Brett,
Thanks for your detailed TR with valuable photos. It seems this is a "must read" for those heading up in the next couple weeks.
Very glad your group all made it back safely to rejoin your families. This week helicopters flew three off the mountain to be delivered to the coroner in Lone Pine.
In one of your Summit photos, you signed a small notebook currently serving as the Summit Register. I placed it there last Fall on October 11. A few days later an Air France pilot (during a layover in Los Angeles) slid a thousand feet to his death on Mt Whitney. In retrospect, perhaps I should have added to the first page of this notebook, " Congratulations on reaching the Summit, you have made it to the Halfway Point."
BTW, you underestimated Doug's age in your account. His true age is concealed by his wisdom, sharp mind, and vast climbing experience in the area. A sincere concern for the wellbeing of travelers on the Mountain might be the reason he does not rent crampons and ice axes.
It seems your afternoon hike to nearly Trail Camp before you started on the Big One two days later was likely very useful (ie, acclimatization, check water sources/crossings, see where you would be hiking in the dark).
Great teamwork sticking together when the going got tough early on in the descent! A couple of days before your ascent, two climbers who summited, never made it down alive. When leaving the Summit, their group split up. Groups splitting up seem to be a recurring theme in bad outcomes on the Mountain.
Again, thanks for this valuable contribution.
Hope to see you on the Mountain later in the Season.
Jim
