Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mountaineer's Route Trip Report 7/23

I summitted Whitney by the Mountaineer's route yesterday.

The snow in the chute has not been refreezing at night lately, hence there is 6-18 inches of soft snow over a harder base. This is true almost everywhere, except near large exposed rocks, where it can form bullet-proof ice and is making some moats. This was especially true in the final gully to the summit.

I carried an ice ax and crampons, which I was glad to have. I was still wary of the highest-angled section of the lower chute. On the way up, I avoided it by traversing climber's right to class 3 or 4 rock. On the way down I avoided the steep section and a mountain of loose rock beside the snow by moving descender's right of a large tower onto a ramp of reddish rock that later turned into a gully and some blocky, but generally unexposed class 4.

After reaching the notch, I took the first gully to climber's left. It required a rather bouldery, scary move to get from the snow onto the rock because there's a bit of a moat, and the rock in the gully is wet from snow melt. The final gully was straightforward class 3 until the last half, where currently there's a choice between difficult-looking, exposed climbing on either side of the chute or a steep snow slope (perhaps 50 degrees?). I took the snow slope. It was fine on the way up, but scary on the descent because of the exposure. Luckily the snow was again quite soft, but I wasn't about to find out how far I'd slide on it.

It would be a whole different route if temperatures got below freezing for a while. I would be reluctant to climb it in those conditions without a belay, given the amount of snow on the route still.

Pictures:

The route I took as best I recall. Ascent in red, descent in blue.

<img src='http://pages.pomona.edu/~anm02002/whitneyMR/images/mr0041.jpeg.jpg' border='0' width=800>
About halfway up the chute.

<img src='http://pages.pomona.edu/~anm02002/whitneyMR/images/mr0046.jpeg.jpg' border='0' width=800>

<img src='http://pages.pomona.edu/~anm02002/whitneyMR/images/mr0048.jpeg.jpg' border='0' width=800>

<img src='http://pages.pomona.edu/~anm02002/whitneyMR/images/mr0049.jpeg.jpg' border='0' width=800>
Views of the final gully to the summit. Note the ice near the rocks in the first picture.

Thanks for the update and great pics. Very clear. We have a date with MR at the end of August.

Andrew,

Congrats & thanks for the TR and great photos. I couldn't tell from your photos whether the upper chute (above the notch) has a lot of boot tracks in the final snow slope or not? Or are folks heading left and mostly sending the rocks?

Also, it's amazing to see Iceberg Lake still has a bunch of surface ice.

Cheers,
RG

graham,
I did not see any boot tracks on the snow in the final gully. But I only saw one pair, I think, in the lower chute and I know for a fact that people had summitted Friday, so they may be melting quickly.

It would be possible to cross over to the climber's right side of the chute (as many have done in the past, from what I gather) about halfway up and (mostly?) avoid the snow. However I recall that it involved some moves on wet rock that made me reluctant, and the climbing still looked a bit steep (but easier than the climbing on the left). Hence, for me the snow was the most attractive option, but I probably would have moved right if the rock on the traverse hadn't been wet.

-Andrew