Climbing 5.12 on Mt. Whitney

On day 3, we opted to try a route put up by two of my friends that takes the most direct line up the East Face of Mt. Whitney (King Pile, 5.12, Grade V, FA: Moser, Ness 2019-2020). The climbing was incredible and the position, even more so. We got the second ascent of the route and Peter managed to climb it clean only having to repeat one 5.11 pitch higher up. We had some even bigger objectives on the todo list but my psych for staying in the alpine was low and we ended up hiking out the next day.