Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board any snow?

the nws was forecasting a small chance of snow sun/mon. did any fall and if so, what's the situation? thanks in advance.
greg

My brother & I spent the night @Iceberg Lake on 9/18-9/19 and woke up to a light dusting of sleet. It was cold (25 when we woke up and 35 when we left @0930). No major snow.

I just returned today from a first time summit on September 19th. It was 4 degrees at the summit with random light snow flurries. Be prepared for cold... bone cold. My camelback froze, I couldn't feel my face or my hands, M&M's were like marbles, and powerbars were like peanut brittle. What I didn't have but needed: a face mask, better gloves, and something to keep water from freezing. BTW: anyone know of anything to keep drinking water from freezing?

Can't see Whitney from here in Fresno, but the Sierra peaks of Sequoia -- probably the Kaweahs -- are white with a dusting of snow. Beautiful -- but unusual for September.

How much snow is on the Whitney trail from Trail Crest to the top?

light snow dusting but nothing major (as of the 19th)... on the switchbacks the cable area was 1/2 iced over... with easy passage on the cable side of the trail.

Interesting on your view, Steve C. Besides the Kaweahs, you should also be able to see the peaks of the Great Western Divide. Whitney, of course, is between the two groups and cannot be seen.

bojomountain:

Myself and 3 others summited on 9/20, by
which time, the major weather phenom. had
moved out. Nevertheless, the temps were pretty
cold (32'F @the portal campsite at 3AM,
when we started and progressively got colder
as we approached Trail camp). I wore a trail
running shoe and my toes got numb after a
while, despite having two layers of cold-
weather artificial fiber socks. Once the
sun rose, things warmed up a bit.

Myself and 2 others in my group filled our
hydration packs with a water+gatorade powder
mix, while one other just had water. Guess
what, my buddy with just water had his
hydration pack and the tube freeze while
I had no such problem! Apparently, the mix
with gatorade pwdr. lowered the freezing
point of water!

Interestingly, around 3PM, dark clouds converged
from nowhere and before you knew it, we started
getting flurries as we hiked down the switch-
backs. Once we got to trail camp, it started
to snow steadily and that got me really worried
as you tend to slip especially on the way down
when the rocks get moist. Fortunately, the
weather cleared up dramatically about 45 min.
later and we got back to the portal safely
by 8PM.

Bottom line, be prepared for the worst at
any time in this trail. The weather can change
before you wink an eye!

On 9/20, left Portal at 4 AM and summited by 10 AM with 3 others via the MR. No snow but as others have said, it was very cold. Sunny and light wind on top (stayed for 1 hour). Descended via the main trail and a storm moved in as we were passing Mirror lake. Back at the Portal by 4 PM ending a great day on the mountain.

I had not thought about the tube freezing. Are there any other methods for keeping your water from freezing? I use a 3 liter camelp. bladder. I know they sell insulators for the tube, but what about the bladder itself? I wonder if cytomax will work the same way as gatorade? I will doing the hike with two other women on Oct 9th. Thanks!

Freezing tubes is a recognized drawback with Camelbacks.

Adding energy drink powder will lower the freezing point because of the dissolved solids. I use the stuff, but I don't fill the bladder with it because I don't think I could stomach three liters of the mix. I alternate the mix with water.

If it gets cold enough, energy drink will also freeze. By careful packing you may be able to insulate your bladder to delay that process. Or try to run the tube inside your jacket so it gets warmth from your skin. Failing that, consider just using bottled water bottles. Be sure to leave extra air space for expansion in case they do freeze.

On my trip, my Camelback actually sprang a small leak somehow, not in the threads but in the bladder body. Patching with duct tape helped keep the leak under control, but I'm considering just going to bottles next time.

It would have to get pretty cold to freeze the water in your bladder on a day hike. One trick to keep the tube from freezing up is to blow the water back out of the tube into the bladder after each drink.

Call me old fashioned, but I much prefer to use Nalgene bottles. They are much more durable, so there is no risk of ever losing all your water. I usually carry two of those and a backup Platypus for the few times I may want to depart a water stop with more than two liters.

Camelback makes an insulated sleeve that you can slip over the tube to help keep it from freezing. In addition to that, the best solution that I've found is to fill my camelback with hot water on really cold days and keep drinking small amounts.

Note that Rainier Mountaineering does not let their clients use camelbacks on Rainier because of the freezing problems.

Like most good lessons, I learned about this one first hand. In true winter conditions, a camelback, especially the drink tube, will frequently have problems with freezing, especially at night, when you are not drinking out of it. So, on most winter trips I take, I don't use one. During the day, however, if you regularly drink from it and keep the bladder somewhat insulated and use the tube insulater, they seem to work ok. In temps above about 20'-25', I wouldn't even worry about it...

In general, the addition of any solute (Like the sugars and salts in Gatorade or Cytomax) will lower the freezing point of a solvent(In this case water). This is why roads are salted; the solute lowers the freezing point of water and means that you can still have liquid water at -1 or -2 degrees C. (and hence no dangerous ice). So, if you wanna help keep your hydration reservoir ice-free, add a drink mix to it.