Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board MR -> MT Loop - April 11, 2009

Some pretty pictures from this last weekend:

http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/gallery/7882284_5c3MS

http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/gallery/7884314_yHphi


Mike's:

http://www.digitalalpine.com/gallery/7884887_uNSDY#511695429_KSqLT

http://www.digitalalpine.com/gallery/7886676_TZQu3#511335093_5gvVP

Richard:

Thanks for posting all those great photos. I'm planning to spend a couple of nights at Iceberg Lake to climb Whitney, Muir, and Russell. I'll probably start up on Friday or Saturday. I know the conditions will change a lot by then, but your photos and postholing will both make my trip easier. (Looks like I'll have to break my own trail to Russell and Back.) Keep up the good work!

Thanks Bob, enjoy the climbing. Wish I could join you on Russell, but we're headed away from the Whitney area for a change this weekend.

Wow beautiful pics! now you all really know how to spend a weekend

Thanks for the pictures! I am from the NJ/Pennsylvania area, so we dont have the luxury of those types of pictures.

Truly wonderful.

I am looking forward to going this July to experience the awesomeness.

Thanks again!

And I'd also be getting poorer grades in school.
http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2009/04/1...38731239706639/

I believe that study was based out of your home town.

Going up the mountaineers route Thursday--would rather not take snowshoes unless we will be using them for most of the time. I didn't notice any snowshoes in the pictures--did you wish you had bought them?

No.

I don't think they were necessary below Iceberg Lake (snow was only boot-top deep) and they wouldn't have been very useful in the couloir, or on the traverse to Trail Crest (you'd be taking them off a lot on the very steep traverses). Once down the slope above Trail Camp, they weren't necessary because of the firm boot track.

Fantastic photos! I realize there is more to capturing images like this than equipment, but do you mind sharing what kind of camera / lenses you used? I can't imagine you used a typical small point-and-shoot digital, must be a full-size camera with a big zoom lens?

Thanks.

I shoot with the Canon 50D. On this particular trip, I forgot to swap the 60mm macro for my usual lens, so everything on this trip was compressed and tight.

Other lenses that I use:
Tamron 17-50mm
Canon 10-22mm
Canon 55-250mm
Canon 75-300mm
Sigma 180mm macro
Sigma 170-500mm

The 17-50mm spends the most time on the camera when I'm in the High Sierra. The 60mm macro stays on the camera for most of the stuff I do in the desert and Southern Sierra. I "play" around with the other lenses when the mood strikes me.

None of this stuff is light, so I've recently ordered a Panasonic TZ5 (Mike shoots with one and I like his work.) for those times when I want to move faster or am on more technical terrain. (No photos from me on the Final 400 due to the fact that I tucked the camera into the pack so that I wouldn't have to worry about it swinging around and knocking me off balance on the "difficult" terrain.)

Thank you Richard--I appreciate the info.

Thanks Richard! I've been toying with the idea of buying a Sony Alpha because I still have an original Maxxum 7000 and a bunch of AF lenses for it. Apparently all the Maxxum AF lenses work with that camera, since it stems from the Sony acquisition of Minolta. But the Panasonic TZ series looks really interesting. I didn't realize anyone was making small format cameras with lenses like that. Anyway, thanks for the effort of lugging all that equipment into the mountains! The images are worth it.

Excellent pics, both of you!
A very different world up there during winter!

CaT

Can you please tell if the road is open all the way to the trailhead parking lot. Thanks a lot

> Can you please tell if the road is open all the way to the trailhead parking lot. Thanks a lot

Ummmm... maybe it tells you in this thread: Road Opening