"night time start at 3:45 am and chose to get dropped off instead of trying to find a parking spot in the crowded lot. Ran into 6 glowing eyes at 9500 ft, thankfully they were just deer. Got to the lone pone lake junction at 4:45a, outpost camp at 5:08, trail camp at 6:15 for a beautiful California sunrise. Topped out at the crest at 7:30 and immediately headed for discovery pinnacle. Ten minutes later stood onto of the pinnacle. Then dropped down to the JMT and climbed up the west face of Mount Muir unroped with no protection. Probably not the smartest decision but made it up and down ok. 8:30a After lowering my heart rate back down went ahead and finished the traverse to Mount Whitney. Made it to the summit of the highest point in the lower 48 at 9:30 and felt great. Spent half an hour eating and drinking, enjoying the view and signing the register. Decided to hit Keeler Needle on my way down and topped out at 10:30, Aguille Extra finished the day at 10:50 and my legs were finally feeling the altitude. Took my time coming down and was back at the Portal by 3pm. Great day on some amazing granite!" — oregon-mt-goat • Aug 27, 2019

"We had to turn back at 11,900 feet last week due to hail & lightning, so we drove back up from Vegas this weekend to finish the job! We started at 1230am from Whitney Portal. We took the trail up & reached the summit of Mount Muir soon after sunrise. We were feeling good, so instead of going directly to Mount Whitney, we decided to climb all of the needles along the way! In all, we climbed Mount Muir, S'Brutal Tower, Aiguille Junior, Aiguille du Paquoir, Aiguille Extra, Third Needle, Crooks Peak, Keeler Needle and Mount Whitney, in that order!!! From there, we took a brief rest, then headed back down the trail, trying to beat the sunset, since Amber's headlamp batteries were dead & we didn't bring extra. All in all, we hiked over 23 miles with 8600+ feet of gain in 18.5 hours, reaching the car at 7pm! Yikes! I would have had some photos to add, but Aiguille du Paquoir ATE my camera. It fell out of my pack at the summit, slid into a crack & completely disappeared :(" — Kevin • Jul 26, 2014