I flew across from the UK to climb Whitney last week. The info I had read up on from this website was invaluable in my planning so thanks very much for that. Brief report:
June 30th - drove from San Diego to Lone Pine. Simple enough drive. Stayed at the Trails Motel.
July 1st - intended on driving to Horseshoe Meadow to camp over to help with acclimatization. My buddie's car overheated so we retreated back to Lone Pine where we went to watch the soccer world cup in a bar while the car cooled down. Turned out there was a problem with the car so we took it to Casey's garage in Lone Pine who got it fixed in about 30mins. HIGHLY RECOMMEND these guys if you get car trouble. It was getting late so we drove to the Portal and managed to get a walk in camp site without any problems.
July 2nd - had the ridiculously large pancakes from the store for breakfast then headed up to Trail Camp to set up camp for the night with 31 pound backpacks. The hike to Trail Camp took about 7 hours but we took it very easy and my buddie isn't as fit as he used to be. Plenty of places to refill water.
July 3rd - Got up at 4.30am and started hiking up the switchbacks at just after 5am. It was light so no torches required. The sunrise from the switchbacks was awesome. I read that counting the switchbacks helps - 100% agree. We summited just after 10am. Stayed on the summit for 30mins then headed back to Trail Camp to pack out and head back to the Portal by 6pm. We then drove to Bridgeport and stayed in a motel before heading to San Fran the next day.
The trail wasn't too crowded given the time of year. We met lots of good people, most willing to chat and offer words of encouragement. A few looked in pretty bad condition - I think people underestimate the effects of heat, altitude, backpack weight and the length of the hike. There wasn't much trash on the trail and we picked up any we saw. We only spotted one WAG bag disposed of at Trail Camp by some moron.
All in all it was an excellent trip and highly recommended.
The most bizarre bit was when we sat in San Fran bars telling people of our heroics. It appears that no-one in the USA has ever heard of Whitney, let alone knows that it's in California. One guy thought that the highest mountain in the USA was Everest - you couldn't make this shit up.
Thanks again for the invaluable advice on this forum.
