Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Another first time whitney question

I'm hiking Whitney via the main trail for the first time this july 5 with a group of 15, we have a 2 night permit so our plan is to hike to trail camp the first day, summit and return to trail camp for the night the following day and then return to our cars on the third day. Our group is made up of mostly fathers and our kids so the age range is between 17-53yr, various levels of fitness with little to no backpacking experience.

My main concern is to get everyone to trail camp the first day and then from there we can asses the conditions and how strong everyone is feeling for the summit.

We have been doing training hikes up to Mt Baldy via the ski hut and I was wondering how this compares to hiking up to trail camp. If everyone in our group is able to make Mt Baldy with a full pack (around 35-40#'s) on then would you say trail camp is doable, If not what so-cal hike would you recommend we do to get a feel for how hard getting to trail camp will be.

Thank
Mark

Your training is probably sufficient, but you might add a couple of hikes up Bear Canyon to the summit. It adds a couple of thousand more vertical feet and a few miles to the hike. The Bear Canyon trailhead begins across the street from the Mt. Baldy Lodge.

Thank Trip,

We have done a couple of 10 mile hikes, but not with any real elevation. We will give Bear Canyon a try this weekend.

Mark

Just wondering, there's more than likely going to be snow by then unless we get a heat wave of the century. Is everyone comfortable with snow travel (ice axe, crampons, self-arrest, etc.)?

--Amin

I'm aware we will be traveling in snow and so far I'm the only one that is comfortable with snow travel. I'm hoping to get some of the group onto the snow this weekend with crampons and ice axe to do some training.

But trail camp may be the end of the hike for most of the group unless thing change.

Right now I'm worried about just getting this group up to trail camp, without knowing just how hard it will be to hike the 6miles to trail camp I dont know how prepared the group is.

Angelus Oaks to Limber Bench in the SGW is about the same profile as WP to TC minus about 3,000' of actual elevation. The following morning head up to San Bernardino Peak then exit. If you want more distance and gain bag SB East and/or Anderson Peaks before heading out.

But your best is to go to the Sierra for a weekend to see how your group fares being over 10,000' for an extended period. In a group of 15 my guess a few will come down with AMS. It's better to know its a problem prior to your Whitney Trip so you can do something about it.

There are plenty of great places to take breaks along the MT, such that it is actually broken down into a series of benches.

Portal to North Fork Turnoff, .75 miles.

Cascade below Lone Pine Lake, 2.25 miles (or so)

Lone Pine Lake, 2.8 miles

Outpost Camp, 3.5 miles

Mirror Lake, 4 miles

Trailside Meadow, 5 miles

Trail Camp, 6 miles

Taking it slow and steady, watering up at the breaks, keeping the pace to a mile/hour will get you up there. Moving at that pace you'd also be able to gauge if anyone has the onset of AMS or other discomforts.

Laura,

I can do most anything in SoCal as a day hike without having major AMS problems; however, put me overnight most anywhere is the Sierra without chemical compounds, I'm a 4 symptom AMS episode waiting to happen. So, going to Trail Camp without drugs would not be a problem for me...staying overnight...let's just say, I'd leave the marmots a meal somewhere outside my tent.

My own experiences with AMS have made me a believer in getting folks over 10,000' overnight prior to going up the MMWT. This way if there is a problem they can go see their primary care physcian for a Diamox or Dex prescription. Most folks won't get too upset having to beat feet back to trailhead prior to bagging Cirque Peak but Mt. Whitney is another story entirely.

Thanks everyone for your input.....

10 of us are doing Bear Canyon this Sunday and we some of us are talking about heading up to Mt Whitney next weekend for a look around/day hike.

It might be worth it to plan a few extra days to hike and sleep higher at least a night at portal before going up to TC. With my daughter we allways try to spend a night around 9000 and a day just hanging out before going higher. We live at sea level.

I'll play newbie too for a bit. First post on this forum. I live in Ft Collins CO and have some experience above 14K. I've climbed all of CO's Front Range, 10 mile/Mosquito Range and plan on finishing the Sawatch this summer and making my way onto the Sangres by late summer. In the middle of all of this, my soon to be wife and I (we do this silly things together) will be on Whitney for part of our honeymoon in mid July. Our current thought is to summit Whitney first and on the way down if the weather looks good knocking off Muir. I suppose it makes it about a 20 mile day. But I was wondering how common that is and how much time could a short C3 scramble add to that type of day. Any insight would be appreciated as the search function on this forum for such things brings up all kinds of info most of which wasn't too helpfully