Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board MR dayhike trip report from MR newbie, 1July07

MR dayhike trip report + findings and recommendations from an MR newbie, 1July07
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Three of us headed up the MR on 1july2007 for a long dayhike. We were all MR first timers, but some of us had gone up the MT and we have done a lot of research, especially on Doug's message board. Since we were going blind but with notes from others i'll comment on what was helpful and what i would do differently. Our planned route was up the North Fork(NF) to the Mountaineer's Route(MR) and down via the Main Trail(MT). For readers in future years please remember that 2007 was an almost record non-snow year. 40%-50% of average. Our hike with our gear would not be possible in a normal year in July. Current California Snow water content:
http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/current/PLOT_SWC

Instead of sleeping at the portal we decided to crash in town to get the extra sleep vs the altitude acclimation. Due to Police concerts and classes i haven't been at altitude for over a month, although my friends have been hanging out at 10k-12k for the past few weekends. Anyways, we started hiking at 4am (5:37am sunrise, 5:07am civil tiwlight)because of some advice we got- it's better to hit the ledges in the light and risk coming down the MT at night rather than vice versa. That was perfect timing and we started upthe ledges at 5am. The NF turnoff was easy to find, a little sign on the right hand side of the trail about 30min up from the portal, just before the small North Fork Lone Pine Creek crossing. We used the Navy's observatory website to calculate sun/moon data:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.html

Getting to the ledges was very easy, there's more or less a trail that takes you to the 'tree'. There are a few forks in the foot path(es) but generally if you take the most worn path it'll steer you the right way. Under advice we didn't try to get to the ledges until we got to the tree, then it was a piece of cake. Judging by all the threads we expected it to be a very scary place, but we found the ledges to be not very bad at all. There is only small section of really exposed area, maybe 10 ft or so. The rest of the route through the Ebersbacher Ledges has plenty of safety space, and going through the trees is 100% safe. Someone was kind enough to put branches in and along the 'path' to indicate the u-turn. Steve C's posting with Chris's picture was a fabulous help, you can see THE tree toward the beginning of the line at the first bend:
http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=35980#Post35980

From the ledges to Lower Boy Scout Lake (LBSL) going was easy, there's a rudimentary trail that leads the way. We had breakfast at LBSL and took some pictures of the lake. Continuing on we took the slab route to Upper Boy Scout Lake (UBSL) using Steve C's directions:
http://stevec.smugmug.com/gallery/692661/2/30115931
http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=36570#Post36570

After the slabs the trail kinda comes and goes but there are a number of cairns to help guide you. We dinked around UBSL for a little bit and waved to the first people we saw today before starting up to Iceberg lake. This is the portion of the trail we didn't do too much research on, and following the footsteps we found ourselves at the base of the waterfall route to Iceberg lake. It wasn't bad but there is some exposure which caught us by surprise. We didn't know about the other sand field way but i think i might have opted for that route instead.

We took a break at Iceberg lake and filtered water via the BobR method- it's fast, works great, and tastes even better. Looking up at the MR from Iceberg we were a little scared, it's steep and really close to the edge! I eyeballed a route line up to the notch, a little to the left of the main chute is a little chute we would take up. In this chutette there is a lot of scrambling but lots of handholds with fair amounts of loose rock. If were to do it again i would have opted for Bob R's route:
http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=34461#Post34461
But there are lot of ways up, none of them wrong. Don't worry about getting off course, to the east face route, etc. It's quite obvious. Here's sbSlowpoke's noodle pic of the MR:
http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=37200#Post37200
Once you're established going up the MR it's not bad. There's no instantly fatal exposure, what you need to worry about is all the loose rock. We had helmets but we didn't knock down much small stuff. Of course my buddy did knock loose a couple hundred pound boulder that tumbled down within 10ft of me, he was probably 20ft above me so it got going nice and fast. Wow! That increased my heart rate, as well as a climber heading down about 500ft below us as the boulder started other rocks going too. Lots of dust and noise. Good thing nobody was hurt. But the helmet helped me in a way i didn't expect- head bonks. I'm glad i brought my helmet. More than once i lifted my head up only to encounter something very hard and rocklike. That would have seriously hurt/bleed if i had not been helmeted. It's a matter of personal preference but i would recommend a helmet. So anyways halfway up the MR i ran out of juice and felt the altitude kick in. A splitting headache just got in the way of sucking wind and it took us 2 hours to reach the notch from iceberg. Note that the final walk to the notch isn't an easy walk, there's still some decent scrambing to do- we saw Bob R's pics and thought the last part to the notch was easy! (yes, the camera is tilted)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockwellb/547754784/in/set-72157600355688571

From the notch we debated which route to the summit to take. The first chute looked nice and firm/not loose, but it had exposure and was all wet from the melting remnants of snow. The start of chute 1 also gave us some issues. The walkoff method was really far out there distance-wise, the exposure didn't seem too bad but we couldn't see the other sides of the ribs, Bob R has some good pics:
http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=37186#Post37186
As we debated the routes we saw a climber come down notch 2/3 and asked him about the route. He took the 1st up and came down 2 and 3- we decided to do #2 & #3 combo, kinda going between them. To be honest it was a pain. There was loose rock and the occasional loose boulder, and it had it's own exposure issues too. To do it again i'd do #1. I'm not sure where chute #1 drops you off but 2/3 is about a hundred yards or so to the west to the hut. The top of the chute surprised us, one minute you're climbing then the next you're suddenly on top! With the curve of the summit plateau we couldn't see the hut from where chute 2/3 dropped us off.

We hung out at the summit and took photos, i passed out patches from patchpeak.com to my friends who haven't been to the summit before. We had lunch and then participant #2 started getting the nasty headaches. That's the way it goes up here.

We opted for the main trail for the decent so our euro friend could see more of the area, especially the famous MT. And once on the summit we were sure glad we made that choice, we were wiped out and going down the MR in our state would have been suboptimal at best. I'm not going to comment too much on the main trail, but here are some quick tidbits:
1) trail is wide open, no snow walking required (july 2007).
2) the spring/stream on the switchbacks is flowing nicely. There's a hint of sediment flavor with the Bob method of filtering.
3) It's long. Pounding your feet down to the bottom/portal hurts.
4) ipod hikers. You don't see them on the MR. Heck, you don't see many hikers on the MR at all.
5) Trail camp didn't seem nasty or dirty, but were were just walking through.
6) going down is ok on autopilot
7) decending sunday afternoon we didn't see many hikers on the MT at all. Since the permits sold out for the day i'm assuming most went down before we got to the top.


Other observations and notes:
1) the North Fork/Mountaineers Route is beautiful, much better than the main trail. An added bonus+ is that fact there are very few people on the trail. We passed 4 hikers going down, and were passed by 1 climber going to whitney, 1 climber coming down from whitney, and 2 climbers doing russell. For the entire way up!
2) MR is not a hike anyone can do because they woke up and had a grand idea. It's hard.
3) the MR isn't that bad. Just prepare and be comfortable with heights. Search out all the posts on this board too. Be in reasonable shape.
4) I carried to much stuff. Too much water which i could've gotten along the way. I could've downgraded from the SLR camera+lenses too. My first aid kit + jacket i'd still take along, i've been caught in freak afternoon thunderstorms before, on whitney too.
5) I'd recommend doing the MT before the MR for most regular folks. Hard core climbers excempt.
6) our start time was perfect, 1 hr before civil twilight.
7) going down the MR is going to be harder than going up. You'll be tired and downclimbing can be more technical than going up.
8) I'm not sure how one would use ropes on the MR. I suppose you could cam all the cracks but you'll be moving so fast upward that'll be a major pain. And just two people roped togeather will ensure two people fall instead of just one. I wouldn't recommend it in non-winter conditions. Just my 2 cents from a non-rock-climber.
9) helmets on the MR aren't mandatory but i would recommend them. There's lots of loose stuff. They won't help with boulders though.
10) everyone gets and manages altitude differently.
11) a ranger rumoured that a person fell off the ledges on saturday, 30june2007. I did see a lot of SAR folks in the parking lot while having a pretrip brewski at the portal.
12) a guy at outpost was having some health issues. A ranger with a dog was there as were a bunch of other people crowding/gawking around. A helicopter came buzzing around an hour later and possibly picked him up.
13) yesterday i told myself i did it and i'm done. But now i'm thinking i want to go back to do it right! Doh! The lure of the mountains!
14) The rough range of times to summit via the MR is 5hrs-10hrs for a dayhike.
15) MR overnighters go down the same way, it seems dayhikers are 50/50 on the MT return.
16) MR overnighters pick Iceberg or UBSL to camp, this also seems like 50/50 choice. Iceberg since it's closer to the summit and you'd be fresh for a early morning start, UBSL so you don't have to carry your stuff as far and high.
17) Printing out some of the pictures to take along will be helpful. We just started at them forever so they burned impressions in our brains.
18) Just to be complete here's the link to the FS's permit availability page. The ranger at the permit office was talking of potential future restrictions on north fork permits.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/inyo/recreation/wild/whitneyavail.shtml

I was hoping to bump into stallspeed and Bob R, they were on the trail at the sametime. Hopefully next time!

-lance

Hi Lance -
great trip report and congradulations on summiting a great route.
looks like we missed you by one day - we opted for a Saturday summit. weather was perfect for the weekend. glad to hear the fellow who fell at the ledges was not hurt more seriously. hope to see you pictures posted soon

Whitney pictures 6-30-2007

Lance-great trip report. We love the MR and have done it many times in all seasons-and each time we find some new route or feature that amazes us. Take my advice and return down the MR the next time you go up-it is no big deal in the dark if you happen to get caught out late. Sorry we missed you-we started up the trail at 2:50am Sunday so we were about an hour ahead of you. We did run into Bob R. on the trail-he was heading up to Thor. I'd post pics but as you know we lost our camera. We will head up again next week-end to look for it!! Any excuse:) Congratulations to you on your summit.
Barb

I certainly enjoyed reading you post, especially since I did the same thing on 6-27. I -like you- departed the parking lot at 4:15 so that I would arrive at the ledges when it was light. I would never mess with those ledges in the darkness. I met up with the only other hiker about halfway up and we blazed up the gully in about an hour and a half -sucking wind- and did the top portion in under an hour. What a joyous feeling to see that hut so close. We departed the normal route -never ending near the end with sore feet. I crawled into the back of my jeep in the parking lot for a few hours then back to Reno I was. I think that it would be awful to start restricting the MR. Hopefully they will leave it (us) alone so that we can enjoy it as we do.

Well done.....

Lance,

Sorry I missed you Sunday. I woke up way too late and departed the portal at 5:30am. The journey to Lower Boy Scout Lake was pretty uneventful. But that's where the routine definitely ended!

Like you said, there are many trails to get there and I definitely took some longer ones. I must have been in a temporal pocket where very few hikers were going up because I only saw one speed past me before the E-ledges and did not see any others until UBSL. For the most part I was navigating on my own.

I actually took a trail that could have bypassed Upper Boy Scout Lake, just south by the Talus field of Clyde Meadow, but decided to head for UBSL anyway to tank up on water and get a bite to eat. So that wasted about an hour to reroute to the lake. It was also frustrating to see that you had to go back south from UBSL in order to get to Iceberg Lake and not just through it. I think next time, I will just bypass UBSL altogether.

By the time I reached Iceberg Lake it was about 11:30am and the sun was beating down on me with all its power. I had a slight headache as well but felt as if I could still continue. I rested for about 20 minutes. While resting I looked up and was actually itimidated by the steep altitude that lay before me! I also saw a suitcase sized piece of ice crumble and fall about 200 ft from the small patch of ice below the notch. Luckily no one was hit by it below.

I did see one other solo hiker coming down and asked him how it went. He said that there was a lot of loose rock to deal with. I then continued about 400 ft above Iceberg Lake, when the altitude started to affect me. That, coupled with the intense heat and the fact that I did not bring a helmet, made me decide that is would be smarter to just head back. In retrospect, it was the right thing to do as I estimated it would probably be around 2:00pm before I reached the summit.

From experience on the MT, I always felt that you need to set a definite go/no go time to get back before dark. Mine was 1:00 pm, so it was going to be well past that. Even though I felt disappointed, I knew I made the right decision and that the mountain was going to be there again.

The trip back down was just as brutal, although this time I found the reverse trail from UBSL to LBSL. Cutting through the huge granite slabs was interesting, but you could actually lose the trail several times if you aren't alert. I tanked up on water at LBSL one last time before the final push to the portal.

Once I crossed the E-Ledges, I knew I was home free and arrived back at the trailhead at 5:00pm. Total time was about 11 1/2 hours.

The whole trip was filled with lessons I will definitely learn from, despite the fact that I did not summit. Among them are:

1. Pack less food and not so much clothing as well. The MR day hike is designed for speed and if you plan better, you will not have to worry about spending the night.

2. I think 4am would have been the perfect time to depart as I would have probably arrived at Iceberg Lake around 9:30am, which would still be cool enough to prevent overheating on the summit climb. My biggest reason for leaving a little later was to make sure routefinding was not going to be an issue. The trail to LBSL ended up being very easy to follow.

3. Bring a helmet. Although, it won't protect against boulders, it will cover just about everything else!

Like you, I feel like I could do this route again, and soon. Perhaps in August or September when all the ice is definitely gone, I will make another attempt. I took me two tries to summit the MT, so I am not too disappointed. This is without a doubt the toughest and roughest hike I have ever done to date.

Thanks for the excellent trip report and maybe next time we'll run into each other.

Cheers,

Ed

Hi Ed,

That suitcase piece of ice that fell- that's the boulder we accidentally knocked down. The one that almost squished me! I can still see it rolling by me. That's the one 'downside' with having people to hike with, there's people to knock stuff onto you:) There's no ice at the notch btw, it's completely clear.

What did you think of going down the MR? Just wondering what a fellow first timer thinks of it.

Congrats on your good decision making. Not everyone has what it takes to face the facts and turn around. Good luck next time!

p.s. C&C Outdoors has good prices on helmets and other gear. Thier standard prices are better than REI/A16 and they have 5-10% discounts depending on the month. Low shipping and no taxes.
http://www.ccoutdoorstore.com

-lance

Lance,

I'm glad that huge boulder didn't hit you. It was definitely a disconcerting sound to say the least. For a split second I actually thought someone had fallen off!

BTW the same person who passed me by on the way up at the E-ledges, passed me by again on the way down by UBSL--after summiting via the East Face route! All he had was a small pack and a helmet...no sticks. He was hauling the mail all the way up and down! When I asked him if he brought rope to do the East Face, he wiggled both his hands and said, "I just free climbed the whole route!" I was definitely impressed, but then again, he's probably done this route many times during different seasons that it has become second nature already. Still, it was impressive.

The way down wasn't too bad, but then again I didn't get to come down from the summit. I would imagine descending the Class 3 would keep your heart racing and keep you constantly in a state of alertness. Good decision on coming back on the MT. I probably would have done the same, this being my first time on the MR. Other than that, once you are below the notch, things get relatively "less stressful" from then on.

Thanks for the helmet tip. This will be standard equipment from now on.

-Ed

Congratulations Lance, Ed, and others on your recent MR ascents. Thanks for the nice trip report too. You make a lot of nice suggestions and observations that'll help lots of people looking for info. I want to respectfully disagree with you on a couple points though. Please understand I'm not trying to belittle your accomplishment. I am just aware that "MR newbies" like you call yourself sometimes don't know how much they don't know. Since these involve safety issues I think it important to call these to people's attention.


6) going down is ok on autopilot

80% of mountaineering accidents happen on the descent. A lot of these occurances happen because of this attitude. You've made the summit and all you have to do now is head down to the parking lot (and get burgers from Doug and Doug of course!). The summit is half way and not the end of your climb. I realize you're referring to descending the Main Trail in your comment but the principal still applies. I've seen too many people twist an ankle or get injured in some other way on the Main Trail because of this attitude. Treat the descent as important as the ascent and don't let down your guard until you're completely finished from your climb.



8) I'm not sure how one would use ropes on the MR. I suppose you could cam all the cracks but you'll be moving so fast upward that'll be a major pain. And just two people roped togeather will ensure two people fall instead of just one. I wouldn't recommend it in non-winter conditions. Just my 2 cents from a non-rock-climber.

You can bring a rope and still use it without bringing cams or any other gear. There are many natural features that make great protection if you know how to use them. If you use the terrain correctly it won't lead to two people falling instead of one. Altitude can have different effects on people and one of those is getting slightly dizzy and light headed. The signs are subtle and people have been known to hide these symptoms from their partners. A rope might not be needed for everyone but I also would hesitate to recommend against bringing one as a blanket statement.


9) helmets on the MR aren't mandatory but i would recommend them. There's lots of loose stuff. They won't help with boulders though.

Anybody not wearing a helmet in the MR chute is playing a dangerous game of chance. Your point you make above about how it wouldn't help from a huge boulder but helps protect the head is right on. If you have to move to avoid falling rock you are setting yourself up to fall and hit your head. Another reason to wear a helmet is the route above. Directly above the MR is the East Buttress route. It's a great rock climb but if there are climbers above you they have the potential to dislodge something that would be headed at high speed towards MR climbers.

Start times at the Portal: I understand why you started when you did because you wanted to have daylight for the Ebersbacher Ledges. This start time also gets you underneath the East Buttress route right when rock climbers might be on it. I try to get in to the MR much earlier for that reason alone. The stories even back 40 years ago of rock fall incidents between the East Buttress and MR are still told today (although many of these guys are not on the internet all that often).

And, one lesson I think you learned that's worth pointing out...

Your rock fall incident: When you climb with partners you need to be constantly aware of where each partner is. Letting a partner get 20 feet directly above you is not a very safe way to climb. Stick together, communicate, and make decisions on where you are going as a team. Getting below other climbers on loose terrain can be a recipe for disaster and has contributed to accidents over the years.

Again, congratulations on your ascents. Like you say this mountaineering stuff can get addicting. I wish you many safe climbs in the future.

All the best,

Kurt

Kurt,

Thanks for the all the great advice. I will definitely take it to heart. I always welcome any constructive feedback, especially from an experienced person such as yourself when it pertains to safety and mitigating risk.

The rock slide incident had the potential to turn real ugly. Fortunately it didn't and we can all learn from it.

Travel safe,

Ed

Hi Kurt,

Thanks for the advice. I have to agree with you, at first glance many things seem straightforward to a newcomer but can be wrong. There's definitely a lot i need to learn, backpacking isn't mountaineering and i don't want to end like so many others just being ignorant in the outdoors. Like I was spouting off in that other thread it's time for me to take some courses.

-lance

Hi Guys,

You're welcome. I thought others out there might enjoy some of those tips too.

I wish you guys a safe climb on your return to the MR and as always feel free to ask questions at any time.

All the best,

Kurt