Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board What makes another Whitney summit?

A recent post and a conversation on the mountain last month prompts this query:

At what turnaround distance from the top would you count an additional summit? (e.g. if you summit, return to Trail Camp and go up again, would you count that as summit #2?)

I was talking to a fellow at Trail Camp who was camping there for five days in a row with a summit return each day. While a good workout (though frankly a poor use of time when there are so many other options up there), I wouldn't count it as a "complete" summit (and wouldn't sign the register), but then maybe I'm old fashioned. Using this logic, technically you could goes as far as Muir and return, perhaps logging a half-dozen "summits" in day.

I'm curious as to what other multi-summiteers think....

If somebody cut that Japanese champion hot dog eater's weiners in half, he could eat twice as many. You have to eat the whole hot dog; and you've got to hike the whole trail - bottom to top and back - to count a "summit." Count me as old fashioned, too.

As long as it's true, I see nothing wrong with someone saying "I hiked from Trail Camp to the summit of Whitney 4 times in one day." However, saying "I summited Whitney 4 times in one day," giving the impression that he started from the Portal each time, would be pure deception.

That said some people goto the summit of Mt. San Jacinto from the upper tram station while others hike up form Palm Springs. Both can claim the summit, but only one has done Cactus to Clouds.

By the way, on August 3 of this year, I summited Whitney 4 times on one hour. I started from the Smithsonian Hut.

How's this concept:
Each peak is considered to encompass a certain area. So, the Needles are auxiliary, not separate, peaks. Muir is far enough away to count as a separate peak. Therefore, when you hike past the point where you would otherwise turn right to Muir, then you are climbing Whitney. Before that, you are just hiking toward any of a number of peaks on a ridgeline.

If this makes sense, then each time you drop back from Whitney to the Whitney/Muir trail split, you can claim a fresh ascent.

See wikipedia: "It is ... the smallest descent which one would have to make from a summit in order to re-ascend to a higher peak." I know that Muir is not a "higher peak", but it is considered a mountain in its own right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topographic_prominence

When someone asks me how many times I have climbed Mt. Whitney, I know what they are asking. Not about ascents that start partway up, and not about climbs that I have had to turn back on. My logbook of mountain climbs does include some of these, of course, and a good number have been quite memorable.

But they want to know about ascents that are bottom to top and back down again, and that's how I respond. Sometimes we get to talk about it a little, and then I share stories of some other climbs as well. For example, how do you count a climb to the top, but then get a helo ride down?