Thanks for the good wishes and tip for getting a permit, Steve.
Assuming I either get a permit, or can get one by snagging a no-show, I aim to finish what I started in complete ignorance in early November 1989. Several of us were in LA for a meeting so we sort of planned a climb of Whitney- because it was there. We had all backpacked in the Adirondaks so we had good gear, ice axes and crampons and in those days we just carried the internal frame backpacks onto the plane as hand luggage and took up a whole overhead bin per pack. After the week long meeting, we drove up to Lone Pine in a rental car, got a permit at 3 PM, hit the trail at around 4 PM, and made it to Outpost camp by the light of a full moon. That night was spectacular with the ranges all around us lit up and glowing like the door that Gandolph could not open in the first Lord of the Rings movie. The next day we got a very late start (one member slept in). I remember the switchbacks as not bad but monotonous (now I have an iPod). Somewhere overlooking guitar lake, past trail crest, I ran out of energy as it was late afternoon and told my friends to go on. I sat down and was entertained/harrassed by marmots for half an hour (they were probably begging). My friends returned having left their crampons behind for some reason and could not cross an ice field safely. The forth person had already summitted and we all returned together by that gorgeous full moon, as bright as daylight, making camp around 10 PM. We all had run out of water and, talking about it at New Years, one friend said he was hallucinating by the time we got to camp and I pumped water and made soup for everyone. So- lessons learned- I now have lighter gear so my pack should be 20-25 lbs vs. the 40 lb packs we had back then due to heavy sleeping bags, stoves, tents, etc, I will arrive a week early and stay at 9,000+ campgrounds or a high altitude bed and breakfast to acclimate by dayhiking. I will leave early and go for trail camp and leave early for the summit (I hike the strongest in the morning), I will HYDRATE all week and take 5 liters of water in both a camelback and bottles on summit day, and I will eat for energy and do the rest step if needed. I was within 2 miles and 500 vertical feet but did not know it at the time!
