After a failed overnight attempt due to altitude sickness in June 2007, I was on a mission to summit Whitney this year.
I began training in Arizona in November 2007, and logged over 800 miles prepping for this years day hike on Whitney. I did most of my training in the mountains around Phoenix, but I did hike Humphrey's peak a few times once the snow melted, so that I could get some altitude under my belt.
7-11-08, we hit the Whitney Portal trail head at 4:50 am. Our first break at 6:10 was when we stopped to refill our water at the lower campsite. We quickly jumped back on the trail, and pushed to the base of the switchbacks (7:45 am). Once there, we ate PB&J's, GU, and drank as much water as we could before we started up the switchbacks.
The switchbacks seemed to take forever, but we reached Trail crest in about an hour, had another short rest, snapped some pictures, and moved on. We reached the summit around 10:45, with no altitude issues at all. We had taken some advice from some seasoned high altitude, long distance runners and we were taking excedrine migraine every two hours....this seemed to do the trick!
The clouds were gathering around the top, so we signed the log book, fueled up, and headed back down. We only stopped once on the way down, and that was to fill up on water. At 3:45, the Whitney Portal Store was a very welcome site, and the ice cold Corona's really hit the spot!
I know that we did not break any records, but we certainly put in a full days work! We had a great time, and I can rest easier now that I have made it to the top.
