Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Trail Report and hike recap - May 14-15

Trail report. I found this message board to be really useful and the people on here to be very helpful leading up to our hike this past weekend so I wanted to return the favor and give a trail report and recap for those planning on heading up soon:

We had a group of nine guys head up to Whitney on Friday/Saturday this past weekend. Our group had a mix of experience including two guys who had hiked Whitney before, a few with other hiking experience and two guys who had never even been hiking or camping before). We started from LA at 6am on Friday, messed around in Lone Pine for a while and finally hit the Whitney Trail about noon. The first two miles were relatively normal and dry. We started hitting big snow patches around 9,000 feet and had nothing but snow after the log crossing near Lone Pine Lake (9,500?). There was pretty much no visible trail from that point on. We had lunch in Bighorn Park and then headed up to Trail Camp. From BHP, everyone was going off trail and up the snow ridge on the left slide so we followed them and cut behind the mountains (I don't know what this area is called) over to Consultation Lake. We passed Consultation Lake (which was frozen) on our left before we climbed one more ridge and finally trudged into Trail Camp around 6pm, just before it started getting dark. There were quite a few people at TC with tents set up on the rocks and there were absolutely no tracks going up the chute, because as we found out, it had just got done snowing for about four hours (meaning we got to hike in fresh powder the next morning). I think it got down to about 17 degrees Friday night at Trail Camp.

Saturday morning, we started up around 8am. The chute looked daunting without any switchbacks but it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, especially with good footholes to step in from the people who went before us (thanks Garrett and Brian!). I ended getting up to Trail Crest in 1:24. The last person in our group took about two hours. Still not bad. From there the trail on the ridge was a mix of dry trail, rocks and snow. Crampons were not absolutely necessary on the backside and they made for awkward hiking on some of the rocks, but I am glad I used them and recommend them if you are hiking up there soon because most of the traverses were on snow and were really scary. You will appreciate the extra grip on your feet. There was one last really steep chute of snow to climb just before the top and then we made it! Eight out of nine members of our group made the summit, with one guy turning back just before the top because he was tired and afraid he might slip on one of the traverses (a very good reason to turn around!) As they say, know your limits and turn around if you feel like you are out of your comfort zone.

Excluding the time it took us to pack up our camp, it took our group (including some slow guys who were dragging after two long days of hiking) about five hours to get back from the summit to Whitney Portal. That's including some pretty nice glissading down the chute. What took 1.5 hours to climb, was only 10 minutes down. This saves a lot of time! But make sure you have your ice axe and be careful! Glissading is fast and fun, but also dangerous as many on here have pointed out.

We ran into Norma R at Trail Crest and I was lucky enough to hike with her from TC up to the summit. It was nice to finally meet you in person Norma. Hopefully we get to hike together again soon.

That's my update. I haven't gotten my photos off my camera yet but took tons and will post them soon. Cheers!

Update: Here are my photos from this past Friday/Saturday. Lots of great snow. I didn't take many photos on the way down but it was more of the same.

http://gs344.photobucket.com/groups/p349/OU0CGKS29G/?action=view&current=P1000410.jpg

Awesome Andy! Thanks for sharing.

As I've been asking ... any concerns while on the trail? Anything that you thought "maybe I shouldn't" or "that was scary"?

...thanks!

Ha! Yea... this is exactly what I'm talking about! Eek!

http://gs344.photobucket.com/groups/p349/OU0CGKS29G/?action=view&current=P1000594.flv

Andy,
Excellent story and GREAT pics and videos! Thanks! It's so helpful that you've "put us on the mountain" to see what it was like up there. Nice job with your narrating, too.

Thanks for the compliments. Martini, there wasn't ever anything that I was completely unsure of, but I'm a pretty confident hiker. There were definitely a couple traverses on the backside that were a little scary, but if you have your crampons on and carry your ice axe you should be fine. You can take it slow and dig in with each step and just be ready if you stumble.

Actually the only thing that almost got me killed was that I kept catching my crampons on my pants, which almost caused me to trip. The easy solution to that is to get some "Gators" (as I saw many people wearing) or an even cheaper solution is to just get a zip tie and tie your pants tight at the bottom.

The only other scary part for me was going down the chute. Glissading was quick and fun but you can get going pretty fast down that hill. Make sure you know how to stop.

Thanks Andy, I appreciate your tips. Have gators, and won't be doing any glissading as I'm not experienced in it and think this would be a really stupid place to learn! I'll be going down slow & steady on two feet!

Really enjoyed the pictures, and esp the videos!

Hi Andy!

Hope you don't mind if i tailgate on your post. It was great to meet you and your friends at Trail Crest then have the opportunity to summit along with you. You truly are a gentleman mountaineer! I'd be happy to share a trail again with you someday.

What a fantabulous weekend! Doug Sr. said Richard P. counted 60 hikers coming up as he descended on Friday! We were all pleasantly treated to a perfect window of weather on Saturday for summiting. How often can you summit Whitney when there is snow on the ground in a long sleeved top? Plus the condition of the snow was perfect! The climb up the chute that morning was great with the boot track from the previous day and the snow on the traverse of the backside was nicely firm for crampons. I agree that those going up during the next few weeks will really enjoy themselves if they have snow skills experience. One member of our party got sketched out by the exposure on the backside traverse and did not want to continue up the last snow slope to the summit. It ain't no fun, when you're not having fun. Crampons and ice axe are mandatory right now for a safe ascent/descent.

Coming down from Trail Crest i did see one guy glissading holding his ice axe in one hand from the top as you do when you are walking with it. Like the mom i am, i yelled, "Two hands, two hands!" and demonstrated how he should be holding it and he went,"oh?" He scared the crap out of me but from what i could tell all glissaders made it down without incident. Thankfully the snow was soft for a perfect controlled glissade. The chute though is truly NOT the place for someone's first glissade ever.

As always understand the risks of mountaineering, make sure you have the skills for the challenge at hand, be mindful of the weather, travel safely with adequate gear and have fun.

Hikers on the snow traverse from Outpost Camp to Trail Camp


Me, Andy and some of his friends at Trail Crest


An exposed backside traverse


Traversing back to Trail Crest from the summit


All of my pix from the weekend are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ryan.norma81/WhitneyMainTrailMay2010#

(It's so "girl" of me to write this... lol!) Norma, you and I have the same snow cap! : P

Oh my, Norma... and the same powder blue Marmot waterproof jacket, too, based on what I see in calicokat's photos! <<grin>>

and we like mountains, and we post on the same board! Crazy!

and i like Dirty Martini's! where does it end?

climb on!

Hi I can see the eyes roll,"They sing, they laugh, they buy all the gear , they drink and they have fun" It ain't the way we did it. quote from a cook.

I knew I liked the cook

Yeah, what happened to all that "Art of Suffering" stuff?

oh i suffered, i just left that part out of the TR! i had 43 lbs on my back on the way up and 4 lbs on each foot to keep my feet warm. that part ain't no fun, but it's the necessary evil to do what i love to do. i am always trying to get my pack weight down, but it takes time and $$ to buy the lightest warm gear.

Well Norma somehow you managed to make all that suffering look like a whole lot of fun. What a beautiful day for a Whitney summit, kind of in contrast to your MR trip, it looked like a great day to be up there!
Sometimes I refrain from weighing my pack just because I already know it's going to be too much and I'd rather not know the number. It's enough to know that it's either: A. light, in which case you don't even know it's there. B. Medium, where you know it's there but it's not too distracting. C. Heavy, where you not only know it's there but every time you move you have to be careful to keep your balance. A and B are cool, C is suffering.

And wasn't my comment when I walked by: "my that's a big pack..."

Great TR's, pix and videos Andy!!! Congrats to you and your 'crew'... And excellent TR and pix from you, Norma!!! Looks like new friendships made on Whitney this past weekend. Love when that happens. And great advice Norma. Keep inspiring...

Gator: My 15-year-old son and I will be first-time Whitney trekkers this coming Sunday (Memorial Day weekend). Your excellent report and great pics have given me a new level of confidence about the climb. Thank you for chronicling your trip so well. Now ... if we can just score some of your sunshine this weekend.

Hi there JDinSD. I'm going to be with a group of 4 doing Whitney for the first time on a Sunday (overnight). The weather looks like it'll be rough mid-week, but it should clear by mid-Friday or Saturday at the latest. Plus there's a full moon which should be good for our "alpine start". Maybe we'll see ya there.

Gator: Great pics...it's nice to know I'm not getting myself into anything crazy. I did Shasta last year and if I'm not mistaken, the slopes look a bit less steep.