CaT, we just missed each other - we left on Sunday the 24th. Laura told us that Saturday night that you had left a note on the TOF's windshield at the Meysan Lakes trailhead. Was hoping to catch you at the Portal, but it was not to be. Sorry we missed you, and that sucks about shelving Whitney!
Re this dialogue about kids on the mountain. I don't recall ever reading or hearing anything that specifically forbids children under a certain age from being on the trail. There is plenty of cautionary advice in the materials they send you and hand out, but it appears it's left up to the parents to make a judgement call.
Unfortunately, that depends heavily on experience, common sense and danger-assessment abilities. We began introducing our daughter to very mild hiking at the age of 5, and progressed steadily with more challenging hikes in the Rockies, Cascades, and Sierra over the next few years. It wasn't till this year, at age 11, that she made a concerted attempt on Whitney - but only after I had seen how she fared on 13,000-foot Mt. Dana a few days earlier..
I have no doubts she would have summitted a couple of weeks ago if I had not called it off about a mile from the summit due to her pace slowing down after Trail Crest. She still had enough left in the tank, in my opinion, to get to the summit and back to Consultation Lake, but the day was getting away from us. We still had a tricky traverse over the snow chute to negotiate on the way back, and I wanted her with all of her faculties in place to avoid an overly-tired, 1600-foot mistake. I chose to err on the side of caution. She was POed and disappointed - pointing to the summit hut and saying, "It's right THERE dad!" - but that had faded away by the time we got back to camp. No regrets on my part.
Personally, I have a hard time seeing kids much younger than 8 or 9 attempting to go past Trail Camp. There are undoubtedly exceptions, like the 7 year-old who just summitted last week, but generally speaking many kids I've seen high on the trail the past 3 years have not looked like (1) they feel well, or (2) they are having any fun. Five year-olds hiking to Lone Pine Lake or Bighorn Park? Sure, if they can handle it. Taking a 10 month-old infant to the summit in a backpack carrier (like we saw a couple of weeks ago)? Insane and irresponsible. The kid can't tell you he/she has AMS till they're puking over your head, and by then it could be well-advanced. As a parent, I just don't get it.
