Abhijit, congratulations on summiting! You may very well be one of the lucky ones who handle altitude with little difficulty.
Your itinerary is very similar what I did my first trip up Whitney in 2009: stayed in LP and went for a couple of warm-up hikes to Cottonwood Lakes, then Cottonwood Pass. I had done several 12-14K' peaks in the previous few years without any real acclimation and suffering no problems, and had grown confident that I was in that altitude-gifted category. At 13K' on Whitney I was quickly disabused of that notion with the only case of AMS I've ever experienced. And it was a bad one. And I was solo. And that was an exceedingly long descent.
I've never had a repeat of those symptoms, but then again I've paid more attention to acclimation since that episode. AMS is a funny thing - you never can predict if/when it's going to strike. Something as seemingly innocent as bad weather with a low pressure system can make the difference, since oxygen at altitude is really a function of reduced air pressure.
I now make a point of trying to get a night or two at Horseshoe Meadow's 10K' before a Whitney hike, and that's usually preceded by a few nights at 7-8K' in the Mammoth/Yosemite area while dayhiking to 12-13K'. I also like HM for it's quiet compared to the Portal.
Look forward to the TR!
