Today is my birthday and I'm feeling better than I did 5 years ago when I first was diagnosed with MS. Let's hear it for good drugs (Rebif) and staying really active. My last MRI showed no new MS activity which is way cool. My neurologist tells me that MS has been known to just "burn out" and stay permanently inactive though it has to remain this way for years (like 20). Let's hear it for a good start My last symptoms were when Cali passed away in April of 2005 where I partially lost sight in one eye for a few weeks. It's since come completely back.

I don't remember if I've written about this before but I may have a handle on the altitude sickness. Like they say a full 24 hours at a height seems to be enough. Unfortunately hardly anyone is patient enough to stay at a level for that long and unless the next hike is going to be a start in the middle of the night summit bid, it's grossly inconvenient as you usually arrive at camp in the afternoon and generally you want to leave the next morning. so you have to bid your time for a day and a half. But that and Diamox may be just what I need to mountaineer.

Last time on Shasta I was ill at horse camp after I cavalierly charged up to it and back down and back up again. If I had just gone up and stayed I might have been fine. But fortunately I had planned to stay a full 24 hours at horse camp before waking up in the middle of the night so I could climb as high as I wished. while I was ill I was convinced that I wouldn't be going anywhere and I should give up on the mountain thing entirely, and then that afternoon I started to feel much better. By that evening I was fine, so early the next morning I hiked up to Helen lake in order to glissade down.

While up at Helen, (which took me 6 hours to get there but that's with many adventures, conversations, and a side track chasing a wayward tent that accounted for 1 1/2 hours or so).
I realized that if I could get up to Helen and camp that I could likely summit from there even with me being a slower than average climber.

Of course on the same trip I realized that I didn't like carrying a heavy pack but now that I've been steadily working out that may not be quite so much the case.

For whitney I'm thinking

Sat: drive down, camp at portal
Sun: go hike around horeshoe meadows, back to portal
Mon: Enter wilderness, camp at LBSL
Tue: ? stay at LBSL or move up to Iceberg
Tue or Wed evening camp at Iceberg
Wed or Thu Summit bid
Wed or Thu evening camp at either Iceberg or UBSL
Thur or Fri hike out