My brother had this crazy idea about a year and a half ago. Lets go climb Mt. Whitney! Having not a clue what was involved with this kind of venture, we started doing research. Well, as luck would have it, actually "climbing" Mt. Whitney is more like a hike than a climb. No ropes & harnesses (good, because neither of us had any real exposure to climbing in the true sense of the word), but the 'hike' does start at an elevation of about 8,400 feet, and rises to the summit (11 miles later) at an altitude of 14,497 feet. That's over 6,000 feet in elevation gain over 11 miles (for those that are reaching for the calculator). Prior to this venture, the highest either of us had hiked was Baldy Mountain in New Mexico (12,441
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