Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board first timer training for whitney

Today I saw that my check cleared so I will get a chance to climb Mt Whitney! I am beyond excited! I would like to start training for this as soon as possible. Any thoughts on Mt Baldy this weekend, 4/2? I would like to get some hiking in at a high elevation. It seems like there is still a bunch of snow up there, and I have little knowledge of snow hiking. Where do I even begin to prepare myself for this epic journey? Please help!

Start hiking. Start small and work your way to longer dayhikes. Don't worry about elevation right now. Don't worry about snow. When is your Whitney trip? If you don't know about snow you don't want to deal with it.

Just hike. And then hike some more. Get copies of John Robinson's San Gabriels and San Bernardinos guide books.

And do some hiking. Slowly work up to more mileage and elevation gain.

Don't do Whitney as a backpack, make it a dayhike. You can do it.

That is if you start hiking. Every weekend. Do short fast hikes a time or two during the week. Go to the gym and work on aerobic conditioning.

It's not the huge undertaking some people make it out to be. It's all good trail to the top. Just get yourself into good hiking shape. The best way to do that is to hike.

Did I mention you should start hiking?

Don't rush to Whitney, take your time. Don't rush training, give yourself plenty of hikes between now and your summit trip. Don't drive to the Portal and jump out of your car and go for the summit. Go up a couple of days before your hike. Take a short hike up at Horseshoe Meadows and get your acclimation then. Sleep low in Lone Pine, and then maybe hike to Lone Pine Lake for more acclimation, sleep down in Lone Pine again and you'll be in good shape acclimation wise for your dayhike of Whitney.

Don't rush up the trail, start before dawn and saunter up the trail. You got all day. Keep an eye on the weather.

But your first step to Whitney is to start hiking this weekend. See how close you can get to Mt. Wilson. When you can do Mt. Wilson from Sierra Madre you're in good shape for Whitney.

Just one more thing, have fun. It's a beautiful hike to Whitney. Not to mention all the other beautiful hikes you'll go on getting prepared.

1+ on garys.

don't forget to start hiking. it's the best way to prepare yourself for hiking.

if you work in a tall building, start walking bottom to top.

if you work in a short building, start walking from bottom to top.

and start hiking.

Day hike or overnight hike? Different conditioning/training factors apply depending on how you are planning to do the trip. I did it as an overnight last year, loved it.

Try hiking on weekends (or every other weekend), and in between try to concentrate on aerobic exercise - jogging, bicycling, running stairs. Find a level you're comfortable with (time or distance), then try to increase the time/distance every week. You don't need a gym, just find a route in your neighborhood. Throwing in a little light weightlifting for upper body conditioning wouldn't hurt either - I just lift some dumbells while watching TV (the 'penalty' I pay for that 'vice' . Hiking and more hiking is nice, but impractical for most unless you live with a mountain outside your door.

Water makes a great training aid too. Carry extra water in you pack as you hike around for added weight. The nice thing is if you get too tired out you can dump your extra weight anywhere. Great for in town hikes.

The tips you have all provided are very valuable for me and my hiking partner. We received our reservations for whitney and we have two, 5/21 and 6/18. I was surprised we got the earlier dates and I feel it's even more of a challenge to have less time to train. We did a 36 mile bike ride on saturday and some basketball on sunday instead of a hike. This weekend we are scheduled to do a hike, have reservations for crampons and ice axes at REI. I'm trying to research the best hike for us but it's hard to know what we are ready for. Definitely want to try out our gear in the snow because i have a feeling there will be a ton of snow on whitney on the dates we are scheduled. Is San Jacinto worth the trouble, what about san gregorian? We are very active so we feel it is best to jump right into hikes at high elevation since our first Mt Whitney permit is for May. I just don't want to pick a trail that is impassible or unrecognizable due to snowy conditions.
PS- We have day hiking permits

As the time gets closer, monitor this BB for hikes via the Whitney trail and you'll get a good idea about conditions. Some reports will be more complete than others, but often BobR does a hike up the main Whitney trail, so especially keep an eye for it as it will be complete and provide pictures.

For your May trip, given the snowy conditions, there's an excellent chance that most will reach Trail Crest from Trail Camp via the snow slope directly below the Crest, rather than via the switchbacks. The switchbacks might be melted out by your late June trip, but it's way too early to speculate now.

A good simulation of the snowfield below Trail Crest is the Bowl on Baldy between the Ski Hut and the summit. Neither are particularly tricky - just a bit steep. Some find the wide-open spaces of a big snowfield disorienting, so Baldy will help get you acclimated to that.

And as others have said - you need to start hiking. Alot. Riding your bike, even on centuries, won't help much. Like most sports, there's no substitute for the real thing. Not to be pessimistic, but if you're not already a regular hiker, and with 6 weeks between now and 5/21 ... consider taking Wednesday's off and hiking as well.

I don't like to discourage people from going to Mt. Whitney but it appears you are planning to go Mt. Whitney in 6 to 10 weeks with rented crampons and ice axe. Is it your intention to rent axe and crampons in the coming weeks to climb in SoCal at places; such as, Mt. Baden-Powell, Baldy Bowl, the North Chutes of San Gorgonio or north ridges of Charlton Peak, so you have idea of what to expect when you get to Mt. Whitney? I know I took me more than a few year of using these tools before climbing the chute from Trail Camp to Trail Crest. The reason I use the work climb instead of hike is because in all likelyhood the trail will be blocked at the cables and if you want to go higher than ~12,600' you are going to have to climb through the chute to Trail Crest.

What you are planning is for advanced hikers with at minimum basic snow skills.

For what you are trying to do, San Jacinto is a waste of time from the Tram. It's a very easy snowshoe or climb with a total distance of about 6 miles and a gain of 2,800'. I can't speak about doing it from the Idyllwild area.

If you want to see what you are getting yourself into go to my website at the link below and take a look at the album from May 2007.

Yes we are planning on renting ice axes and crampons this weekend from REI. We will be practicing as much as time allows with these tools. Ideally we would not have chosen to go this early up to whitney but with the permit system in place we did not receive the dates we wanted later in the year. We've got to do the best with what we have. It's always nice to hear encouraging words from people who have gone before us. However I'm not getting a lot of that.

I think it's more that we fear for your safety.

Mt Whitney is very unforgiving of novice mistakes.

I think that you will do fine. The lack of training will just make it more difficult and "less enjoyable" for you since your body will have to work harder to get you to the top. Take your time and learn how to properly use an ice axe and crampons. Since it is the off season there are still people going up Whitney on MR (no permit necessary). Link up with some of them and just do the lower portions without a mindset to summit. Or get with a group of baldy hikers and do the same. Learn how to self arrest and use your equipment properly. When you go on these "training" hikes be sure to take a full pack; representative of what you are planning on taking up when you do it "for real".

I totally respect that and thank you for your concern. Can someone please be specific about what is unsafe about about my plans? I took the REI class on hiking Mt Whitney from HikerJim. I have to start somewhere, and I'm doing my best to get up to a local mountain and try out the equipment and hike. I was not expecting my permit to be so soon but at the same time I'm excited about the prospect of glassading. I spent the first 26 years of my life enduring long snowy winters in the midwest. I have sledding experience and understand the concept of self arrest. Since I don't live in the mountains the only ways i can train during the week is to run, and walk my dog with a heavy pack on my back.

I am trying to better understand your background, have you done Mt. Whitney without snow before? If it were me, and I mean this with sincerity, I'd do Mt. Whitney first under ideal conditions (no snow, summertime) first before tackling it in the snow?

It's a whole different beast with snow. Even with the best snow training between now and then, I'd try and go with at least one very experienced team member.

Just my thoughts and recommendations. The mountain will always be there - no rush!

Amin

Hello EJ,

Where in the OC are you. I am in HB so give me a shout if you would like me to help you out. Baldy is a good place to start but as Amin and others have said, snow is another animal that should not be taken lightly. I am assuming you have cramps and ice axe. Anyway, let me know.

Dances

EJ: I think the others have covered the need for having basic snow skills before tackling Whitney in the conditions you may find in May and June, so I won't add any commentary to that discussion.

However, the good news is that I believe you can adequately prepare for the cardio aspect of your hike/climb by just running or cycling if you do enough of it with some high intensity workouts thrown in. There is no doubt that the best training for hiking steep terrain with a pack is hiking steep terrain with a pack, just like the best training for cycling is cycling, etc. However, for those of us who are unfortunately enough to live in the flats and in my case a long way from good hiking areas, you can get ready for the mountains with a solid running program and would imagine you could do the same through hard cycling or serious cardio training sessions in a gym.

I have used running as my primary training preparation before trips to Whitney, Grand Teton climbs, Alaska, etc and have always seemed to feel I was adequately prepared from a cardio standpoint. (Obviously this does nothing for acclimatization or snow climbing skills). My son went out with me last summer and he did zero training for this trip, but cruised it due to the fact he plays high school lacrosse, (being 17 doesn't hurt either).

You do have to really get after it though....a couple of slow three mile runs a week might be better than nothing, but not something that I would feel would have you ready for Whitney unless you could supplement with hiking, etc.

Good luck and be safe.
Kent

I think the reason everyone is concerned is that this is not a normal year. This winter has been a record breaker as far as snow fall. There is a good chance that May will present itself with full on winter conditions. Who knows what it will be like on your day? The most important thing is knowing when to pull the plug and turn around, conditions change fast.

EJ, I'm not personally familiar with Whitney in winter conditions, but many of the fine folks here on the WPS board are naturally experts on the subject matter. Prepare as best you can for those conditions, but heed their advice - they know whereof they speak. You should enjoy your experience and feel challenged, but never forget that this can be a brutal mountain when snow and ice are present, even in good weather.

Avalanche conditions may still persist in May, and you should be prepared to judge if that's the case. You mentioned that you were excited about glissading: be very cautious about doing this in the snow chute down from Trail Crest - people have died in recent years doing that very thing. Lots of big rocks waiting to stop your glissade rather abruptly if you're not in complete control. Have your self-arrest skills in good shape before you give that a try.

It's important that you have fun with this new experience, but also that you realize that the danger level may be high, especially for a first attempt in winter conditions. Exercise good judgment and you should have a great story to tell. Remember, the summit is optional but the parking lot is mandatory.

yeah i'm not hell bent on reaching the summit in May. June is my target and May will be a great first run.

hey for all of you haters out there that are bagging on EJ for being a novice hiker...do you guys even do anything besides hike? basketball, football, tennis, biking? anyone? these are just to name a few activities that I do on a regular basis. and you're telling me that athletic-yet-non-hiking people like myself aren't qualified to hike Mt Whitney or any big mountain? I would never call it a walk in the park but for goodness sake, why would you question someone's ability to hike when they're active/athletic to begin with? Comments?