Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Whitney compared to Elbert, Longs Peak & Quandry

Hello all, my 1st post, I've been reading for a while and decided to finally get in on the action. My name on here represents the climbing/hiking limitations of living in Iowa. I am very much a novice but have started training to be more serious. We vacation in Breckenridge, CO ever other summer. 1991 tried Quandry Peak and got rained out somewhere around 12k. 1993 completed Quandry, 1995 summited Mt. Elbert. Will be giving Longs Peak a shot in early July, and right now have 2 overnight permits for Whitney on Sept 20. I am hoping to get some advice from people who are familiar with any of these 3 and Whitney. Whitney @ 22 miles is considerably longer round trip (main trail), at an avg of 10% grade. I think Quandry(7 miles) 19% & Elbert(9 miles) 20%. I would like to know how they compare and differ in real life. Am I making a fair assessment by comparing the distance and grade or are there other factors I should be considering. I plan to do Whitney as a 2 day and will do Longs Peak as a 2 day as practice, as I had never camped on a hike before. I haven't had an issues with the altitude to date, but wonder how the longer time up higher will affect me. Any advice or input is greatly appreciated.

Since you will be in Breck for the summer, altitude should not be a problem. I 've done all 4 you mention several times.

The Whitney trail is Class 1 but of course about triple the distance of Quandary and Elbert. Quandary and Elbert are listed as Class 1 but are probably 1+ or 2- due to the steepness of the trails. You are planning a 2 day for Whitney which should be fine, especially since you are planning a 2 day for Longs Peak as a trial run. Longs starts out as a Class 1 trail but the final easiest route is definitely Class 3 and the distance round trip is about 15-16 miles.

The Whitney trail is long, but it’s technically trivial. California trailheads are usually lower than in Colorado, so you get to do a bit more elevation gain and mileage. Elevation gain is the best single measure of how much work you have to do. I would much rather climb the Mountaineers’ Route at something like 4-6 miles than walk eleven miles on a trail.

Quandary, Elbert, and Longs don’t require you to spend a lot of time at high elevation. You go up, tag the summit, and immediately descend. You will be above 13,500 for a relatively long time hiking from Trail Crest to the Whitney summit and back. That makes Whitney tougher for some climbers.

BTW, I’ve done the Colorado 14ers once each and Whitney 36 times.