[pct-l] Computers on the Trail

[Hiker97 at aol.com (Hiker97@aol.com)]

You are right about C. King  climbing the wrong Mt. Whitney.  That is how the 
3 fishermen climbed it  first and wanted to name it Fishermen Peak.  Ha, ha.  
Instead, it got  named after J. Whitney, head of the CA Geological Survey.  
He is one of the  people (including King) who made fun of and degraded John 
Muir and his (later  proved correct) theories of the Sierras and the glaciers.  
Whitney also  enraged people in the Owens Valley when he came to visit after 
the big  earthquake in the 1870s (?).  There was a big controversy in the Owens  
Valley back then and for years the people of the Owens Valley would not call 
the  mountain, Mt. Whitney.
 
By the way, John Muir climbed the  wrong Mt. Whitney the first time he tried. 
 He had to come all the way back  down to Independence, CA to resupply and 
return.  He was the first one to  climb the Mountaineers Route on Mt. Whitney.  
I do not think J. Whitney  deserves the honor of having the highest mountain 
in the continental U.S. named  after him, but that is my personal opinion.  
 
When you look back at the old days and original mountaineering and  
explorers, you find mistakes and bad judgement.  But over all,they  were a very tough 
group and very brave.  No way I could do it, even in my  prime.  I am very glad 
to walk where they walked in the Sierras.  Very  cool.  Mt. Whitney was 
climbed from the west in the old days.  There  were groups that came in through the 
Kern River basin.  It was quite an  ordeal, but a fun group trip.  That is 
how the first women climbed Mt.  Whitney.  Rattlesnake and I climbed Mt. Whitney 
the first time in 1970 on  our gigantic backpacking expedition.  This year I 
am taking an O2 bottle  with me.
 
Sorry for the long post.  Your  hiking buddy and Mt. Whitney Expedition 
Member (expedition of one, July 2005),  Switchback