Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Thoughts on El Nino Impact for Fall Whitney Hike?

Doug recently mentioned that there was a foot of snow on the west side last (2014) August 5th. I imagine the potential for more moisture is even greater this year. Does anyone know what fall conditions on Mount Whitney were like during the last big El Nino (1997-98)?

Hi So Oct. 17 1997 it started to snow ,the same day we started to remove the front of the store and the week Kurt lead one of the all women teams up the mountain , some took the Mountaineer's route some the buttress and the east face, great climb since many guides( women) came to make this a kick off for Breast Cancer awareness and funding.

We worked on the store until Dec. 2 ,I would park the truck facing downhill and planned when the snow reached 1' I would bail, Doug Jr found powder several days before and took off. A very special lady we know would check on us each week to see if we were alive , we were living in a camper and working from around 5 AM till 10 PM , which brings up the story about the guy we found in the remodel.

In the spring late March we drove to the lower entrance of the campground and shoveled 8 days to reach the area just above the overflow parking lot . each day we would dig 2-3' holes in the snow on the road. Drag the material we would need for the morning and do a cut list before lunch, dig our way back to the truck and after lunch, launch the truck as far as we could and haul the material up the road making more holes.

In reality this was not very much snow we opened May 8 that year. Road was "clear since these two idiots had shoveled it out and used the standard trick telling people sure you can drive around the loop!Well in mid summer when it is not 4' of snow in the shadow.

Several of the old timers talk about 13' in the Portal I say the last 30 years we are hard pressed to have 4' The upper elevation will have major build up from drifts in several areas , above Mirror lake to trail camp , the chute above trailcamp, and on the north fork the narrow sections will drift.

The real issue is travel when it is very cold and you can stay on the crust 1' or 10' isn't a factor. the deeper the pack the less rock and brush making travel faster and easier if you have the skills.

My vote on the heavy winter is "if" it comes it will be after Dec. and will hit north of Whitney. This seems to be the pattern now.

I remember the Spring of 1998 - I married that May at the Fish Hatchery outside Independence. The white mountain tops made for some great wedding photos! Went up to the Portal then down for a round of golf in Lone Pine. Stayed at the Winneduma. Great memories. I hope this Winter will be very white for all Californians!

Y'all missed NOAA's report last month where they (finally) confirmed pretty much what Doug was hinting at: "There is almost no correlation between precipitation and El Niño conditions in Northern and Central California."

Please spread the word. It just might help people come up with something better to talk about...

That article doesn't have anything to say about precipitation in the Fall.

@whhs: I recall having to turn around going over Tioga Pass
late October of 1997 because of snow flurries. I think it was
the 23rd but I couldn't swear to it. Then a week later it was
super smoking hot. That's the extent of my memory other than
that the following spring was an amazing ski season.

I tried to find historical data online. The best I could do
was for a station at 9400 feet near Virginia Lake, up north of
Lee Vining. I don't think this is very useful for making any
sort of prediction but it's fun to look back.

Here are the precipitation events (in inches) for the months
of Sept, Oct and Nov for the last two strong El Nino years.

SNOTEL Site: Virginia Lakes Ridge
State: California
Site Number: 846
County: Mono
Latitude: 38 deg; 4 min N
Longitude: 119 deg; 14 min W
Elevation: 9445 feet

date, precip in inches

1997-09-03, 0.20
1997-09-05, 0.10
1997-09-25, 0.20
1997-10-10, 0.30
1997-10-11, 0.10
1997-11-07, 0.10
1997-11-10, 0.20
1997-11-13, 0.10
1997-11-18, 0.10
1997-11-19, 0.20
1997-11-22, 0.10
1997-11-25, 0.50
1997-11-26, 1.90


1982-09-10, 0.10
1982-09-11, 0.10
1982-09-24, 1.40
1982-09-25, 1.00
1982-09-26, 0.50
1982-09-29, 0.50
1982-10-01, 0.60
1982-10-04, 0.10
1982-10-21, 0.10
1982-10-24, 0.30
1982-10-25, 1.00
1982-10-26, 0.70
1982-10-28, 0.10
1982-10-30, 0.60
1982-10-31, 0.10
1982-11-01, 0.10
1982-11-08, 0.10
1982-11-09, 0.50
1982-11-10, 0.30
1982-11-12, 0.10
1982-11-18, 2.10
1982-11-19, 0.10
1982-11-20, 0.10
1982-11-22, 0.20
1982-11-23, 0.10
1982-11-28, 0.40
1982-11-29, 1.20
1982-11-30, 1.10

Doug and ep,

Thanks for the historical information...very interesting!
I appreciate the perspective and will also keep a close eye on current forecasts before setting out.