Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Anyone hiking HST this summer (2009)

Believe it or not there is a summit log on Shell peak behind Weaver. I went up last summer and happened upon the log. Take your bug spray the mossies were hideous around the lake when I went. There is a geocache up there I wanted to find.
Got the email Thanks!

I hiked the HST last July (2008) for the first time. It was very fun and challenging. My friend and I are big guys with moderate backpacking experience. We did it in 5 days. A lot of groups we met on the trail were doing the same hike in 8 days. I think 8 days would be a good time frame. The only mistake we made was making the push to Hamilton Lake the first day. We learned a lot about long backpacking trips in the sierra's, so much so that we are starting the JMT on July 27, 2009. Plan it out and have a great time.

That is a hard hike for sure, talk about a major roller coaster of a trail.

I went from Hamilton lake back to Crescent Meadows in one day on a 3 day trip and that was bad enough, the other way would just be brutal.

I'd rather see the Kaweah Gap viewed from just outside Bear Paw in the best lighting of the day also, other then being on Whitney it was the highlight of the trip IMO.

Hiya, Sherpa!

Ah, the HST bug: it bit me really hard in 2006 after I climbed Whitney for the first time, and I read Kurt Schenk's trip report. I HAD to get out there. In doing so, I planned and executed a trip that changed my life (ie: I moved to Bishop!).

I was still a novice backpacker when I undertook the challenge of the HST, but I did a lot of prep work for it. I think the major difference between the training packs and my big trek was time frame: the longest I did before that were 2-nighters and my trip was 12 (supposed to be 13) days. So even with the prep work, the load of the pack and getting into a routine of doing it day after day was very different than the other trips.

Alan was telling me the story of the woman who did the JMT as her first backpack: she did a lot of reading up on the trail, and some training before jumping into it. Also, the JMT is much more highly populated than the HST, so if she got into trouble, someone would be along in a few minutes. With the HST, you are "going deep", so there are fewer options in terms of an easy out. But I think if you prepare yourself for some hard work, it's easily doable.

The HST is a magnificent trail: the views are first-rate all the way and there are no bad spots. Even the burn zone on the Chagoopa Plateau is carpeted with new growth of pines (they almost looked like ferns). I'd like to do it again someday, maybe from the west to east (I did it in reverse as part of a loop). Standing on top of Valhalla and looking at Precipice Lake was perhaps my favorite moment, but there are so many...

Enjoy, and good luck. Let me know if you have any questions. My original TR is here.

-Laura

i hiked from Crescent Mdws-----Precipice lake on the 1st day when i did it in july 2007. its only about a 1/4 mile to the Gap from there.

we took our time the rest of the time. i think it was 7 nights all together, then stayed another night at the portal.

THE HOT TUB WAS DEFINITELY ONE OF THE BEST PARTS ABOUT THE TRIP.
and the people i met there.....

I was fishing, a couple feet away from the Tub, and i hear a dude across the river yelling at me. (My brother and i hadnt seen a single soul since 2 days before on Kaweah Gap.) I walk over to him and he asks if i caught anything... i say "a couple nice little rainbows", and he pulls out his stringer.....
it had four 14" rainbows and a 10" Golden... this guy looked like Jim Varney (Ernest goes to camp)

his friend comes out from behind a tree. he looks like a 80 year old Jerry Garcia. they said theyve been building trails up and down the Kern for 30 years, and that season, since it was a shitty snow year, they havent seen a car since May. I guess there is a dozen guys, with half a dozen mules that stay in the canyon from may to october....2 of the guys hike out to Johnsondale every 2 weeks for supplies...




watch out for rattlesnakes in the Kern Canyon. I almost stepped on one at the new bridge crossing.

i meet a guy doing the JMT at Wallace creek. he was from Massachusetts, never backpacked before in his life, and made it 200 miles to Wallace Creek!!!! he looked like a harry and homeless Harry Potter and his backpack was all lopsided as he dragged his feet up the dusty trail, but he made it. he seems as long as you have the mindset, you can do it.

after all, backpacking is only walking.....at a high altitude, carrying all your food in a 50 lb sack for the next week and fending off bears.....

I also found this website: http://theschenks.net/main.php?area=hike&trip=20

a great help. My group did it in 5 days in 2007.
http://www.arizonahikers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6743&highlight=high+sierra+trail

For some pretty experienced guys it was manageable in that time. 7 days would be even better. I would definitely plan for a camp near the hot springs next time. That was one of my favorite trips yet though.

-TIM-

It's funny how everyone raves about the hot springs and yet I didn't even touch the warm water or even take a picture of that area for some reason.

And we stopped and built camp about 50 yards from an established camp site, it pays to scout!

Aren't there enough campsites out there already? Don't really see the need to break ground on another one.

We didn't know there were any, we just passed the springs a bit and said well this spot looks good enough then after tents were up and a fire was going I went up the trail to find an established camp site.

We made the same mistake while climbing the Kaweah Gap, it was going to be completely dark in about 20 minutes so we just bailed off onto a snow field to camp on which was one of the worst nights I have had in the back country I might add! and then come to find out the next day Precipice Lake was about 100 yards up hill from us with flat places to camp off the snow.

The snow I was on was out of level and i'm sure many of you may have learned the problems with sliding in tents with delicate floor fabric while your in a down bag, well I also had a thermarest pad that was also made of a slick material and the combination was hell! the slightest movement would slide you off the pad and down has no warmth at all when you press yourself against a freezing surface, so I had to fight to stay in the middle of my tent all night while also fighting the pad and cold.

Lesson learned!

I along with 5-6 others are planning it for around Labor Day holiday. something like starting on august 31st and taking 9 days(1 rest day) to do it. the others are all california residents whereas I'm in SC so i've got some extra logistics to get squared away

we're hoping we can find another group to do a keyswap but otherwise we do have some ideas floating around on how to tackle the logistics.

4x4: We're also doing the trail starting labor day weekend. We however, are leaving from and returning to Crescent Meadow (round trip). Maybe we'll see you on the trail.

Our "Big" 2009 hike is supposed to be the HST and out the Whitney Portal in 48 hours.

Two cans of frosting this year!........................DUG