[Evans, Marv]

Well if sailchef gets to tell a story, so do I. It might make you feel you are not so poorly prepared as others have been.
During the summer of 1976, I was the Mt. Whitney back country ranger for the Natl. Park Serv. I'd take my sleeping bag & a little food every once in a while and go up to the summit from my ranger station at Crabtree. I'd either climb up the west side of the mountain or just go up the trail and spend the night with the tourists. Once close to sundown when I was up there, some guy came up wearing levis, cowboy boots, a leather jacket with buckskin, had a napsack, and was carrying a green coleman camp stove. His sleeping bag was cloth and paper thin. I figured he did pretty well making it up there in that get up. I didn't criticize him but just asked where he was going. He told me he was going down the west side to spend a couple of weeks living off the land. I asked him if he had ever done that before, and he said he hadn't. So I just told him there wasn't a lot of food to be had off the land, and although it was summer, he might want to reconsider after the night on Whitney since it still got cold and especially at that altitude frost formed right after sundown on the sleeping bags. I had to give the guy credit. He was gone early the next morning back down to Trailcamp and the trailhead.
There was also one time when a couple of guys lugged hang gliders up there. I asked them what they were going to do (duh). They of course told me they were going to hang glide off of the top of Whitney. The boundary between the park and Forest Service land went along the top, eastern edge of Whitney, park land to the west - Forest Service to the east. I told them since the air was so thin, I doubted the hang gliders would make it, but if they were going to jump off the east edge, it was OK with me. However, I was relieved they too changed their minds. I've got tons of other stories.