Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board East face

Has anyone been up the east face of Whitney this year? Also, does anyone have a rough estimate of the time it took them on this route? Thanks for any info.

Supertopo has a book available that describes this climb in detail. I would recommend checking it out for times, approach, etc.

hereandthere - We did it in the beginning of July, last year. We left Whitney portal at 3:30am, got to the base of the climb at 7:30. Started up the route by 8am. Topped out at around 1. Had lunch and started down at 2pm. Arrived back at the portal at 6:00pm and we were bummed that they stop serving french fries at 5:30 at the Portal Store.
Conditions were dry, so add more time because of the snow.
We are doing the East Butt of Whitney on June 5th. When are you looking at doing the East Face?

Thanks for the info. That sounds alot faster than other accounts I've heard. I think we are going to actually climb on the 6th, but we will probably head up to BS Lake Sunday night and try to start well before sunrise. We might end up a 3-man team. Have a great time!

Here is another mini <a href="http://www.summitpost.org/mountains/trip_report.pl?trip_report_id=258&mountain_id=45">trip report</a> on a one-day ascent of the East Face, car-to-car, again with dry conditions.

I'm hoping to climb the East Face on about June 24, 2005. Would appreciate any info on current or expected route conditions? Snow? Ice?

And I am climbing the East Buttress July 7. Any info on that route's conditions as well as the Mountaineer's Route for the descent would be REALLY appreciated!!!

I just got back from Whitney this weekend. We had planned on doing the East Face, but there was snow covering the upper part of the Washboard and there was a lot of snow right at the "alcove". We decided to go the mountaineers route (as did another team). I did hear that one party did attempt the East Face this weekend, but I never saw them so I can't say if they were able to get past the snow problems.

But the snow was VERY soft in the afternoon and I could see the snow melting off the route easily in a few weeks.

johnhl94563, thanks for the valuable input. I see that Bishop is in the 90s this week so I'm planning to go and hoping for the best. Sorry that you missed the face climb. Exceptionally snowy year.