Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Main Trail 5.19-20.07

5 of us, Bruno, Chrissy, Adam, Doug and myself went up the main trail this past weekend. We stayed at Trail Camp Saturday night and hiked to the summit on Sunday morning. This was Bruno, Chrissy and Adam's first Whitney summit (Doug stayed at Trail Camp because of a previous injury. He guarded our gear from the ferocious marmots). The weather throughout the weekend was about as good as it gets. Even the summit was warm with just a slight breeze. The pictures shows the conditions we encountered on the trail.

A few comments I wanted to add:

- Crampons and Ice axe were absolutely needed going up the snow chute in the morning. Even though it didn't get below freezing during the night at Trail Camp, the snow was very firm. A slip would of required self-arrest with a ice axe.

- The cable section on the switchbacks still have a considerable amount of snow on them and crampons/axe will be needed.

- I glissaded down the chute on my way down and even though the snow was soft, I still needed to use a good amount of force with my ice axe to slow down a few times.

Great pics, as always, buddie! Makes me wish even more that I could have come along! I'm kinda hoping now that the snow slope hangs on until I get back there on the 9th!

-Laura

Great pictures, Giga M. It was nice bumping into you guys at Outpost. Congratulations to the first-timers on their summit. Are those pink trekking poles that Bruno and Chrissy are using? Not that there's anything wrong with that...

GM - You really should submit the photo you titled "The Moon and a Star" to spaceweather.com. Click on the "Submit Your Photos!" button at the top of the home page and fill in the blanks as appropriate. If I recall correctly, I believe the "star" in your picture is Venus. During the time period in which you took your picture, spaceweather.com had an article (with another picture) concerning the fact that the moon and Venus were going to be less than 1 degree apart. The fact that you got a great picture of them in a dark sky with the Whitney Ridge as a cameo backdrop is incredible, and IMHO, it would be well worth taking the time to submit your picture to them. If it's good enough (and I personally think it is), sometimes they will re-feature an astronomical event a few days after the fact in order to display such a picture of it on their web site.

CaT

CaT- I was wondering why there wasn't any other stars out when I took that picture, so that makes sense it is probably Venus. I will go ahead and submit the picture to spaceweather.com and see what happens. Thanks!

Dave- I'll let Bruno answer that question

I can live with pink trekking poles, but pink trekking poles without Trek Talonz? What is the world coming to?

Wal*Mart rules when it comes to stocking up! In addition to the "Pink Poles" that sell for $9.87/each, they carry Mountain House food. And the Super Wal*Marts have all the snacks you'd ever want, or need. (I do keep getting advice from other hikers/climbers to go for some Leki poles, since I'm probably on my sixth, or seventh, pair of the W*M Specials. I doubt I'd get a pair of Lekis to last much longer, but at least I could send them back for a replacement set because of the lifetime guarantee. (Something I'll have to inquire about the next time I'm in Wal*Mart. Maybe they have a guarantee also.))

Congrats Bruno and Chrissy! I could have been there also, but decided to sleep in down low and headed home early Sunday.

I haven't looked at the photos yet, but was tempted to get my butt out of the car on Saturday night for some photos of the moon/star combo. It was a gorgeous sight!

I guess I fall into the category of people who never read the fine print... Now, if I could only dig all those poles out of the trash!

Shhhh... don't tell anyone, but Richard has a pink sleeping bag, too... With a Disney princess on it, I think...

Congrats guys, esp. Bruno & girlfriend for their 1st Whitney summit! Bruno, wasn't it you whom I ran into at the self register kiosk that night back in October last year?

Thanks for sharing the photos Mike.

Wasn't it you and your friend who turned around at the Cables because you didn't bring crampons, Oct 6th, I think? I was above you at that point (solo) and there was one other guy named Phil who ended up catching up to me.

Bruno, I messed the date up. October was my 1st time on Whitney. When I saw the 2 guys turn around at the cables it was November. I guess that still wasn't you. IDK why I am thinking it was you. Oh well.

Sad to see those tents at the lower right corner of
http://www.digitalalpine.com/Albums/Whitney5.19.07/main/cimg2482.htm so close to the water, especially with the toilets gone

thank you for your nice photos.i can't get up there for a while(new job)so it's nice to see the MMWT this time of year.I'm not a superstar of the Whitney Portal Store Message Board but i do check in once in a while to see recent photos & these were great brought me back, but TT's Mt.Sill pic's where amazeing.AD

Also, it's obvious, some people still don't pay attention to what they are advised on before entering the "wilderness." There are quite a few tents that are nowhere near 100' away from the water.

Hi, my friend and I ran into your group on the summit, after coming up the Mountaineer's Route. Here's the panorama I took. Cheers,

Ben