Advice on Miter + Crabtree Basins/Whitney for slow acclimatizers

[sleepydragon]

Would love to get some feedback on a trip in late August for a party of two.

We love the High Sierra but seem to be relatively slow acclimatizers, so we've only ever done one backpack into the southern Sierra — a late-season trip into Dusy/Palisade Basins from South Lake. For that trip, we spent the preceding night near Tioga Pass at 9700', then went over Bishop Pass our first day to Lake 11388', which turned out to be too fast for us.

For this trip we have seven days, including driving time to/from the Bay Area and any pre-acclimatization time. We're hoping to explore Miter and Crabtree Basins with side trips to Whitney/Muir/Langley, since we likely won't have the luxury of so much time for a while, so want to go as high as possible.

We're hoping to find a schedule gentle enough for us to handle the elevation, with some bail-out options if we're not feeling great. We'll have done six nights between 8000-9000' in the preceding three weeks which should help a bit, but that's likely not high enough/recent enough to help a ton.

Our current plan (trying to raise our sleeping elevations gently and keep them below 11500'):

• Day 0 (sleep at 10000'): Drive to Cottonwood Lakes/Pass and hopefully find space to camp.
• Day 1 (sleep at 11060'): Gentle hike from Cottonwood Lakes trailhead to camp at Cottonwood Lake 3 (6 miles, 1200' gain). If feeling good, wander around (slowly) to Muir Lake/Hidden Lake.
• Day 2 (sleep at 11100'): Go up Old Army Pass into Soldier Lakes area, going up Mount Langley along the way. Go over the ridge from Lower Soldier Lake into Miter Basin and find a campsite along Rock Creek around 11100' (8mi, 3400' gain). If feeling strong, dayhike to Iridescent Lake, or if very strong climb Pickering or Joe Devel.
• Day 3 (sleep at 11340'): Hike up Miter Basin past Sky Blue Lake over Crabtree Pass down to Upper Crabtree Lake, then down to camp at Middle Crabtree Lake (7mi, 1800' gain). Dayhike to see Lower Crabtree Lake and Crabtree Meadow.
• Day 4 (sleep at 11340'): Dayhike back to Upper Crabtree Lake then up the dreaded sandhill, then up to Whitney and Muir. Take the sandhill back down to camp at Middle Crabtree again (10mi, 4100' gain, daypacks only).
• Day 5 (sleep at 11260'): Hike back up over Crabtree Pass through Miter Basin, then join the PCT back to Chicken Spring Lake (14mi, 2900').
• Day 6: Hike over Cottonwood Pass back to Cottonwood Lakes trailhead (5mi, 290') and drive home.

CalTopo map: https://caltopo.com/m/QB9UU1J

Questions:

1. Do you have a favorite area of the Sierra that you'd call the "best part of the Sierra," that we should prioritize over this if we only have one Sierra trip in the foreseeable future?
2. Is this a reasonable plan? Does anybody slow at acclimatization have advice for this route?
3. Is there a more obvious gentle route that we're missing that isn't the PCT?
4. If it turns out that we're stronger than expected, are there good sidetrips from Crabtree Basin you would recommend? Maybe Mount Newcomb or Mount MacAdie?
5. Are there any reliable water sources between Rock Creek and Chicken Spring Lake? We were hoping to make Day 5 a shorter walk by going toward Cottonwood Pass, but we're wondering if having the extra water on the New Army Pass side might be preferable.
6. Any other suggestions or advice (overall funness, campsite selection, etc.) are extremely welcome!

We're fairly experienced on-trail backpackers and off-trail day scramblers/climbers, and relatively fit aside from poor acclimatization. Our main interests are open mountain scenery, challenging terrain, solitude, and staying mostly off-trail.

I know this route gets done a lot, sorry if we're covering territory that's already been trodden. Thanks so much for reading and for any feedback!

[c9h13no3]

You’re driving too high right off the bat. Spend a some time day hiking on the East side at a lower trailhead and sleep below 10K the first night, usually does the trick for me. If you’re driving over Sonora Pass, you’ve got the whole Sierra to choose from.

Your “sleep elevations” are all essentially the same, including the zero day at Cottonwood.

[sleepydragon]

Thanks for the advice c9h13no3! I'd been thinking that trying to do nothing and sleep as high as possible day 0 would work best, but you're right — we'd probably sleep/acclimatize better if we sleep lower.

Maybe we'll hike Duck Pass in Mammoth and sleep at Coldwater Campground 8900' for Day 0 instead then. A little worried about the jump to 11k from there, but we can try just taking it really easy Day 1.

[c9h13no3]

Maybe we'll hike Duck Pass in Mammoth and sleep at Coldwater Campground 8900' for Day 0 instead then. A little worried about the jump to 11k from there, but we can try just taking it really easy Day 1.

Yeah, anything you can do to make the transition more gradual will help! Something like hiking around Sonora/Tioga Pass on the drive over, and then sleeping in the Alabama Hills or Tuttle Creek would work and add very little additional time. That's my usual method for climbing 13K+ peaks in a weekend.