Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Recent Photos

Here are some photos from the <a href="http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/gallery/358930">Whitney Area</a> during January 13-15.

Awesome photos Richard! Wow..the whole area looks a LOT different than when I last saw it..lol..

I have what might be a stupid question...what happens to the fish in Lower Boy Scout Lake when it freezes solid like that? Do they survive the winter somehow? Lol...I don't know why I wonder about that..I just do..hehe..

Thanks for sharing the pictures..they look great!

Here is a link to my most recent pictures..uh..but they involve a little less "altitude" for sure!!

http://tinyurl.com/45asq

Regards..
BeachAV8R

Excellent pics. Interesting to see that part of the MR route at this time of year.

Beach, years back Francis Lake near Mt Morgan south, froze solid and has never had fish since. Most lakes never freeze solid.

Richard - I love your pictures. You really have captured the "feeling" of the places you have visited.
Thanks for sharing
Scott

Great pictures.

Does anyone in the area have a sonwmobile so that one can be transported to the Portal instead of trudging up the road?

Also, are there any pictures of people skiing down the "North Fork" run in years like this?

I've seen snowmobile tracks up the road in the past. I don't know if anyone does it as a commercial service.

I've have some pictures of a couple of guys from Utah who skied down from the Notch. Check out the California Mountains/Mt. Whitney/April 2001 album at smugmug.

Richard - Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

CaT

Richard great pictures! I grew up going to the portals where my family owns a cabin, and I always love seeing someone who appreciates it as much as we do! Thanks!

Great pictures, Richard! Two questions...first, were the creeks actually flowing under all that snow? It looked like the N Fork was moving, but Carillon Creek looked completely packed over. Any danger from undercutting by running water under apparently solid pack at that time of year?

The second question may be an ignorant one, but with all the brush under the snow, do you have to worry about miniature spruce traps going up those drainages?

I don't anticipate trying Whitney in the snow anytime soon...but if you find yourself passing through Arizona again this Winter, we've got awesome snow up on Humphreys Peak, and the climbing should be good right into April!

How would it be pulling a sled up the drainage at this time? Ive done this out in Little Lakes Valley, worked great for hauling gear.

Jeffrey Cook: Since the snow comes in waves, there are layers of alternating soft and hard snow. Once the snow bridges get about 3-4 feet deep you can usually walk over them without having them colapse. This is true, even though there is water or bushes underneath. Once in a while the bushes underneath move a little and you still fall in.

The water up the North fork is still flowing under the snow. Down by the opening of the North fork I could still see some areas were the water was showing through. Up higher, though, Richard P's pictures looked very filled in.

Dave: Draging a sled gets harder the steeper it is, especially if the sled has tons of gear. I imagine some areas going up the North Fork would be harder then others. Last week a guy was dragging a huge sled up. It seemed to be working

There was water flowing out of LBSL, and you could see water flowing if you looked down through the small gaps that existed in some places. At the first Carillon Creek crossing, it was 4-5 feet down to a "trickle" flow. From there up, the creek was completely covered as far up the drainage as I could see.

The only problem that I had with "sinking" into the snow was when I lost my balance at one point, and caught it by stabbing my left snowshoe vertically into the snow. It went down about two feet and I ended up looking like a "sugar donut" when I got up. As Kashcraft said in another post, the snowshoes were never any deeped than 6-8 inches. As Spring starts to warm up the snow, there are plenty of instances when you'll take a step and disappear up to your chest. The snow bridges are usually pretty easy to see (or you'll hear the stream rushing by underneath the snow).

I'm not a fan of sleds on Whitney above the Portal, especially on the North Fork. The terrain is steep in too many places, and even where it isn't steep, I think the sloping terrain drags the sled away from you. I've seen other people using them up higher, so they must think that it's worth it. My opinion is that if it's too difficult to head up with a single load, I'll treat it as an expedition and carry multiple loads up with a pack.

Richard is right about the sled. In the winter the trail is covered and often you are either walking straight up (which is steep) or you are trying to walk horizontally across a slope that can easily have a 30-45 degree slope. Other times you walk diagnally across a slope.

None of these lend themselves to dragging a sled easily, because you can't control the slide from side to side.

Having said that we saw a huge sled being dragged up to the portal. It seemed to be no problem on the road, but I now that I have thought about it, I wonder what happened when he tried to take that up past the portal where the ground would not be level. He was heading up the regular trail.

When I was coming down from LBSL, I saw a big hole up-slope from the first Carillon Creek crossing. Apparently, they tried to follow my zigzap path up, rather than traversing into the drainage (Friday afternoon, I wanted to get a look at the drainage from up high. I "X'ed" off that path, but they must not have noticed.) There were also tracks heading around on the Main Trail. Whoever it was, I don't think that they had snowshoes on, based on the tracks that I saw.

That was probably me. I tried to follow up your zig zag path just past the first crossing Saturday morning (where I did fall through about 4' but the water wasn't deep so no harm). My snow shoes weren't good enough and my sled was too heavy to go straight up (also saw some climbers go to the left of the zig zag) so I made fresh tracks up the main trail to the MR fork pretty easily. I'm a newbie at the snow hiking... lessons learned. IMHO, there is no way you could get past the trailhead without snow snows on MLK weekend. I just <a href="http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=002714"> posted here</a>. I'm planning on going back (not solo this time) and summiting in early March. Thanks for blazing a trail!
-M

Haha, I could've sworn I saw a small dot moving up the drainage near LBSL Saturday morning when I was walking up the road to the portal! When I get home from work, I'll check the full res shot of <a href="http://file.internetonastick.net/mlk2005/mlk2005-Pages/Image5.html"> this picture</a>. I made the portal in just under 3 hours but was pretty tired. Its also nice to know who wrote in the snow on the switch back; entertainment on a lonely hike. I also used your cue to put on snow shoes from the "hole" you left the day before. I can't belive didn't pass you on your way down. I think I saw someone in the parking lot while I was snacking on the main trail, it must have been you, you have a picture of my <a href="http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/gallery/358930/6/14266739">Qx4 here</a>. Thanks for the great pictures and for laying the tracks I followed all the way up to the lake!

Speaking of sleds, I've experienced a bit of the opposite problem in the past. When I do a Winter/Spring climb I carry a roll-up sled for the descent (my knees are not strong enough for a ski-descent). Once on Humphreys Peak the guy I climbed with brought a 5-foot torpedo sled for his descent. Humphreys not being a very big climb, there wasn't much gear aside from his snowshoes to weight his sled down; so in addition to getting tangled in tree branches below treeline, the sled tended to become a rather unstable kite in the high winds above treeline. After being clubbed in the head by the sled more than once, my partner finally wound up packing snow into the thing to weight it down--and of course had to drag the extra weight of the snow all the way up the ridge with him! Slowed him down just enough that I could keep him in sight.

Oh, by the way did I mention that he was also climbing in pajamas? I just love the mountains....