Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Skiing on Mt. Whitney?

All,

I'm curious to know if anyone has any ski mountaineering experience on Whitney. I've done the MR 3 times (twice in winter and once in summer) and I'm wondering if anyone has gone up (and/or down) on skis before. From what the snow conditions sound like now, it wouldn't be so great... but maybe later in the winter!

Cheers!

-bk-

I went in early April 2005 with a group that climbed the MR from well below the portal store with skis (I had snow shoes though). There was great coverage all the way up. One guy skied down the MR chute from just below the notch. The one other guy that summited with us skied out from Iceberg Lake. They seemed to be having a good time. It was a much quicker descent than mine...

Just curious but do you happen to know how they checked the stability of the slope (i.e. avalanche potential) before they skied?

(I edited this to refer to "they" instead of "you" since I realized my mistake while Andrew was apparently composing his response so that's why there is a little disconnect.)

As I mentioned Bob, I did not personally ski, but one of the fellas that did had taken Avy classes to level 3 I believe. I know he had done some probing and we did a fair amount of digging the day before as we set up camp at Iceberg...

I haven't skied the MR, but I did ski down to Outpost Camp (no snow below that) from Trail Crest last Spring. It was one heck of a fun ride! ( http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/gallery/1522070 )

From what I've seen of the MR couloir over the years, it's typical Sierra crud most of the time. A very experienced Colorado backcountry skiier who was up the MR at the same time I was up at Trail Crest told me he had to "fight it" the whole way down.

I've been up there (UBSL) when there's been a few inches of fresh powder covering hard-packed snow. It was some of the best BC skiing I've ever done. ( http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/gallery/1228655 )

Recommendations from several people point to Onion Valley as the place to go in the Southern Sierra.

Cool! Thanks for the pictures Richard. The trail route looks like some really nice skiing. I've only done the MR so I'm completely unfamiliar with the trail. Is is fairly easy to navigate in the winter? Do you think it's skiable at this point given the light amount of snow? The MR currently sounds like a bunch of bushwhacking.

I think it's still too early anywhere on the mountain. Give it a few more feet.

You're right about the MR right now. I say anyone heading up that way right now is desperate to get an ascent - I don't think it's worth it.

Skiing off of Trail Crest is pretty straight forward under good snow conditions. I had to take the skis off for a couple of hundred feet of walking to avoid damaging the skis on rock at Trail Camp. After that, it's just a matter of keeping to the gully that leads down from Consultation Lake. It feeds you straight to the Waterfall at Outpost Camp. There was a nice pillow of snow at the bottom when I skied it, so I had no fear of hurting myself.

Navagation below Bighorn Park might be an issue if you're not familiar with the area. It would also require some walking, or skinning, due to the amount of flat (and slightly rising) terrain.

I went up the MR in late April '05. On our first day (hiking in to Iceberg) a group of 2-3 skiers and one snowboarder did what I believe was a [long] day trip, having started at ~1am. I'm not sure if any of them did the notch section, but they all did the couloir and had a fun descent from there ahead of them. I have a few photos showing them at Iceberg / bottom of the couloir if that would be at all helpful. But it's definitely a little early season now

Well thanks for the info. It sounds like this year I'll have to wait until Feb or March maybe.

There used to be a website that showed snowpack at different elevations for the Whitney area. I think it was with the state water folks and I can't seem to find it anymore. Does anyone know if something like that is still posted on the net?

Click on the Whitney Portal Store link at the bottom of the page, then click the Weather link. At the bottom of the weather links page is the graph for Cottonwood Lakes, as well as a link to all the snowpack surveys.

Thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for.

BK,

The Mt. Whitney region is generally not considered one of the better backcountry skiing areas in the S. Sierra.

That said, lots of people try to ski Whitney each year, for the same reason they hike it -- because it's the highest peak in the continental US.

The trail crest route Richard mentions probably offers the best skiing, though conditions almost always rule out connecting the summit.

The MR chute is an aesthetic descent, but be aware conditions above the 'notch' to the summit (the north chute) are life threatening, and should not be attempted via skis unless you have a good deal of experience in high-altitude, no-fall terrain.

-- maybe not even then.

As for avy info, check out the eastern sierra avalanche center: http://www.esavalanche.org/

Andy

SierraDescents.com

<img border="5" src="http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/photos/20991767-S.jpg"


Here's a picture of "Bullet" skiing off of the summit. It'll give you a little bit of the perspective that Andy is talking about. It definitely is... "you fall, you die" terrain up there. I thought I was going to witness the death of two out of three snowboarders who happened to be good enough to hold an edge. They definitely weren't snowboarding down that slope! The third person in the party finally showed some style and grace while he came down.

About 10 years ago I did a solo ski trip up the MMWT in April. The Sierra's in the spring have some of the most stable snow in the country if the thaw freeze process is happening, meaning it gets below freezing at night then warms up to provide for nice skiing during the day. Not to say there is nothing to worry about, you always need to be on your toes. Anyway, I camped at Trail Camp that night. The next day I skinned and kicked steps to Trail Crest. I stashed my skis there and scooted to the summit for a quick peak bag. Returned top Trail Crest, put my tele skis on and made huge GS turns all the way to Trail Camp in about 2 minutes. Grabbed my pack and made it back to the Portal in about 30 minutes. It is not the most ski friendly mountain as far as skiing from the summit but there are some fun runs to be had on it.