Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mt. Whitney Main Trail Trip Report Jan. 3-5

My fiance and I had been planning to climb Mt. Whitney with my brother, sister, and a buddy for a couple of months. We’re from the east coast, so we have to schedule these things in advance, and it did not appear that mother nature was smiling on our plans this year. The eastern Sierra was buried in snow in late December, and it was cold and snowing when we drove into Lone Pine on January 2nd. But, by Monday morning, the skies were clear and we were able to make it up to the road closed sign with chains and front wheel drive.

The hike up to the portal was fine. We passed the Subie in about 20 minutes, and made it up to the portal in three hours. The trail is narrow, and if you slip or deviate, you posthole well past your knees. We had to put on snowshoes at the portal, but the trail was pretty well established up to the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek and the Mountaineer’s Route trail split. At the trail split, however, all traffic headed up towards LBSL and the Mountaineers Route, and we had to break trail along the main trail from there. The creek crossing was a little hairy with all the snow cover, but it was manageable. The unconsolidated snowpack made hiking very slow and we camped below Outpost Camp the first night. Temperatures were extremely cold that night and keeping our water from freezing was a challenge during the entire trip.

We woke up the next morning and managed to make it up to Trail Camp before dark. The climb above Mirror lake wasn’t as bad as we had expected, though the large amounts of loose snow made finding a stable route slow going. Below Trail Camp, large portions of the trail along the ridge were completely buried by snow and impassable. Instead, we hiked up along Consultation Lake. Even though the winds were light, that night was even colder. We woke up early and left camp by 7am. We left our tents and excess gear at our campsite. We planned to travel light to the summit, sleep in the hut, and then return to our camp and move down the mountain the next day. Initially, we planned to try and roughly follow the trail up the 99 switchbacks. However, the wind had drifted the snow heavily along the cables, and the combination of crusty snow and steep convex slope meant we all needed crampons and ice axes for self belay/arrest as we continued. Unfortunately, we didn’t all have ice axes, so we descended and opted to try and move up the fall line to the base of the snow field that people glissade down from trail crest. Just getting to the base of the climb was tough. There was over 18 inches of fresh powder covering feet of relatively soft snow beneath. These snow conditions made climbing the more difficult.

Moving up the climb in snowshoes, we found that big steps were more efficient since smaller steps washed out easily. Given the considerable loose snow, climbing was very slow going and gave us all that uncomfortable nagging feeling about the stability of the snowpack farther down. About 300 feet below trail crest, we stopped above the large patch of boulders that split the snowfield. The last 300 feet were considerably steeper and a mix of sun and shadow.

Throughout the climb, snow had been frequently sloughing off the base of Mt. Muir directly to our right. We hadn’t done a Rutschblock test at the base of the climb and without avalanche beacons we decided we were on the edge of being in over our heads. We trucked back down to Trail Camp and packed up our gear. We left trail camp at 2pm. Large portions of our trail above the tree line were blown over with fresh snow, but our trail below the tree line was still good. As we approached the portal, the south facing slopes looked as if they had melted and refroze and the trail was very icy. We made it to the portal by 6 and down to the car by 8.

This was second time we've tried to climb Mt. Whitney in early January (the first being last year). Last January, three of the folks in our group got the flu and we ended up having to back off from trail camp after a night of vomiting. So, we're batting big zeros when it comes to summiting, but 1000 for safety. I guess we can accept that, and we’ll have to try again next year.

We're driving home, but we'll figure out how to attach photos by the end of the weekend.

Thanks for an excellent read. Sounds to me like your group had a great time, and made all the right decisions.

Thanks for the report! Solid effort!

I probably would've brought an axe too but then again, in soft snow like that, you can just self arrest with hands and feet. Heck, you might not even go anywhere at all when you fall!

I've done a couple of two-day trips in that area in winter. I soloed Muir with a foot of fresh snow once in January and skied off the summit of Whitney in early March.

I agree with most of what Ken said, but I don't believe that the switchbacks are ever "unpassable" (sic). A huge pain in the butt and a worse choice than the glissade route? Yes. Impassible? No. The terrain on the switchbacks wouldn't be any more technical in winter than the glissade route, and the switchbacks would probably have less avalanche danger.

Finally, I think bringing ice screws and ropes and trying to belay on a slope consisting of loose rock and soft snow is about as smart as not bringing enough ice axes.

What an adventure! Thanks for the detailed report. I can't wait to see the photos.

awesome, please post pics! bet its incredible up there with all the snow! bet you've made it further than most in quite awhile...

probably don't need ice axe until above trail camp, but i can't imagine going any further without one this time of year. and i definitely wouldn't attempt trail crest without seriously evaluating avy conditions, especially after all the storms...slope is probably bursting with snow...you probably made the right decision to turn around, either way sounds like a fun trip.

post pics soon!

What's the point of an ice axe when you're sinking in to your knees, or deeper?

I've done that route a bunch of times with this much snow and have never pulled the axe off of my back.

Traversing the back side WOULD require gear (think about the Bob R photo of the wind-packed snow on the "west" side. It's probably just like that now.)

Disagree with Bob P on the difficulty of the Switchbacks vs the bowl directly up to TC. The bowl is significantly easier than the terrain that you run in to above the cables.

But the more important question is: Why would you head up in Winter without an essential winter tool?

Now for the compliments: Great going getting that high under the conditions that are up there! The comment of not many doing it is right on the mark.

Richard:

I was hoping you would jump in. I don't think we really disagree that much. I did say the switchbacks in winter would be "a huge pain in the butt and a worse choice than the glissade route." Following the trail would probably add miles of trudging through deep snow when the bowl to the right is much more direct. However, I just don't think the technical challenge is any big deal.

Ken:

I carry an axe pretty much anywhere you would, but it sometimes spends the entire trip serving as ballast. Ice axes are just about useless in the soft snow described in the original post, and I didn't use mine when I skied off the summit of Whitney in winter. I also didn't use it on Mt. Hood (the dog route), and I've done Casaval Ridge at least once with it strapped to my pack. Last April, I didn't need it until the "final 400" on the MR.

I may be reading you wrong, but I interpreted your original post as an attempt to scold and humiliate the original poster and impress him (and possibly the rest of us) with your superior knowledge. That's your right, but it isn't a very good way to welcome someone to the board or to educate him about safety. All that crap about what you "cannot fathom" and implying that he was as stupid as a skydiver without a parachute was unnecessary.

You know perfectly well that people head up Whitney without axes (and other appropriate gear) all the time. The vast majority discover that the task is tougher than they expected and retreat before anything bad happens. That's what these folks did, and it appears that they learned their lesson. Most of us have done worse and lived to tell about it.

If you're going to educate someone about safety, it's important not to turn them off by insulting them or exaggerating the facts. The switchbacks are a poor choice in winter, but they are not "unpassable," "VERY technical," or a good place to use ice screws.

I know I've been pretty hard on you, but you were equally hard on the original poster. See below for what I think is much more constructive.

theclimbings:

Welcome to the board. That was a nice trip report. It looks like you had a good time, learned a few things, and got out safely.

You may not always need crampons and ice axe on a trip like this, but you shouldn't go without them. Everyone should have them and know how to use them before you go. Even small mistakes at 13,000 or 14,000 feet in January can be a big deal.

I often climb alone. Beacons aren't much use without a partner, so I don't carry one. I try to avoid obvious chutes, and I try not to be out right after a storm. For me, avalanche safety is about not being in the wrong place at the wrong time. You were climbing that bowl right after a fairly big storm, so you were probably at a greater risk than I would have liked.

Finally, I'm always concerned when I hear of people sleeping (or planning to sleep) in the hut on the summit. Many people have trouble with the altitude hiking to ~14,500 and returning to Trail Camp. Spending the night at ~14,500 puts you at much greater risk of altitude sickness. Retreating from Trail Camp if someone got sick is feasible, even at night. Descending from the summit at night with a sick partner just isn't going to happen. I don't know the altitude experience of your party and I don't know whether you had Diamox or other drugs available, so I can't pass judgment on the wisdom of your party sleeping on the summit (had you gotten there). I did think I should mention it for everyone's benefit.

I hope you summit next year.

Bob

Bob and RP, Nice Post.
How many times have we seen dudes strap on crampons when they are not needed. Nothing more dangerous than not wearing crampons when you need them, but also as dangerous wearing them when you don't need them posting above your knees...Some pretty major arteries run thru you legs...

yeti

Hi Thanks Bob I wrote something close to your remarks this am but used the construction jargon of where to place the ice ax for Ken. Doug

Whoops, Ken's post disappeared...

Bob, we'll have to agree to disagree regarding the Switchbacks in winter. Here's some reasons why:


I'd change this to "you would waste hours of time trying to find the path of the Switchbacks" because they're under feet of snow at this time and Bob Rockwell and Wayne Pyle (because he's surveyed them) are probably the only two people alive that could actually follow the route. I couldn't and certainly no "rookie" could.



Easy enough for someone with years of ice climbing experience to say, but the angle of the slope (once covered in a few feet of snow) for a couple hundred feet above the Cables kicks up to the point that it's way steeper than the bowl and I'd dare say, as steep as anything you find on the MR. I've bailed off of this terrain on at least two occasions, once when the soft snow had been blown off, leaving a hard layer that was tough to crampon up and another time when I just got tired of view of the long fall (probably deadly) that existed between my legs.

Wow, I certainly didn't anticipate eliciting some of the above responses to my original trip report. However, many of the contributors to this forum have far more experience on Mt. Whitney than we do, so the feedback is both valuable and welcome.

Bob - Thanks for your constructive feedback. It's really helpful.

I think that anytime we go into the mountains we are limited by two things: conditions and ability. On our trip last week, we ran into both limitations. We understood that the likelihood of reaching the summit was reduced by the fact that members of our group were not carrying ice axes. In our case, we decided it would be a more meaningful trip to go with everybody, and accept that we might have to turn back based on the limitations of our group. In the end, this is what we did.

As for ice axes in particular, they are certainly a necessity in the winter backcountry. My fiance and I used our ice axes a lot.... for opening frozen water bottles and digging holes to tether our tent. I certainly wouldn't head up into the mountains without my ice axe, but last week on the slope up to trail crest, the snow was so fresh and deep that it wasn't necessary as a self arrest/belay device. Of course, it's quite possible that we would have needed them on the western traverse to the summit.

We've included a link to some pictures below, and look forward to giving it another shot this next winter. In the meantime, we appreciate everybody's feedback and input. It's great to be able to learn from everyone else's experience.

Picasa Trip Pictures

Those pictures are beautiful -- thanks for sharing! Makes me wish I had the skills (and equipment) to do a trip like that.

Great TR and gorgeous pics! Good luck on your next attempt.

John

Hi So like the Subie getting down the mountain your effort to push the Track up the chute allowed others this weekend to reach the summit and another group to ski down. Great Job!! Thanks For the post update. Doug

The pictures are fantastic. . .and not a cloud in the sky. Even without summitting, it looks like you had a great trip. Jim