Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mt. Whitney Zone Photos From This Weekend

Heading out the door for some more fun...

Mt. Whitney Double: http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/gallery/8711187_wJENL

Thor Peak: http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/gallery/8711700_KPMWd

(Photos won't be captioned until Monday, or Tuesday.)

The first album show what still has to be dealt with and the Cables, etc. Amazing how fast the snow is melting out now that there's sunshine in the Sierra.

Looks like the cables iced up on your late afternoon decent?

Wow, Richard, you don't let any grass grow under your boots, eh? All I could manage since Jordan's Baldy Bash, was a 4.3 mile loop up to 1346 feet overlooking Encinitas Beach, from a T.H. elev. of 492 feet............steve

Cool, Richard! I'm glad you didn't decide to retire to a lounge chair. :-)

Wow, a double is amazing. Did you have to get two permits? :-)

There was a 15-20' section at the upper end of the Cables that was hard ice in the morning and evening. I went up and down without until that last trip down. I took one step onto the ice and backed off and put the crampons on.

Alan, the double was actually easier than the Baldy Quad.

Whit, the permit is good for a 24-hour period. I got the double done well within that time frame.

Steve, I'm glad my legs and lungs let me do this long, long outings.

BTW, thanks to Jack for the inspiration to do this. I don't know how he stays motivated to do this multiple times. Once is enough for me. And Bob, for his comment in one of his photo albums about the snow on the back side making walking easier. Getting this done with the snow coverage up high did make it a LOT easier on the feet.

RP, outstanding hiking. Looks like someone is gearing up for the Sierra Challenge and going to give those young bucks some hardy competition.

Just curious if you had any problems getting back-to-back day permits? Last time I tried (in person at the Lone Pine Ranger station), they wouldn’t issue me back-2-backs day permits even though there were plenty available. I explained that I want to do Whitney one day and then Russell the next day. No doing……they said something about it was part of their “policy”. Has anyone had success (or no success) getting back-2-back day permits?

Cheers,
RickG

Rick, I have to admit I was a bad boy on Saturday.

I was thinking that if I felt OK, I would head down to the Visitor's Center and pull a permit for climbing up the NF for Thor, but when I showed up at the Portal Store, Len, Steve and Laura were finishing up breafast and prepping to head up, so I just tagged along with them, and split left above UBSL to climb the Smiley Face Route.

Hey Richard, Do you think judging by conditions, ice axe and crampons will be needed by July 6th? Thanks!

Most of the climbers who continued on past the cables were not using gear. During the day, the ice softened up to the point that it was no big deal (to me). You are taking a risk doing it without gear, though, even mid-day. If you get caught out and it has iced up again before you return, you'll probably be sorry that you don't have it.

It's not going to be easy until the snow/ice below the ice bulge melts out, so that you can hold the cable. I don't know how long that is going to take.

The photo albums have captions now.

congrats on your double. us mortals can only wish.

Outstanding job Richard and thanks for the pics. If I can't get there myself at least you and Laura do an outstanding job of sharing your adventures. Thanks so much and what a super human accomplishment.

Thanks, Len. Congrats on a successful EB climb. Had to have been loads of fun.

Thanks Gunner and everyone else.

It is amazing what a little hard work will do for you... and the workouts haven't even been structured. I just go out and have fun. I hope it stays this way for a long time.