Fathers Complete Climb of Mt. Whitney

Four fathers on a fund-raising hike for their children’s school successfully reached the top of Mt. Whitney but took a day longer than planned to complete the arduous journey, one of the climbers said Wednesday.

The group started its ascent of the 14,495-foot peak Sunday morning, camped for the night at 11,000 feet, and intended to reach the summit by midday Monday and descend by that night, said Danny Hill.

Hill organized the trip to raise money for Ohr Eliyahu Academy, a small Orthodox Jewish school in Culver City that has embraced his multiply disabled daughter, Talia, as well as his other two daughters.

But during the hike all of the men suffered various forms of altitude sickness--including nausea, headaches, nosebleeds and lack of appetite--thereby slowing their pace.

By nightfall Monday, Hill said, they were still an hour away from the previous night’s camp. They hiked through rocky, snow-covered terrain aided by flashlights before spending a second, unplanned-for night on the mountain.

They completed their descent by 2 p.m. Tuesday, Hill said. Mt. Whitney, in the southern Sierra Nevada, is the highest mountain in the U.S. outside of Alaska.

Hill said the results of the fund-raising effort have not been tallied yet. The group hoped to raise $20,000 for the school.