My group and I were lucky to get permits overnight permits for Mt. Whitney in September and I've been training moderately, but am ready to pick up the pace. I try to stay active and have decent experience with backpacking and hiking. I recently came back from backpacking the W Trek in Patagonia and felt physically fine throughout the entire trek. I know Mt. Whitney is an entirely different beast and I want to make sure I'm as prepared for it as possible. At the moment, I've been doing some incline treadmill after the gym (15 incline, 3 speed, 30 minutes). I'm thinking of doing this with a weighted pack (~20 pounds?) and try to get to an hour. Gym-wise, would this be sufficient if I aim to do this 2-3 times a week until September?
Over the course of this upcoming summer, I'll be doing the following SoCal hikes with a daypack:
- Mt. Baldy
- Cucamonga Peak
- Mt. Wilson
- San Bernardino Peak
- San Gorgonio
- Mt. Jacinto
Will also be doing some random hikes in Washington, short weekend backpacking trips, and planning to do another backpacking trip in Iceland in August (~50 miles, < 3000 meters in elevation gain).
Would this be sufficient training to comfortably do Mt. Whitney? Thank you for your advice!