Originally Posted By: CouchToWhitney
Originally Posted By: Steve C

So... your AMS plan is excellent. Book a room up at the top of Mammoth-- Mammoth Mtn Inn. It's at 9000 elevation--two nights there plus one at Whitney Portal, and you will be good to go.

I'm kind of waffling between staying at Mammoth Mountain Inn at 9K or at/near the Village at 8K. My main concern is sleep quality. I can't seem to sleep right the first 2-3 days at altitude. On a recent road trip, LA to Flagstaff (7K feet) was perfectly fine, but the next day's drive from Flagstaff to Mountain Village, CO (9.5K feet) left me with very little good sleep that night even though I had a good hotel to stay in.

I don't expect much quality sleep on Friday night due to the early start and the excitement (and possibly noise from other campers), so I'm trying to be as well rested as possible on Wednesday and Thursday nights.


I don't think it much matters if you stay at a hotel at 9k or 8k feet. I normally stay at Mammoth Mountain Inn on my way from the Bay Area, but since my hike this year is on Labor Day, the hotel is already full. So I'm staying at a village hotel this year.

I think it's very important to get a good night's sleep while acclimating the second night from the hike (the night before at the Whitney campground I never sleep much in the tent and besides I get up at 1:30 am), and staying in a hotel with a decent bed is much better than camping out at Horseshoe or Onion Valley, IMO. It's not worth the lost sleep just to hang out 1000 or 2000 feet higher. 8000 or 9000 feet is enough.