Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board UPDATE ON THE TRAIL

Doug, as always, great advise. Always better safe than SAR, I like to say. What a beautiful lightening show it was. Kudos to Miles, Amy, the Richards and the WPSF gang. Hope nobody got hurt. T

Hi Went up the trail this afternoon, You know waited for the thunderstorm that was forcast to start.

Trail to Lone Pine Lake is in good shape, the log crossing just before is not that deep say 12-18 inches at the deepest so a large trash bag on each leg would work fine , just wrap tight and use poles , during the day I heard people were jumping log to log but older hikers may not like that method.

IF THE FIRST STREAM CROSSING BOTHERS YOU I WOULD THINK YOU MIGHT THINK ABOUT ANOTHER TIME FOR THE WHITNEY HIKE. WHAT BECOMES VERY OBVIOUS DURING THESE STORMS IS THE MOUNTAIN IS FINE. THOSE NOT READY PLACE A SERIOUS DEMAND ON THIER SKILL AND EXPERIENCE , THIS STORM WAS SOMEWHAT SHORT AND WARM, CHANGE THOSE CONDITIONS AND WE WOULD OF HAD A SERIOUS CHAIN OF EVENTS WITH GRIM OUTCOMES .

I did the 1904 trail down this afternoon and thinking about the week past wondered if it would be better to go back 100 years, no permits and use the trail that leads straight up the canyon , natural selection instead of the groomed trail. Just some thoughts. Thanks Doug

Did everyone make it out safely? What about the family with the small children? Everyone accounted for? Thanks

Thanks for the info.

No update on the North Fork? The last word was that it is closed till further notice.

I know of someone that went up the North Fork on Sunday. Except for the water running a bit higher than normal and some trail erosion, everything was ok.

BTW: Thanks, Doug for driving down to the Alabama Hills on Sunday morning to help me with a dead car battery.

Thanks for the info, Mike.

FYI - It's currently hailing in Lone Pine. Four days of precipitation in a row - is that a record?

What is the status of this crossing? Still require 'trash bag waders' to cross? Tricky in the dark when starting early for a day trip summit? We're heading up for a 14th summit and was hoping to get our group aware of the situation. Thanks.

Hi Fire crew worked on the logs today and put them back in place. Update on the Lion fire still about 800 ac to burn into the cntrol line and that should happen by Sunday , some smoke but not bad on the mountain the valley is smokey . Thanks Doug

HI Doug
Can anyone use the 1909 trail? Does it save time going up?

Hi The old trail is somewhat hard to follow as it is straight up and much of it followed slabs and next to the stream , that is overgrown. The trail people used last weekend would be the hiker trail before the stock was removed in the 70's . The early trail would not save time because the grade is such you should take the mountaineers route and save the distance. Thanks Doug