Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Trailhead circa 1956

Who says you need all that fancy hiking gear??!!

That cant to the hat is priceless.

Doug,
You are a man from a different time. The herculean efforts you describe above reminds me of what I've read about the kind of strength that people like John Muir had when he came to the mountains. No workout program or fancy fitness machines...just toughness as a product of hard work.
I wish you would post (or write another book) emphasizing your day-to-day efforts in creating the modern the Mount Whitney experience.
Marty

I throw out a comment that I heard from Doug while trying to pry the number of Whitney ascents out of him...

"... I once was on the summit 10 times during one week..."

I didn't have to ask how many of those were by helicopter because I knew from the way that he said it that he meant that he walked/run up.

When asked by people what I think Doug's number is, I reply "probably a million."

The other thing about Doug is that he will NEVER outrun you... he'll follow along at a nice leisurely pace. But if you've ever been around when he needs to get up the trail in a hurry, you'll turn you head for a second and when you look back, he's long gone...

Here is a follow-up photo from the same slide set as the trailhead photo. That's a '56 Pontiac Chieftain.

Will try to get my mom to the above trailhead this summer for a "56 years later" photo

What a wonderful picture that will be!!! I look forward to seeing in on the board.

So, on a different subject, I may be mistaken but are you the same person who several years ago had posted that they were trying to get their nephew interested in hiking; I was always curious if you ever got him up to the mountains.