Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board East Coast Whitney Rookies!

Just found the forum- and now know how I will be spending the next month or so at work...

Group of four doing about 60ish miles and ending at Mt. Whitney portal. Early July. We have our permits.

Logistics-
1. Reliable shuttle service from lone pine to start. Either pick up or drop rental car off at portal exit on "out" day. Any suggestions?

2. Decent place for arrival night. We usually favor a hostel type establishment...clean, filled with hikers, decent breakfasts at 6am. Any suggestions?

3. Any tips for a bunch of east coasters? Done all the "hills" in Vermont, NH, and ME...

Where are you starting from? That would probably determine the logistics about a shuttle, car rental etc.

You can see what some people from Mass. did last summer at Acclimatize without camping.

There is not much transportation to be offered in the area. See Using bus/train/shuttle service for what I have compiled.

As far as a reliable shuttle service, I used High Sierra Transportation last year. They picked me and a friend up at Whitney Portal and dropped us off at Cottonwood. Very friendly and reliable. Their website is:

http://www.highsierratransportation.com./

Good luck. Whitney Mike

Hello fellow East-Coasters.

One piece of advice I can reinforce from other comments made already, especially for us living on the other side of the continental divide is to allow yourselves enough time to acclimatize so you can better enjoy your trip. Depending on the conditions and when you ultimately decide to be there, you may wish to bring crampons for the upper reaches of the switchbacks.

Good luck to you.

Rob

Thanks for the info-

we are planning to use the Saw Mill pass as the access to the trail.

6 nights, 7 days on the trail to get out at the Portal...

Reasonable? Its a conservative mileage amount for what we are used to on the east coast. The goal would be to go light and ease into the trek....

Oh man! I have not been over Sawmill Pass, but that has got to be about the lowest trail head in the area, at around 5,000 ft. elevation. It will take you a day and a half to get up over the pass at over 11,000 ft. ...Not fun. And if I were doing it, I would hike a few hours starting about 8 PM or so and then make camp higher up, or else start at 4 AM to get up and out of the heat before the noon-time sun starts cooking you -- it's hot down low in the summer!

Granted, Sawmill Pass drops you into the Rae Lakes area, which is beautiful. You might consider Kearsarge pass which only climbs half the distance, and can be done easily in half a day. Since you would be that much closer to Mt. Whitney, you could camp two nights near Glenn Pass, and do a dayhike loop around the Sixty Lake / Rae Lakes area, then start south to Whitney on the third day.

Just for reference purposes: I did Onion Valley (Kearsarge Pass) to Whitney in 3 1/2 days with a night on the peak. But I had altitude issues first two nights (no appetite). For conditioning, I jog about 10 miles a week. My only acclimation was an overnight in the Onion Valley parking lot.

as a fellow east coaster but frequent Sierra-nut,
I would respectfully say, that if you have no high altitude experience, that you are not gonna do the number of miles at >10,000 feet that you are used to at 5,000. World of difference up high.

When we did Kearsarge to Whitney we took 5.5 days/5 nights, and that was after being acclimatized to 10,000 for 2 days. As others have suggested, you will likely need more than what you propose for your longer route from Sawmill.

You can read all sorts of climb/hike speeds. Some of the reports are by aerobic freaks. Other reports may only include hike hours and not eat, rest, set up camp, etc times.

From my 14 Sierra trip logbooks, I'd use the following speeds as a guide for reasonable backpacking speeds carrying a full week of supplies: 0.9 mph for uphill, 1.4 mph for downhill. That includes stops. If you think I am a slouch for recommending that speed, then no. We always do a long blast on our last day after full acclimatization. Dump the packs. Do a thirty miler. Say Tuolumne to Mammoth in 14 hrs. That's still only about 2 mph, packless.

Sorry to be curt. Just want you to have fun, not push unwilling flesh up a higher mountain than you are used to. I was a rookie once, too. Harvey

I'll just second what SteveC had to say about Sawmill Pass. Unless you are committed about starting EARLY (4am) you are going to have a heck of a time getting up and over that pass. We attempted that trail head back in June of 2006 and were turned around in an abortive attempt after 3 miles. We started too late (10:15am), it was way too hot (over 100 degrees!) and there is absolutely no shade or water for at least the first 5-6 miles. We were lucky to get back to our car without severe dehydration and heat exhaustion! That trail head starts on the Owens Valley floor around 4,600 ft. IMHO there are other easier ways to get to Rae Lakes specifically Kearsarge Pass. Good luck. I hope everything works out for your trip. Not exactly a fun way to start. Just my 2c.

Some Pictures

I appreciate all the input- we've done our research, etc...but we all know you don't know til you go!

SO- we appreciate all the insight- especially on pace...that is considerably slower then we estimate for ourselves on the east coast.

That being said- we have a permit for coming in on sawmill- can we come in on a different pass with our getting in trouble?

preciate the good lookin out!

No, after you sign your permit you have to enter the trailhead on your permit, since it is a legal contract. Don't wait until you arrive to change your plans. You can change your reservation (before you sign your permit) by calling the Wilderness Permit Office at (760) 873-2483. See if you can reserve a permit for Kearsarge Pass instead.

You still have plenty of time to change your entry point. See Steps 5c and 6 in Wilderness Permit Options.

As an East Coast person myself, I've done little Sierra hiking, but I can say that Onion Valley is great option and lovely area. I did a day hike to Kearsarge Pass back in August...wish I would have had to time to go further, but I can highly recommend that trail and campground.

ok, i am going to go against the grain but i would stick with sawmill pass for the following reasons. yes it is a slog, the first part is in the open so lots of heat and sun, but once you hit the trees it is a beautiful trail. onion valley is like driving on I-95, way too many people most days. you will have sawmill pass to yourselves, the top of the pass is awesome. i did it a few years back, early start, made it to the junction with the jmt by 3pm. if i did it again i would do a late start, say 5pm, go up to the trees and set up camp for the night. either way it is still worth it to see part of the sierra that a lot of people don't go. i also came out at whitney portal, did 5 nights total with the last night at trail camp. i was hoofing it but adding 1 more day to the trip would make it lots easier. just my 2 cents worth.

After the first few miles, the Sawmill Pass Trail is a beautiful trail. The first few miles are sandy and can be extremely warm as others have said. If it's going to be a warm day then start before dawn. Sawmill Meadow is beautiful and so is Sawmill Lake. Sawmill Lake makes a nice camping spot. If you're going in the beginning July you will have a good chance of having to deal with snow on the passes that you will be going over.

Yes, as Rhody said starting in the evening is another option - the bottom part of the trail is in the shade later in the day. It's about 4 miles and 2700 feet gain before you get down to the creek where it would be nice to camp. After that point the trail is really nice. I came out late in the day and the beginning part of the trail that was a hot sand slog (I started too late on the way up) on the way up was a pleasant jog in the shade on the way down.

Here are some pictures of the Sawmill Pass Trail on June 17/18 2006:
Sawmill Pass Trail

Wingding-
Great Pics!

Would using sawmill as a two day approach help with acclimating?

One more question...this snow on the pass stuff...what gear does this require? If we are going in early july, are crampons a must have?

3 of the 4 of us do endurance sports (marathon, biatholon, etc)...i'm the weak link, but am a grinder...so i feel like sawmill to portal will be a challenge.. and we like the fewest people possible on the trail (knowing whitney will be covered with folks).

favorite weather site?

Acclimating occurs when you spend time at significant altitude. So a two-day approach would help. The evening start, and sleeping after a few hours hiking is a great way to get used to the hiking.

You won't spend a significant amount of time above 10,000 elev. for the major part of your hike, so acclimating will progress as you hike. By the time you get to Whitney, you all should be feeling great.

As for gear, I would not pack hardware for icy conditions. If you encounter any, just wait until later in the day. Except for actual glaciers or early morning conditions in the Sierra, I have always been able to simply kick steps in the snow. It is not worth carrying several more pounds of gear.

Check the Weather Links in the Feature Topics box at the top left.

You might consider using Baxter Pass. It's halfway between Sawmill and Kearsarge and comes down into the Rae Lakes area. It's a much more pleasant hike than Sawmill due to the shade and availability of water and it's comparable in terms of sparseness of traffic. I would think you'd want to bring ice axe and crampons for the ascent of Glen Pass.

I have gone over Taboose, Shepherd, and Sawmill passes when there's been snow on the passes (between late April and the beginning of July on various years) - I didn't need any special gear except for one of the times over Shepherd - July 1, 2005, when the snow started at 10,000 ft - that time I used an axe but no crampons because the snow was soft. I did carry the axe and crampons on each trip because I wasn't sure what I'd run into. I'm pretty new to snow travel, so I'm still in the learning process myself.

Every year is different. Last year I day hiked up to Taboose Pass in late April and there wasn't much more snow than there had been the year before on July 1st. I have only been hiking in the Sierra for about 6 years, so my history doesn't go back very far - last year was the dryest and hottest of my six years - not the best of years.

Out of Taboose, Sawmill, and the Shepherd Pass Trails, Sawmill was my favorite. I haven't been over Baxter Pass yet, but I'm planning on going over it before July 1st this year when areas get closed to allow the sheep to mate.