Lynn-a-roo, I am glad you enjoyed the pictures! I met my WW goal back in 2010, so each return to Whitney is a celebration of that event. We hiked about 50 miles, with a cumulative elevation gain of about 12,000', in six days/five nights. That doesn't include various evening hikes that I did for acclimatization and to keep the muscles loose....
Harvey, I know this is a favorite route of yours, and thought of your prior trip reports from time to time. Your reports are part of what planted the seed for this trip. Someday I'd like to meet you up there, maybe on the Bighorn Plateau!
I haven't worried too much about AMS for a while now because experience at altitude has given me a sense of my body's sensitivities. I think it helps that I am not doing these Sierra peaks as a dayhiker, and that I build a lot of acclimatization into my trips -- in this case, one night at Tioga Pass (almost 10,000'), and one night at Onion Valley, (9,300') before I even set foot on the trail. This all based on excellent advice and research that I have received from you and others on this board.
I do think I remain susceptible to nighttime periodic breathing while acclimatizing, and I still use Diamox on a very limited basis to address this. On this trip, I took a small dose of Diamox (62.5 mg) twice before bedtime -- once at the treeline camp before Forester (11,200' or so) on night 2 of the trek, and once at the treeline camp near Timberline Lake on night 4 of the trek. I did not otherwise take Diamox. The second dose (night 4) was a mistake -- I was already sufficiently acclimatized by that point, but I experienced the diuretic effects of Diamox with a vengeance the next morning, which was our Whitney summit day. This necessitated breaking out the heavy duty electrolytes until it resolved (Cytomax, Nuun), which it did. So I didn't bother with a dose at Trail Camp on night 5 on the trail, and did fine. Of course, including the pre-trip acclimatization, that was now my SEVENTH night in a row near or above 10,000 feet, so I imagine I had plenty o' red blood cells coursing through my body by then....
