Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Late TR from MR Sunday 10-17

My trip started Friday with an acclimatization stop beside a 3' high snow bank on Tioga pass where I spent the night in the back of my van en route from Aptos on Monterey Bay.
My nephew and climbing partner for the weekend, Ryan, planned to drive up from San Diego and spend the night at Horseshow Meadows. Unfortunately his car quit! Fortunately he was in Lone Pine. Ryan was not aware of the group hike, but managed to bump into Mark (Melville1955) who was able to set him up with bed at the MW Hostel where he got a chance to meet other posters. He was especially impressed with Richard P's stories of his Whitney double and Doug Sr.'s breadth of wisdom.
On Sat. AM Ryan got his car squared away with a new serpentine belt, we had lunch at the Alabama Hills Cafe and were on the trail with a "not quite alpine start" of 2:30 PM. The great thing about the late start was meeting every single Thor Peak climber along the North Fork. My only regret was not having time to get to know each of you! Everyone seemed so pleased with the day. It gave us great energy for our endeavor.
Interspersed with the Message Boarder's was a South African team that had summitted via the MR earlier in the day. They were the first we had encountered to make the summit since the snow, so we knew success was possible and that we had tracks to follow!
As the sun disappeared from the White Mtns, we arrived at UBSL. We had a short chat with a woman (we later discovered it was Lori Williams from the Board) and her party of 4. They had also made Whitney.
We made a dawn start of about 7:00 Sun. AM and were on the summit for lunch. Blessed are the trail breakers! The steps up the last 400' were a god send. We do not have a whole lot of trail breaking in snow.
After an hour or so on the summit we stepped off the summit plateau to plunge step down the "last 400' gully". Whoa! One step was all it took to make me panic. There was hardly room for my heel in the first step, and the steepness/exposure was way beyond my comfort level. I am not sure if it is a mountaineering technique or not, but we turned in to the mountain and backed down as if descending a ladder. SLOW but sure. Once we reached the notch we were comfortable plunge stepping down the chute.
We packed up camp at UBSL and made our slower than anticipated decent. Missed burgers at the Portal by a mile, but enjoyed a night at the WM Hostel.

A beautiful weekend.

Gary:

Great to meet you and your nephew last weekend. Even better that you realized that I have normal person-feet, not moose hooves!

The technique of downclimbing you described is MORE than acceptable. I did that myself a in '08 on a descent of the Final 400. Here's my friend Bob in front of me:

Downclimb

Congrats on a great summit!

-L

Having trouble uploading the pic for some reason. Sorry...

-L
I feel better about our technique now. The photo captures the trepidation that we felt.

good job on making the MR summit.
Just like in technical rock climbing, if in doubt turn around and downclimb facing the rock (snow) just like you up-climbed, maybe slower, but much safer and less "thrilling".

gary,

congrats!! it was great to meet you on the NF. we were wondering why you had such a late start? mystery solved. glad it did not keep you from reaching your goal.

keep climbing STRONG!

norma

Congratulations on the successful climb.

Nice chatting with you and Ryan over the weekend.

Most people who downclimb the Final 400' snow slope face in for the first hundred feet, or so, until the angle eases off. I don't know whether not seeing things below you when you're facing in, or the crazy exposure below you when you're facing out, is more unnerving. It is an exciting climb.