We have only car-camped before. Karen Berger Karen is a hiker's hiker. Yes, it's crazy. Commit your friend to an asylum immediately. Commit yourself, too, if you actually consider this seriously.
People DIE up there.
They die up there every year. They die in August, let alone January. I've hiked 16,000 miles in the last 10 years, including doing some mountaineering. I've slept out for a week when it was 30 below zero. The winter Whites is no place for novices.