Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Descending Meysan Lake Route from Whitney

Hi,

I am planning a trip to Whitney starting at horseshoe meadows in August. I was not able to secure a main trail exit, so I am thinking of descending from Whitney via Meysan lake. Any comments or pointers would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Last summer we summited Mt. Whitney from Meysan lake, so we have some experience with the area.

I wouldn't recommend that you make that choice......I think you are way better off to carry your backpacks up to Mt. Whitney and come down the Mountaineers Route. That would be way more straight forward then trying to exit via the Meysan Lake route.

We started in Meysan Lake and came down the Mountaineers route.....pick up the pictures starting here

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2412881600061435028pVjxGz

This picture starts just after the junction of the Mt. Whitney Trail and the John Muir trail coming up from Guitar Lake......and then subsequent pictures take you up to the top of Mt. Whitney and down the Mountaineers route.

Thanks for the information and excellent photos, a picture is worth a thousand words....I will investigate the mountaineers route.

Actually, Kent Ashcraft has spent quite a bit of time over in that area, the area between Meysan Lake and Mt. Whitney.

The difficulty in coming down Meysan Lake involves the route. From trail crest area you have two routes into Meysan Lake.

#1 Down the sand hill to upper Crabtree Lake and then climb to crabtree pass on your way to Sky Blue Lake. From there you head up toward Arcs pass and then over the Irvine Mallory pass or Mallory LeConte pass before dropping down to Meysan Lake.

#2 Make your way to Crabtree pass and then climb over the Mallory notch on you way back down to Arc's pass and the Mallory Irvine Saddle.

The first option involves at least class two climbing. The second option involves some class three climbing, harder then the staircase on the Mountaineers route. See this photo of their last trip over Mt Mallory

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2706049110061435028NWtUED

Both routes would be considerably harder and longer then coming down the Mountaineers route. I think Kent is correct, unless you want to add a few extra days onto your trip.

If you do end up coming down the Mountaineers route, make sure you do your homework. It is not totally straight forward. Pay attention to coming down the correct chute to get to the notch. And make sure you know how to get back down the Ebersbacher ledges. Although most is straight forward, it helps if you know where you are going. This shouldn't be too difficult since there are lots of pictures available of the Mountaineers route.

Some helpful pictures.

The chute down to the notch.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1225915327061435028lwotzK

The first chute, coming from the east going west, cliffs out. This is the second chute. Often people call it the staircase. You start the climb down on the left side and then cross to the right about 50 feet above the notch.

Pictures of the Mountaineers route.

http://snownymph.smugmug.com/gallery/5418641_3UgnB#P-1-15

http://snownymph.smugmug.com/gallery/3341518_6yyxd#186708095_iP2Cz

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/221318818YvtQVK


Going through the Ebersbacher ledges, which are down around 9500 feet. They are below Lower Boy Scout lake, on the north side of the canyon.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockwellb/sets/72157600322219631/

Here is a map of the trails on the Mountaineers Route and the Mt. Whitney Trail. The Mountaineers route doesn't have a real trail some of the time, but this will give you and idea where to go.

http://lwp.smugmug.com/gallery/1494143#71585795_NT47S

The exit permits are not sold out, just the ones you can reserve.

There are a couple of ways around this. As Kashkraft said, go down the MR.

Or...you can do a couple of things go out over Crabtree Pass through the Miter Basin over Cottonwood, Army or New Army Passes. The other is walk in with your reservation in hand and try to get a walk-in Trail Crest/Exit permit.

Hi,

I really appreaciate the advice and great photos.

Thanks

are you sure that you cannot get a Whitney exit permit? Have you checked into options of one day sooner or later?

Now tomcat_rc, you are not suggesting that someone game the system, are you? Wink, wink, nod, nod.

If this person exits a day later than what is on this exit permit, he would be ruining the wilderness experience of untold hundreds.

I'm pretty sure he meant checking if any permits were available a day sooner or later.

Maybe he should take the tram down.....or carry a hang glider to the summit. That would rock.

I'd rather base jump off the summit and glide to Lone Pine

Descending the Mountaineers Route and exiting via the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek is not a bad alternative. It could be a bit tricky and arduous route finding this terrain with full packs. If you can get up there for a day of reconosaince before your big trip it would be well worth it. Even if you don't summit on recon day, it would be a big relief to know the way through the Ebersbacher Ledges, the boulder field above Lower Boyscout Lake, how to bushwack over to the slabs and the steep trail from the morraine to Iceberg Lake. Last year when I was up there only a voluntary day-use permit was required and there was no quota for these permits. The rules may have changed again this year.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding "The Rules", but... isn't the MR considered within the Whitney Zone, so if you don't have a permit to ascend/descend via the Whitney trail you don't have one via the MR either?

What say you wbtravis? what's the scoop?

The Trail Crest exit permit is required if you enter the wilderness on any Inyo National Forest trail head, and then exit via the main Mt. Whitney trail. It is designed to limit the numbers of hikers using that trail. It is not required if you enter a trail in a national park or elsewhere outside Inyo N.F.

I don't think a Trail Crest exit permit would be required on the Mountaineers Route, but that might be added to the rules if lots of people go that way.

Until last year, however, people were free to climb the MR, and exit the main trail without the exit permit on a day hike; the reason being that if they got all the way to the top, they were allowed to use the trail for safety reasons. But MR day hikers now are required to have a main trail dayhike permit, so it wouldn't matter.

I think it only applies to the main trail because this is how it reads from the papers they give you at the Mt. Whitney ranger station:

"If your trip to Mt Whitney will begin on some other trail on Inyo National Forest, and you will exit the Mt Whitney Zone along the Mt Whitney trail, your exit point will be called trail crest."

The rules are stupid but they are the rules. This is the only trail in the whole of the Inyo where the forest service gives a rip when you exit...no matter what the exit date is on your permit.

The Inyo over-complicates the the MMWT to the point that many people who are very familiar with the rules and regs have problems figuring out this what does and what doesn't apply here. The exit permit is one of those complications.

If you start someplace other than Whitney Portal and cross the threshold of Trail Crest into the Inyo NF, you need a date specific Trail Crest or Exit Permit to go along with your Whitney Zone permit. The Inyo gets bent if don't comply and don't exit that date.

Some of us have pet peeves about the permit system here, this is mine.

After reading Steve C's post I went to the USFS website and re-read all the permit requirements. Sure enough - there it is - an exit permit requirement.

I've talked to the NPS Ranger on the Crabtree side and both times, he didn't care that I was exiting early. It would be interesting to see what would happen if I were checked on the west side by FS Personnel. My guess: nothing.

Another interesting option: XC up the Artic Lakes drainage to Iceburg. You'd probably want another day if you were going to do this, and you'd want to be sure you can get up and down the MR comfortably. (No Exit Permit required.)

Richard,

I suspect the folks on the NPS of the crest would not give a rip about FS rules.

I have had this conversation with people at the Inyo three times and they were vehement about crossing the pass on the day on the exit permit. I said to them I regularly exit early or late in the forest and you don't care, they agreed. However, they were insistent you cross the pass on the prescribed date.

My guess is the seasonal trail rangers along the MMWT would not care one iota what date is on that permit.