Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Best acclimatization day hikes for Mt Whitney

I'm heading to mt whitney soon and have everything in order for my trip. I've been working out heavily and am in great shape. However, my biggest concern is acclimatization, due to the fact that I live in the Midwest.

I plan on spending 3 days day-hiking around the area around mt whitney and want to know what are some of the better and more scenic day hikes that also help out with acclimatization. Thanks!

What is your travel itinerary?
When do you arrive in Lone Pine?
How many nights do you have?
Are you day hiking Whitney or spending a night on the trail?
Do you mind driving some on your pre-hike days? Rental car?

Tell us these things, and we can give you some good ideas.

I'll have a rental car, around 3 days of free time prior to my permit and my permit is 4 days long (perhaps a bit excessive). Spending the night on whitney.

A night at the Portal and Advil worked for me.

If you're hiking Whitney a few days after arriving in the Lone Pine area, I would recommend a day hike in the Horseshoe Meadow area. The meadow is at nearly 10000 feet and there are several trails leading up to passes a few miles away (for example, Cottonwood Pass is 11200 feet and 7 miles round trip). It's a great place to hang and get acclimated and it's only a half hour from Lone Pine.

I highly recommend Diamox, as do many others on this forum. I live near Long Beach, CA (40'), and last year I spent a night Lone Pine (3700'), a night at Outpost Camp (10,300') and a night at Trail Camp (12,000') and summited with no problems save a very slight headache. I believe this was possible from the Diamox.

JBabs, Seeing you are from Ohio, I am assuming you might like to see some sights while you are in the area. If you have 3 days before the hike, and you have backpacking gear and a car, then here are some options.

First, if you are flying into Las Vegas, you can drive through Death Valley -- definitely a good thing to do if you can.

Then: Spend nights camping out by the car: Horseshoe Meadows is 45 minutes out of Lone Pine, and is at 10,000' elevation. Sleeping there your first night would give you a fantastic jump start on acclimatization. There are plenty of one-night camp sites available. If not, just park and throw out a bed by the car. If you want an easy hike, as Bruce (above) recommended hiking there. Here's a link: Trail Peak: Warmup / acclimatization hike

If you don't do the other options, camping two nights at HM is good for acclimatization. You need to pick up your camp during the day, though, since it is technically a one-night only campground.

Another good thing to do is drive north from Lone Pine to Big Pine, then east up to the Bristlecone Pine groves in the White Mountains. You could do that after a night at HM. The Bristlecones are the oldest trees in the world, and are quite a sight to see. It is a completely different landscape from the Sierra, and there is a great Sierra overlook on the way up. There is a campground at 8,000' elevation (Grand View), but I would opt to sleep higher. If you are game for 20 miles of dirt road, you can drive to the White Mountain trail head and camp at 11,800'. It's the highest road you can get in Calif. The first Schulman Grove is all paved road, and at 10,000. Thread with more links: Driving to White Mountain Peak for Whitney training hike You could even hike White Mountain if you feel like it. It's the easiest CA fourteener, since it is a rocky dirt road to the summit. There is NO water (or gas) in the White mountains. Fill your tank before leaving Hwy 395, and take 2-3 gallons of water.

If these whet your appetite, let us know, maybe others can give you more ideas.

As for Diamox: if you spend 3 nights at 8 - 12k before hiking to the summit, you likely will not have any trouble. If you do take it, get the 125 mg tablets, only take half a tablet twice a day starting 2 days before you hike (that's only 4 pills total.)

Steve C, Bruce: thanks very much! This is quite helpful indeed. And Steve, you're right I'm quite interested in seeing the sites. All of these options seem great and I'm going to look more into it.

I do have diamox, but only was able to get the 500mg extended release version. My guess is it should help

Do NOT take that 500 mg Diamox unless you can quarter the pills, then take one a day. If you take the 500, an annoying side effect is tingling/buzzing finger tips and toes. I've only experienced it once for a short minute, but it can drive you crazy. The 500 mg dose is for glaucoma sufferers.

And Diamox makes your beer taste funny, too.

jbabs, a nice way to combine sights and acclimatization would be to climb Mt. Dana in Yosemite. It's the quickest, shortest route to get to 13,000 feet in the Eastern Sierra. It's a 3-mile hike from the Eastern entrance of the park on Tioga Rd., so six-miles round-trip, with a little over 3000 feet of gain. The beauty of doing this as an acclimatization hike is you can see how you perform up to 13K' without burning your legs out prior to your Whitney hike (White Mountain is a long hike). From the summit, the views east over Mono Lake and west to the interior of Yosemite are spectacular. No permit required, and you don't even have to pay the park entrance fee - just use the abundant roadside parking right outside the entrance station. The trailhead is directly behind the entrance station, to the south.

The bad news is it could still be a longish day if you're camping in the Lone Pine area (the Portal, Horseshoe Meadows). It's a 4-5 hour round-trip by car. You can complete the hike in 5 hours going at a slow, steady pace, maybe 6 if you linger for the scenery. You can cut that drive down and still sleep very high if you were to camp further north (Mosquito Flats or Onion Valley). Another option would be to lodge for the night in Mammoth Lakes at 8000 feet and be only 30 minutes away from the eastern Yosemite entrance station, where the trailhead is located.

You could even spend a second day seeing the sights in Yosemite Valley, if you're so inclined. Fair warning - the summer crowds in that tiny valley are ridiculous. You might as well be in Manhattan. Half Dome, El Cap, Glacier Point, all the falls - they're worth it at least once, though.

Big ditto on Steve and Wagga's warning about Diamox dosage. You take 500 mg, you'll be buzzing like a high-tension line. A 62.5 or 125 mg dose gets the job done without most of the awful side effects. A post-hike beer should taste right . . .

In the FWIW dept - I was in Yosemite via the eastern entrance of Tioga Pass a few days ago, and there was still a fair amount of snow up there. Couldn't see much above 11K' as the clouds were broiling around (it was in the afternoon) but if someone was planning on doing Dana (and it's a good acclimation peak as Bulldog34 points out) in the near future, doing a bit a research on the conditions and matching those to your own skill set might be in order.

Good point, Kevin. The last time I climbed Dana was in 2011, the heavy snow year, and at least half of the hike above 11K' was still very snowy, even in late July. You're ascending pretty much all the way along the north slope, which holds the snow longer. It wasn't bad above 12K', but there were several large snowfields between 11K' and 12K'. And heavily suncupped, making it a real PITA.

whoa thanks for the warning Steve. i'll look into cutting them

Bulldog, your recommendation sounds spot on! The drive should be fine, I can just get up super early

photos from some of my acclimation hikes in the area:

Little Lakes Valley - http://www.hikinggeek.com/2013/08/16/little-lakes-valley-trip-report-august-16-2013/

Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest - http://www.hikinggeek.com/2011/08/20/ancient-bristlecone-pine-forest-august-20-2011/

Cottonwood Lakes - http://www.hikinggeek.com/2013/08/17/cottonwood-lakes-trip-report-august-17-2013/

Trail Peak - http://www.hikinggeek.com/2012/08/17/trail-peak-august-17-2012/

Mono Pass - http://www.hikinggeek.com/2014/06/02/mono-pass-trip-report-june-2-2014/

Mt Dana - http://www.hikinggeek.com/2014/07/19/mt-dana-trip-report-july-19-2014/


Doesn't reach a high elevation and a bit long for an acclimation hike, but beautiful and in the area none-the-less:
http://www.hikinggeek.com/2014/08/09/clouds-rest-trip-report-august-09-2014/

jbabs, if you've not visited Yosemite before, you're in for a real treat. I've visited about 60% of the National Parks in the system over the years, and better than 80% of the ones out west, but Yosemite is my favorite. The Tioga Road drive betwen the Valley and Mono Lake, is to me the most beautiful route in the country.

And if you do visit Yosemite, make it a point to stop on your way back at the Mobil gas station at the junction of Tioga Rd. (CA 120) and US 395, the turn-off from the highway to Yosemite. You can't miss it. There's a little eatery in the Mobil Gas Mart you may enjoy called the Whoa Nellie Deli. Trust me on this.

Chevyll, thanks for the trip reports and pics!

Bulldog, thanks for the food rec.

I'm sure i'm going to love yosemite! Glacier NP is by far my favorite but I don't think i've been to nearly as many parks as have you

By the way, I just checked the diamox I have. It's extended release so in taking it, one would not be exposed to the full 500mg dose all at once. It's in a capsule, so it's not possible to cut it in half