[pct-l] Mt. Whitney question

[jonnylv at earthlink.net (Jon)]

Hi,

I was wondering when is the easiest time of the year to get up to the top of Mount Whitney.  I've been mulling over taking up mountain climbing and it seems like Mt. Whitney would be a good place to start because I want to get some experience at high altitude with the ability to get back to a safer altitude if I started having problems with altitude sickness.  If I seem OK after that I want to move on to Mt. Shasta and hopefully eventually Mt. Rainier.  

My Lonely Planet Hiking Guide to the Sierra Nevada indicated that getting up Mt. Whitney was more like a rigorous hike than something I'd find getting up to the top of one of the big Cascade peaks.  (Some of the pictures I've seen of climbing Mount Rainier looked pretty challenging - I can see why people use it to practice climbing Mt. Everest.)  They emphasized very heavily the altitude sickness issue, so I want to see if that's going to be a major issue for me before I start the more challenging peaks.  I want to keep it simple and focus on one issue at a time.  

Does anybody have a take on this?

thanks,
Jon
(who lives at a much lower altitude in Wisconsin)