We had a great climb on Mt. Whitney yesterday. The weather was about as good as it gets in December. The road to Whitney Portal was open and free of snow all the way to the trailhead. Even the toilets were open.
We slept in our cars and started up the main trail just before 5:00 AM. We carried snowshoes, crampons, and ice axes. We used the snowshoes a little but could have easily done without them. The ice axes weren't necessary, but one shouldn't head up in winter conditions without one. We only used the crampons on the steeper slope just below Trail Crest.
We followed the trail almost to Trailside Meadow. There were some tracks that made following the trail easy. Unfortunately, people were cutting switchbacks quite often, tearing up the hillsides unnecessarily. We followed tracks through the snow to Trail Camp and then followed a few of the 97 switchbacks until we headed cross-country for the snow slope below Trail Crest.
We could see someone high above us, doing a great job of kicking steps up to Trail Crest. We followed his tracks until I caught up with him at about 14,000 feet. It turned out his name was Jason and he was making his second attempt this month. On his first attempt, he couldn't make much progress in the deep snow without snowshoes. Yesterday, he had snowshoes and never used them. That's the way it goes in December.
Jason and I waited for Carine on the summit. After the obligatory summit photos, we headed down. I had been itching to climb Mt. Muir on the way back to Trail Crest, but it would have delayed our descent by just enough that I decided it wasn't a good idea. As it turned out, we found our snowshoes about 10 minutes before darkness would have made finding them difficult.
Jason went ahead on his own, while Carine and I took our time in the dark, arriving at our cars at about 9:20 PM. It was a long but satisfying day. It also completed my little project of climbing Mt. Whitney in each of the twelve months. Thanks for a great day, Carine!
