Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Whitney Basin Traverse - 13 Peak Dayhike

7/8/12

In years past I have done a Whitney Loop dayhike ... each time adding a few more peaks. Yesterday I finally got around to pushing the limit. I succeeded in dayhiking around both Whitney and Meysan Lakes basins and tagging 13 peaks in the process.

Got back to the car at 2:15am this morning. 23 hr 15 min dayhike.

Peaks:

Carillon,
Russell,
Whitney,
Keeler,
Crooks,
Muir,
Discovery Pinnacle,
Marsh,
McAdie,
Mallory,
LeConte,
Peak 3985m,
Lone Pine Peak.

Did the first 3 peaks (Carillon, Russell, & Whitney) in just under 7 hours. Peak 3985 was harder than I remembered. Though I ran out of light coming off 3985 Lone Pine Peak was the only one I had to finish completely in the dark. Despite knowing I needed to descend the correct chute off LPP I still managed to go down the wrong one. Ate up more time down around Grass Lake trying to find the trail. Only got 3 hrs sleep before the hike and then only 3 hrs after before going to work. Can't wait to get home and catch up on sleep. I'll post some photos later.

-Rick

Pretty dog-gone impressive RK!

Hi Rick,
Congratulations!!
Looking forward to seeing your pictures, especially Mt. Marsh.
If I am able to climb one or two peaks in a day will make me happy. You did 13 in one day!!!
We must request your birth certificate soon.

Pretty Stout thanks for the beta...

WOW...Awesome Rick,congrats to you.

mark

Hi Rick you had 45 mimutes left you should of knocked off Irvine on the way out. We tell people to leave a pointer off LPP. That wrong chute gets vertical and it is a slog back up . Irvine has the same trap if you follow the use trail down the north side of the bowl.

Great day trip!!!!! Thanks Doug

Outstanding RK!
Way to scoop up a Whitney Baker’s Dozen
Cheers,
RG

I knew all too well about the wrong chute and kept telling myself I have to hit the correct one. I had been there many times before but never in the dark. I was extremely careful, followed the ducks, and followed a well beaten path down into the chute, with a ridge on the right side. Everything appeared correct ... but it wasn't. And just when it occurred to me that something wasn't right my batteries started to fail on my headlamp. So it looks like far too many people have hit that chute lately so that now there's a substantial trail leading into it. Thankfully my backup keychain light was enough to get me out and back down.

Great hike. Incredible list of peaks! My legs hurt just reading that list. Way to go, can't wait for photos.

I spent part of Sunday replacing some (what I consider) critcal cairns on the NF of LPC... maybe this weekend I'll head up and knock down an equal number of mis-placed cairns on LPP.

Can anybody say Fun Sand Slog? At least it's soft sand.

Richard, didn't you mean "equal number of peaks"? You could go back and tag Irvine too like Doug said... Don't worry, Richard, that's not a challenge just a suggestion.

Nice job, Rick! That's a hefty loop. I look forward to your pics.

I tried to convince RK to take me on this loop last year when I was looking for the MEGA-Number of summits... I really doubt that I could do this without seeking a rescue... there are some REAL route-finding issues involved in getting it done safely. I've already done my "almost unplanned" bivy up on the LeConte Plateau.

Especially when you do the hardest, or most challenging peaks (route finding wise), at the end. I wonder if it would make it easier to do it in reverse? Or do a variation? How about start at Candlelight and go to Irvine, McAdie etc. etc?

Peak 3985m was the crux for me. It's a complex ridge. I knew that if I ran out of light on it I would more than likely get stuck and have to bivy (and thus fail). This was my concern thoughout the whole day. If I was just 30 minutes slower I don't think I would have made it off the ridge till after sunrise the next day. I'm pretty sure Bob Rockwell had to bivy on this ridge once. I started to go for Irvine but since Fiddler & Moynier didn't include it in their description of the Whitney Basin Traverse I figured it just wasn't worth the risk of losing the whole day (which is probably what would have happened). I seriously considered running the loop in the opposite direction so that I got peak 3985 out of the way early. Trouble is I haven't run that ridge in the opposite direction and it means having to climb up the sand chute to LPP among other tradeoffs. There are certainly additional peaks that can be added if anyone wants to try (Corcoran, the Cleaver, Gamblers Special, Third Needle, the Aiguiles, S'Brutal Tower, etc). Or stick to F & M's description and do all the class 5 stuff that I avoided. That would be truly awesome.

Where's Dr. Dirtbag?

Photos are up:

http://www.rickkent.net/ViewerPlus/viewer.aspx?FolderID=988

All my point and shoot cameras are out of commission so I had to use a cell phone for photos. So photo quality isn't that great.

Again, nice job, Rick. Enjoyed the pics. I can imagine descending Lone Pine Peak that late would definitely be a challenge. Especially after that long of a day.

Hi Rick,
Thank you very much for taking a lots of pictures.

This is your pace of hiking for the day IN MINUTES :
WPS :17 NF :27 E-LDG :22 LBL 1:29 UBL 1:05 CARILLON :55 RUSSELL 2:30 WHITNEY :26 KEELER :16 CROOKS PK :37 MUIR :31 DISCOVERY PK
1:00 MARSH 1:34 McAdie 2:20 MALLORY :53 MT.LaCONTE 1:55 PEAK 3985m -Night hike- 1:24 LPP 3:58 WP ROAD :22 WPS

It is amazing numbers.

Congrats again, Rick. Awstounding!

Thanks for the numbers Shin. I knew my pace was good up to Discovery Pinnacle. After that I lost a little time to Marsh (had to backtrack off the ridge like last time). Then from Marsh to McAdie I did the best I could but still felt like I lost too much time struggling down and over to Crabtree Pass (looks like it would be no big deal but that bowl sucks!). A few more minutes were lost on the ridge to Mallory (it's hard to remember which side of each gendarme to go around). I think I did pretty well over peak 3985m (had to do a little hunting but did about the best I could). Then after that (when it turned dark) times were terrible.

You must have already gone through all the photo timestamps like I did. Here's my log:

03:01a - Left car (approx)
03:05a - Portal TH
03:22a - North Fork trail junction
03:49a - E Ledges
04:11a - LBSL
05:58a - Topped out on the upper plateau
06:35a - Summit Carillon
07:27a - Russell East summit
07:36a - Russell West summit
08:21a - Snow patch between Whitney & Russell
10:00a - Summit Whitney
10:26a - Summit Keeler
10:42a - Summit Crooks Peak
11:19a - Summit Muir
11:36a - JMT junction
11:41a - Trail Crest
11:50a - Summit Discovery Pinnacle
12:50p - Summit Mount Marsh
02:08p - Crabtree Pass
03:24p - Summit McAdie
04:12p - Arc Pass
05:44p - Summit Mount Mallory
06:37p - Summit Mount LeConte
07:34p - Starting up ridge to Peak 3985m
08:32p - Summit Peak 3985m
09:10p - Off the ridge and onto the plateau
09:56p - Summit Lone Pine Peak
01:54a - Start of the Meysan Lakes trail
02:16a - Back to the car

A few stats:

Total time: 23 hrs 15 mins
Time from Portal TH to Whitney summit: 6 hrs 55 mins (via Carillon & Russell)
Time from Russell to Whitney: 2 hrs 24 mins (via North Face)
Time from Portal TH to Trail Crest: 8 hrs 40 mins
Time from Trail Crest back to car (via Meysan Basin): 14 hrs 35 mins

And here are the peak elevations. I still haven't totalled up the elevation gain.

Carillon 13552,
Russell 14086,
Whitney 14494,
Keeler 14240+,
Crooks 14080+,
Muir 14015,
Discovery Pinnacle 13680,
Marsh 13550,
McAdie 13680+,
Mallory 13850,
LeConte 13960+,
Peak 3985m 13016,
Lone Pine Peak 12944