Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Kids and Whitney

There is probably a fair amount on this board about kids but since I just returned, I thought I'd give some more information. My 13 year old daughter, Mallory and I left the Portal on Monday (Aug 3) after pancakes at the store and running into MooseTracks and saying hi to Doug. We camped the first night at Outpost Camp and the second at Trail Camp. I think it's best to take it easy so that kids enjoy the experience as much as possible. There was lots of wind at Trail Camp but we left at 6:15 on Wednesday morning and summitted at 10. I could barely keep my daughter in sight she was moving so easily. That evening, it got real cold at Trail Camp and the wind was unbelievable. It was a good thing we were in the tent or else it would have ended up at Doug's front door. The conversation the whole way down revolved around burgers at the store. Veggie burgers for her, of course, since as a 13 year old, she's a vegetarian. Her primary comment was that she is never going up the front way again. She's game for Kersarge or Cottonwood to Whitney but hated the front ascent.

I think that kids can have an enjoyable experience climbing Whitney with the proper planning and a go slow approach. Dress them warmly because on the back side, it can be cold. If prepared, it's not bad.

As an aside, also consider Langley as a first climb which she did last year. It seems much more interesting and she had no problem with Old Army Pass.

Don't think that Mallory is any way an experienced outdoors kid. I'm just exposing her to this stuff and finding that it isn't that difficult and very rewarding.

Ed, it sounds like you took the right approach with your daughter Mallory. Congratulations on the two of you summitting. My wife and I summitted on Monday, 8/3, and we saw quite a number of kids your daughters age.

Congratulations! I'll be hiking Mt. Whitney with my own two daughters on 20 August. They're both over 30, though...

Hey Ed & Mallory: Congrats on a successful trip .... we missed seeing you at the top by a week! Terri & Alex

if you hike in from Yosemite, they don't even notice how high the place is...

we had to forego the summit due to weather this year (the clouds were much darker at 10:30am than the photo shows), but we'll be back to go that extra 3.8 mile detour to the summit one of these coming years.

I took my 10 year old up last week. On Wednesday Jul 29 we picked up an unused permit at 11:00AM and packed up to Lone Pine Lake. On Thursday, continued up to Trail Camp. On Friday we attempted the summit. Switchbacks were not problem. Aaron counted every one of them. At Trail Crest he started getting a pretty bad headache. About a hour from the summit he really wasn't feeling well so we turned around. Once we got back to the switchbacks, we was feeling fine again.

Pictures and videos -
http://web.mac.com/alanpeter/Sierra_Links/Whitney_2009.html

Fishmonger, that picture is INSPIRING! I hope to retrace your steps with my 2 kids in about 10 years. Keep it up!

Great responses from all and cute kids everywhere. Hey Terri and Alex. I didn't know you were up there. There are a lot of smart people here who know when it's best to turn back. With us on this trip were another father/daughter who turned back within sight of the summit. He was so lightheaded from whatever but still made the right call to go down. Kids from 10 on up can do this and have fun with careful planning, the right clothes and a couple of big pancakes at the store.

I think the key with kids is to start them early and challenge them so they look forward to stretching their limits.

I started Nathan backpacking when he was about five and by the time we did Whitney in 2001, he was an old hand at it at age 12.

Of course, he's now 20 and in college, so there aren't as many opportunities for us but he will occasionally deign to hike with ol' Dad, as we did last year at Humphreys Peak in Arizona.

Keep it fun, remember you're going to hike at their pace when they're young, but don't be afraid to make 'em stretch their legs once in a while.