[pct-l] Mt. Whitney question from Jon Tuesday, 3/23

[jape at nethere.com (Eckert)]

If you're interested in experimenting with your body at altitude, you 
might consider hiking up Mt. Langley instead of Mt. Whitney.  It's 450' 
less in altitude, and a few miles south, but it offers a different 
approach (no pun intended).  The trailhead is at 10K instead of 8.5K.  
You might not even have to leave the parking lot to feel the altitude's 
effect on your body. <g>. If you choose, you could hang out by your car 
for the day, and return to Lone Pine to spend the night, obeying the 
climber's acclimation addage of "climb high, sleep low".  A relatively 
easy 6 mile hike will allow you to gain an additional 1K in elevation, 
and put you only 3K from the peak.  From that point, up and down is only 
9 miles round trip.  There follows a trail climb up to 12K which can be 
strenuous for us desk bound sedentary types. But, it's another point 
where you might start to feel negative symptoms.  If all is well, then 
go ahead and bag the peak, and enjoy the fact that you didn't have to 
file for a special permit, and aren't following the endless procession 
of people marching up the 99 switchbacks.


Jon wrote:

 ><snip>
 >Does anybody have a take on this?