[pct-l] Mt. Whitney question

[dude at fastmail.ca (dude)]

As long as you are in good shape and are not one of the few people who 
get serious altitude sickness above 10,000ft, you should be fine.  
However, I used to guide people up whitney and did have a close call 
once with a Diabetic who decided to try Diamox for the first time at 
about 11,000ft (its very dangerous to try any meds for the first time 
in a situation like that.  you never know what reaction you will have, 
and we advised our clients NOT to take anything they had not taken at 
home).  As it turned out, diabetics should NOT take Diamox.  It turned 
out that she had to go down before summiting and passed out 17 times on 
the way down.  When we finally got her to the bottom, she was rushed to 
the hospital in Lone Pine and recieved 2 liters of IV fluid.  She ended 
up being extremely hypokalemic (low potassium).

there are also a few other things that you need to worry about:

1.  do you already have a permit?  if not, you can forget going this 
year up the standard route because all the permist are most likely 
taken (I haven't actually checked, but some friends of mine already 
revieved theirs, and its a lottery system anyway).  If you still want 
to go this year and do not have a permit for the standard route, I 
highly advise going up the back side (west side) via the Onion Valley 
trailhead.  Its about a 45 mile hike and will do a great deal to 
acclimatize you much better than the standard route.  Hardly anyone 
every summits this way, so getting a permit will be easy.  Also, you 
will avoid much of the circus that goes on standard route.  However, 
you will also see much fewer hikers which means less opportunity for 
help if you do run into problems.  If you have the time, the back side 
is great.

2.  Altitude problems - you very likely will not have too much trouble, 
as most people do not.  I've summited 3x and two of them were done the 
day after flying up from sea level, so its certainly possible.  Lost of 
people do it this way.  There are some precautions that you can take to 
help minimize the chances of getting AMS:  (a) DRINK LOTS OF WATER the 
night before your climb.  I usually try to get about 6 liters during 
the 12 hours before the climb.  Also, be sure to take more than enough 
water and drink lots of water along the way.  I say to take more than 
enough because there will be people (maybe some in your group) who will 
not take enough, and its always good to be prepared.  Generally, the 
best advice with water is to "drink often and early".  Start drinking 
early in the climb before you are thristy.  Once you are thirsty, its 
too late and nearly impossible to rehydrate adequately.

(b) If you know that you are succeptible to AMS (Acute Mountain 
Sickness), then ask your doctor about Diamox.  Take some BEFORE you go 
to make sure that it doesnt affect you adversely.  As noted above, on 
the mountain miles away from help is not the place to find out that you 
are allergic to a new med.

(c) There is an article in Backpacker confirming that Ginko does 
prevent AMS, but I ahve no experience with that.  I wouldn't take it 
for the first time on the mountain either.

(d) Learn how to "pressure-breathe" and to "rest-step".  These are 
techniques that are usually reserved for more difficult mountains, but 
there is no reason to not use them on whitney if they help.  Do a 
google search for both terms and you should get plenty of infor on how 
to do both.  if not, email me and I will be happy to describe.

3.  TRAIN!!! Even if you are in good shape, you should train for the 
climb so that you will (a) improve your chances of summiting and (b) 
enjoy the trip more.  When we were guiding people up whitney, we 
offered free training in Houston (where we lived) for all the clients, 
but there were often had macho-types that thought they didnt need to 
train.  One guy in particular was a marathoner and triathlete and said 
that he was in great shape and he didnt need to train.  Once on the 
mountain, he wished that he had trained with us by walking up and down 
the stadium steps with a heavy pack.  He still made it to the summit, 
but the long, slow uphill trudge with a pack is completely different 
than running or walking with no weight, and he said that he would have 
done better if he would have trained properly.  When we prepared for a 
whitney climb, we usually met at a college football stadium 2x per week 
and walked up and down the steps with heavy packs for 2 hrs during the 
week, and longer on the weekends.  We used the stadium because houston 
is FLAT and that is the only way to simulate walking uphill.  If you 
live in an area with hills, then use a hill instead.  

4.  Time of Year - people have summited Whtney in almost every month of 
the year, although I assume that youa re not interested in winter 
climbing with ropes, ice axes, and technical gear.  Anytime between 
July (maybe late june) and September will be ideal time to summit.  I 
have been on whiney in July, August, September and seen snow only once, 
which was in September during a heavy snow year. Like any mountain, you 
can run into foul weather during any time of the year, so you should be 
prepared with the proper gear, and you should be prepared to turn 
around and give up your summit hopes if the weather gets too bad.

5.  Compared to Ranier - the two mountains do not compare.  I do not 
know how many people die each year on Whitney (I would imagine that 
most years no one dies on the standard route), but people die every 
year on Ranier.  Ranier is a completely different type of climb that 
requires serious training and specialized knowledge about alpine 
climbing.  Whitney can usually be summited by anyone who is determined 
and in slightly better shape than most.  Whitney is for the most part 
what they call "a walk up".  There is no glacier, and no seriously 
exposed sections in which tripping over your shoelaces will result in a 
perilous fall over a steep cliff.  You do not need an ice axe or 
crampons (at least not in summer), and you do not need to be roped up 
by a guide who is intimately familiar with the mountain.  Nor do you 
need to be accutely aware of avalanche danger.  All of these things, 
and more, would be done on Ranier to ensure a climber's safety.   Now 
having said all of that, if you do Whitney and end up loving it and 
wanting to take it to the next level, you might want to seek out Ranier 
Mountain Guides and ask them more about climbing Ranier.

Good luck!!

peace,
dude




> 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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