ANSWERS: 2
  • Give yourself at least six months -- and here are some more tips...http://wehow.ehow.com/how_2015771_train-hiking-mt-whitney.html
  • When I did Mt. Whitney I did not train enough. But here is what I should have done. Start taking walks/hiking. Start with about 5 miles and gradually increase you hikes. If possible do some of the hiking on more rigid trails as the path is mostly gravel or natural rock. And make sure you are hiking something hilly because you are after all going up and down a mountain. Now eventually add some weight either a backpack or weighted vest (this is especially important if you are camping). It is one thing to hike 22 miles it is another to hike it with a pack. There are 2 types of permits a 1 day and a camping. I will divide it up because the training is a little different. First I will talk about the camping permit. In addition to above this training should focus more on the walking with the weight and not the distance because you need to carry a tent, sleeping bags, more food (bear proof container), ect. but you get to stop and camp either at 1/3 or 2/3 of the way up leaving your stuff for the final assent. I "Did it in One Day" which means that you must start and in the morning and be off the trail by 10pm, but this means I will talk way more about this. This is a long hike but you are generally carrying less weight. For this I would recommend training at a lower weight but doing at least a couple of full day hikes at least 2 weeks before. By this I mean get on the trail by 8am and get home by nightfall. You may think that this is excessive but when my father and I hiked Mt. Whitney (and granted we were going slow) we hit the trail head at 4:30am the peak at 2pm and got back to the trail head at 10:10pm. So you see the importance of having at least one all day hike. Note: Make sure you get a good head lamp, we started before the sun was up and the trail is on the east face so we had a really long time in darkness on the way down. Possible training might be a night hike if you feel comfortable with that. As part of your hiking training and this is for both try to stay very conscious of what your body needs. Keep hydrated drink lots you can always go to the bathroom more but having to stop a hike is no fun. In addition to good meals make sure you are getting enough salt to balance out the water. When you sweat (and you will sweat) you loose many thing 2 of which are salt and water. If you simply replace the water you may start on the path of water intoxication which also make you prone to altitude sickness (if you get altitude sickness start your decent ASAP even if you are 10 ft from the summit it is not worth dying over). One more note about water make sure you have a water purifier so you can refill at the camp 2/3 of the way up we ran out of water with about 1.5mi to the summit and that was not a good situation as we were on the border of dehydration and altitude sickness when we finally got to the summit. Anyways listen to your body, rest when you need it push on when you feel it is safe to do so. For example in the last 2/3rd there are about 93 switchbacks our goal was to do 5 no matter the length and then we got to rest. In the days before you are going to hike drive up to the trail head and do some short hikes just to get a feel for the start of the trail and altitude. The more you train the easier it is. Will it take you the 17 hours it took us maybe maybe not but to speak to the importance of training when we went back the next day around 1 to get shirts and memorabilia a pair of hikers had just gotten off them mountain after doing it in one day starting at 5am and finishing at 1pm a mere 8 hours trek. I also got the book Mount Climbing Mt. Whitney by Peter Croft and some others to understand the trail (yes knowledge is training too). Good Luck and Good Hiking

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