Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Summit Expedition, May 2nd - main trail - photos

Hi all,

A small group of us hiked the main trail on May 1st-2nd. It was incredible!

Although we had a successful summit expedition, we were a bit surprised by how much snow was still on the mountain. Particularly, Trail Crest had more snow along the ridge line than we expected.

Here is a link to the photos from our trip.
http://tinyurl.com/whitney2010

Another beautiful day,

Ian Evenstar

These are awesome pics. Thanks Ian. What was your schedule like? When did you start/finish? It looks like you camped at trail camp. What was the temp like up there? My group is going up this Friday/Saturday and were planning on camping at Outpost but I'd love to start Saturday from TC if possible.

Thanks,

Andy

We left Lone Pine on Saturday around 10am and made it to Trail Camp by 6. Temperatures were below zero that night.

Sunday we had a late start, leaving camp somewhere around 7am. We made it to the summit by 2pm and were down the hill and in our cars by 10:45pm. I imagine we would have been better off getting a true alpine start at 4am, but getting the extra sleep probably helped us. The hike back down in the dark wasn't too bad except for the fact we were completely exhausted and the unforgiving ice-crusted snow tracks were a hard on the knees.

Have fun and be safe on your way across Trail Crest, especially coming back when you are tired.

great photos Ian! glad you had a great trip. i would have loved to hear the music played. i'm going up this weekend and your photos just bumped up my excitement level a notch!

Awesome! Have fun Norma, and just be mindful of the Trail Crest ridge. I'll post a video soon so you can hear the magnificent banjo playing of our friend, Bergen.

Hi Thanks for a detailed report and a photo display to help others see the conditions. I like your insights of the extra sleep and tired on the way down , also changing conditions from the up to the down. Doug

Thanks for sharing, Ian. Looks like there were some pretty freaking crossings... was it scary at times?