Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Hikers from afar Sunday 12th

If you are on the mountain Sunday 12th watch out for the international group of four heading up, or maybe even coming down.
I, "The Brit", am taking up my German girlfriend and two of her friends, one from South Africa and one from Namibia. My guess is this could be the first summit attempt by a native Namibian. For those geographically challenged Namibia is adjacent to South Africa to the North West.
We welcome "Hello's" and "How are you" in any language from Afrikaan to Farsi.

Hoping for good weather and non sore feet...!!!

Hi there "Brit" hope you have an excellent time and god speed on your journey through the Whitney zone and hopefully a summit of the highest mountain in the lower 48. Too bad I won't be up there until the 20th because I would love to meet some more people from out of country, especially the girl from Namibia.

PEACE,
Gabriel

We will be on the summit this Sunday. My 18 year old son, myself and my business partner. 3 guys leaving trail camp for the summit around 6 am. Hope to see you. Weather is looking perfect (maybe a little windy Trail Crest to Summit) and the reports are the snow and ice are fading fast. Be safe and enjoy the view.

I'll be on the trail with two friends on Sunday-Monday and we'll look for you. We're driving down from Reno so will get a late start on Sunday (will probably camp near Lone Pine Lake since we're short one overnight permit) and plan to summit on Monday. Good luck.

Thanks for the good wishes....
We plan to set off from the Portal at somewhere between 1:30am and 2:00am.
Have been following the other reports and seems snow should not be an issue, thank goodness.
I've experience of the summit and a background of ultra racing but we will be taking it cautiously as the others have not experienced such potential physical challenges. My girlfriend has summited Kilimanjaro but nothing with this altitude change and distance in such a short space of time.
We did do Baldy last weekend, another altitude training hike the weekend before and will do a preample Saturday so are as prepared as time allows.
Hoping for around 15hrs but we will see.
As the marathon runner Ron Hill once said, "it is rarely the distance that gets you, more often the pace".

I run ultras too and also will be with some less fit partners. We're planning a 4am start budgeting about 12 hours from Lone Pine Lake to the summit to the portal.

This is my first time to Whitney, but having done Kilimanjaro a couple years ago and a few Colorado 14ers, I think I can safely say this will be a cake walk compared to Kili.

Of course, you should never take a mountain for granted!

Hi,
We should be pretty close to you as the lake is a little under 2 hrs from the portal and we will start between 1:30 and 2:00 am.
Your 12 hrs from the lake to summit and back down is probably not too far off, maybe an hour or so short unless your team is pretty fit.
Having spoken to my girlfriend about Kili and her having now had a practice on the lower parts of Whitney she says very much different.
Whitney is, from the Portal to summit and back, around 13,000 ft of altitude change and also what can be a 60 degree temperature change, all within 14 to 16 hrs.
I am by no means an expert on these types of hikes but last year it took me 12 hrs and I thought I was in pretty good shape for an old man.
Beers are on me, as you would expect from a Brit, at the bottom !!