First off, if this actually goes off successfully a large credit will go to the hiking guy’s amazingly detailed guide. I mean, seriously, if you want to do this hike, that is where you need to start.
Instead of repeating what he says, which you need to read if you want to attempt this, I’m going to focus on my planning and prep work.
Travel and Acclimatization
To make this trip real so that I put in the hard work I’m going to have to do I immediately set out to make all the travel arrangements. I would have loved to have gotten there a week before the ascent, but life isn’t like that, so instead I get 2 days. So fly into Las Vegas, rent a car, drive 4 hours through the desert to get to Lone Pine, CA. Since I have such little time to get used to the altitude I’m going to start Diamox before I even leave home - two days in advance per my doc’s recommendation. The typical guideline is “sleep low, climb high”. But yeah, we ain’t got time for that. And the hotels out there are CRAZY expensive. It was difficult to find anything under $150 a night. So instead I booked a campsite at Whitney Portal for three nights for just about $100. This means I get to sleep at 8000ft and have this stunning view (and probably an awful first night of sleep).
photo taken by w:user:geographer on March 25,2003 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:01520008.jpg
Ok, so with everything booked travel costs breakdown to:
- Roundtrip Flights on Southwest: $319
- Rental Car (estimate): $378
- 3 nights at Whitney Portal: $110
- Fuel for car (estimate): $83
- 1 night in Vegas: $0 thanks to tons of points
Getting in Shape
555ft of elevation every mile. There’s not really any place here in the midwest to get that kind of hike, so instead I’m going to hit the stairs. Luckily there is a park near me that has around 60 limestone steps down to a river. There’s another park that’s nearly 45 min away that has nearly 200ft of steps, but that’s too far to go to often. So I think my gameplan is to hit the steps wearing a weighted pack two or three times a week. In between days will be biking and hopefully I can squeeze in some actual hikes on the weekends. I’ve always struggled sticking to a workout schedule. I actually did a good job when I was rock climbing (until I got hurt) so hopefully I can keep with this plan.
Gear
The gear plan changes quite a bit since I’m now camping the nights before the ascent. I’m going to basically treat it like a backpacking trip with an ascent in it. Two packs, all the sleeping, cooking, clothing, entertainment, etc stuff stays behind and a minimal pack goes up the hill. I’m not sure when any of the other folks will be joining me so I’m going to pack like a solo trip.
Hiking Guy has a good list of ascent gear and I will eventually make my own. I probably have 95% of everthing I need, but I already know I am not taking my awful backpacking stool to sit on around camp for days. And what is the point of an expedition if not to get some fun new gear!