November 1st, 2025. Mt. Whitney Mountaineers Route. Jeni and I had a great weather window with very mild temps for the time of year and very low wind. We had previously gone up the mountaineers route and down the standard route last year. But we wanted to go up and down the same way and today was our day! Super fun hike and just tried to hold a steady pace. We had to use crampons on the shoot and because of recent snow fall we chose to go around the class 4/5 final 400 and did the class 3/4 travers both ways. It for sure adds a bit of time and distance but we just didn’t feel the most confident in the conditions to do the class 4/5 section.
We really wanted to go up and down all in daylight but didn’t quite make it on such a short day light time of year. Only had to use head lamps for about 1 hour total. Really happy with the effort. For sure left some time on the table because of little wrong turns and doubling back. That’s apart of this route I guess. It takes some time to master it.
Would love to see other couples go for this and try and beat our time. It can for sure come down and in dry conditions I think it would be so much faster. Anyways lots of fun and good lock to any Mixed Gender teams out there who want to take this on. Solid relationship test ;D