[pct-l] Mt. Whitney question

[shawnkeating at riseup.net (shawnkeating@riseup.net)]

Jon--more power to you. one note: yes, climbing mt. rainier is a whole
different ball game than climbing mt. whitney. no reason you can't do it
though, with the proper gear and learned skills. also, altitude sickness
is not a predicatable condition. entirely the opposite. even a person who
one year may be okay on top of mt. rainier, may the next year (or the next
week) feel extreme nausea and lighteheadedness/headaches. but take your
chances, it's worth it.


> 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)
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