Hello,
I'm from Singapore - an island country in tropical South East Asia. I'll be visiting the US for 2 weeks in early to mid April 2016. One of the things I would really like to do is summit Mt Whitney during my trip.
I've spent a fair bit of time reading through the posts on this forum to understand what it'll take to attempt a summit in April.
1. It'll be a winter hike with plenty of snow.
2. It'll be highly weather dependent.
3. There may not be a lot of other climbers at this time of the year (especially on the Main Trail) and unless I get company, it'll be a solo climb.
4. It would require snowshoes / crampons + ice axe usage with good self-arrest skills.
5. Altitude acclimatization will be highly important.
6. It will be physically challenging to say the least.
Some details about my physical condition and training status:
1. Unfortunately, I live in a country where the highest point is 538 feet! So my daily training is limited to running, cycling and climbing staircases of skyscrapers (thankfully, there are plenty of these!)
2. I currently have a daily routine of climbing 4 x 47 floors (1880 feet) which I plan to scale up to 10 x 47 floors + running + cycling towards late March to build up my stamina and endurance.
3. I have done a few 12-13k feet mountains in the tropics (no snow, obviously) in the past couple of years. I've also done some 13k mountains in the Himalayas 6-7 years ago that had low amounts of snow.
4. My friends and I have scheduled a climb of Mount Kinabalu (13.5k feet) on 1st April which should help with asserting fitness and altitude tolerance. This will be my second time on this mountain and the first time was uneventful.
5. I've had basic training using crampons and an ice axe with fair bit of self-arrest practice while glacier climbing in Iceland. Not at any significant altitude unfortunately.
6. I probably don't have the level of fitness and experience required to do the Mountaineer's Route even with a guided group.
With the above points in mind, I've come up with the following plan:
1. If the weather is conducive, I'll look to drive to Whitney Portal by the morning of 18th April.
2. Begin the Main Trail trek to Trail Camp on the same day and camp there overnight for acclimatization.
3. Again, depending on weather, attempt to summit on 19th April and come back down to Trail Camp.
4. If I'm physically up for it, come back down to Whitney Portal on the same day. If not, camp for one more night at Trail Camp and come back down to Whitney Portal on 20th April.
Phew, that took a while to type! With the above in mind, I had a few questions I would really appreciate if you could answer:
1. Probably the most important question - with my level of experience / training and the usual Whitney conditions in April, am I being too ambitious to attempt Whitney?
2. What would be a better choice given usual conditions in April - snowshoes (no experience using them) or crampons (done a few hikes with them)?
3. Am I missing on anything important or anything else I can do to improve my chances of summiting / summiting easily?
Disclaimer: I understand that it's too early in the year to predict the April weather, snowpack and other conditions (especially since it's an El Nino year). I will continue monitoring the conditions as it gets closer to the date but my aim of this post is just to prepare myself in the best way possible.
Thanks in advance!
