimatize just is not going to happen, our wives cut us loose for three days as it is with travel and all. They are great about it but don't really understand the speed hike stuff and to say hey we are going to spend a few extra days up there to shave twenty or thirty minutes isn't gonna cut it. Maybe someday we will take the whole family, we both have young children, but at this point we don't want to tread on one of the sacred few manly weekends we get each year, you know pain, suffering, cigars and all that fun stuff.

GRINDER

Wtny n1, We used your time as a target and have to admit to a shuffling jog from Lone Pine Lake down to the Portal. Our time to the summit was slower than I wanted at 3:45. I can't even imagine your two 10-hour summit trips in a day.
On our way down both my brother and I kept wondering if we really had gone up the same trail because the various steps up seemed so high. We had no intentions of going back up!
It would seem that a 6-6.5 hour time is well within your reach. Are you planning another try?

Grinder, thanks for your compliments. Your time is excellent. I live at 4800' and do my training on the local Tahoe peaks at 10,500-10,900; so I do get a real advantage. Evern stair stepping in the gym at 4800' does wonders compared to sea level.
My brother Pete came over from England 10 days beforehand so I could acclimatize him. On his second day we went from 5000' to 9000' and he was woozy at the top but by 7 days we hit 3 peaks over 10,500 in 4 hours on his final training walk and he was AOK. I think this shows the benefit of altitude training.
For 5 days after our hike I swore never again but now my idiocy is coming back. I think 6:30 is possible if I can hold my body together for another year but can't underestimate the benefits of a companion pushing and pulling. I doubt if Pete will want to do it again so who knows!

I have a new challenge for phastphil. Go to this page and learn about the Pikes Peak Marathon. I did it this year at age 55 and I found it to be more difficult than Whitney. http://www.pikespeakmarathon.org/

Peakgrinder, , thanks for the laugh.