"A nice day for a first time on Mt Whitney. I was solo this day, so didn't quite finish my attempts of Discovery Pinnacle & Mt Muir. I wasn't familiar with the nontechnical routes and wasn't quite comfortable attempting the routes I found on my own. The trip across the chockstones at the very end of Keeler Needle is quite scary, if not especially difficult. Thousands of feet of exposure greets you on both sides of a narrow ledge. The views from Mt Whitney were nice, though I think I may have preferred the view from Mt Langley." — sareine • Aug 4, 2020

"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

"I wanted to hike a special peak this year to celebrate turning 60, so I looked for a way to hike Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 49 states. I put both my name and my son’s name on the Whitney lottery in February. We found out in early spring that we were not chosen in the lottery to hike the peak. I have heard that only 1 in 3 make the lottery. The hikers that make the lottery come in from another direction and it is only about 22 miles round trip. I looked for another way to hike the peak and decided to go through REI Adventures. It is a much longer hike, about 64 miles, and entails camping for 6 nights and hiking 6 days. They take pack animals and we were able to hand off 20 pounds of weight, but still carried a 15-pound pack with water, coat, lunch and emergency items. I got up at 2:00 AM on Sunday July 19, 2015 and drove to my son’s home, in Albuquerque. We left his house at 3:00 AM and drove on interstate 40 west to Barstow, California then continued west on highway 58 for a short way then north on highway 395 to the town of Lone Pine. From Lone Pine we turned left on Whitney Portal Road for 3.2 miles then left on Horseshoe Meadows Road for 20 miles to Cottonwood..." — Phil-Robinson • Jul 23, 2015

"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