Summiting California’s Mt. Whitney

Mount Whitney

Next to the highest peak in North America, Denali, the highest in the lower 48 may be the known and sometimes coveted by aspiring and expert climbers alike. I have been working on my Colorado 14ers for several years in between remote climbs, but I got the idea to start working on the California 14ers earlier this year and set out to climb the highest, Mount Whitney, first. The plan worked.

The Strategy of Acclimatization

Alan in Ouray

The big news is that the route to camp 3 on the Lhotse Face is now in thus preparing the way for climbers to spend the night at the highest camp prior to their summit bid. Many teams on the south have now spent a few nights as high as camp 2 and on the north only a couple have even made it up to the North Col due to harsh weather at the moment. Over the years, the strategy of acclimatization has not significantly changed. The primary tenet is to climb high and sleep low thus stressing the body to create more red blood cells needed to provide oxygen to the muscles.