Jace here from Minnesota. I came to Cali to visit a buddy and thought I'd climb Whitney with him. At the last second he backed out on me, but I decided to drive from San Diego and do it by myself anyway. Here's my trip report from 6/7.
Got up at 4 AM and met two cool guys from L.A. and hiked the whole way up to the summit. I had microspikes and an ice axe with me and they didn't (I didn't use either the whole way up or down) At the switchbacks there were about two or three "hairy" sections. I hit the switchbacks about 8 o'clock and the cables were a little slick, but just fine. There was another switchback shortly above the cables where we actually had to do a little rock climbing to get above it. The last "bad" spot was right above the chute where there was some ice over a fairly narrow switchback with a big drop. The guys I was with had no trekking pole and I had to give them mine to make sure they were safe. I absolutely recommend trekking poles and I think microspikes, which aren't a must, wouldn't be a bad idea for certain areas. All of these spots were easy enough to navigate with a trekking pole and by mid-afternoon, the way down was very easy because of how soft the snow was.
Outside of that, the switchbacks were in perfect shape and despite not getting a chance to acclimate to elevation, I was able to leave San Diego at 5:30 PM on Friday, summit on Saturday at noon, and make it down by 5:30 PM on Saturday. I would definitely not recommend this, but because of my short window in California I had to make it up and down in a day. This was an absolutely breathtaking hike and feel privileged I was able to do it in a day.
I want to thank all of you who've posted in this forum. The constant updates on trip conditions really helped me learn this mountain from afar and plan a safe trip with huge success. I hope my report may help others.
