In late July of 2007 we "The Usual Suspects" (Sandy Lee, Cynthia Spear, Santosh Poonen, Sam Valdez, and Bud Osterberg) set out with several goals in mind. As we have done in the past, we planned two overlapping trips, this time in three parts. Part 1 consisted of the usual drive from the Bay Area, through Yosemite, down through the Owens Valley, ending up with a couple of days of camping in the woods around Horseshoe Meadows. We then split up into XX and XY groups. The girls planned an attempt on Mount Langley (14,026 ft. 4,275 m.) from High Lake as part 2, and the guys planned an attempt on Mount Russell (14,086 ft. 4,293.5 m.) from Upper Boy Scout Lake and maybe Mount Whitney (14,497 ft. 4,419 m.) from Iceberg Lake as part 3.

We took a leisurely drive up to Yosemite on Saturday afternoon/evening, the 28th of July. We would have preferred to stay in Tuolumne Meadows campground, but we could only get a site at Crane Flat, so we stayed at about 6000 feet that night.

On Sunday the 29th we packed up our camp and drove to Lee Vining for brunch. After a day of general tourism in the Owens Valley, we had root beer floats in Lone Pine - our final taste of civilization for several days - before heading up to Horseshoe Meadows. At a little over ten thousand feet, it provided for great acclimatization.