Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Trip Report from first timer (7/5/10)

My 14 year old son and I made the trip to Mt. Whitney on Monday and Tuesday (7/5 - 7/6) and offer this trip report specifically for first timers heading up the mountain. We have no mountaineering experience and spent the last 4 months training locally in San Diego and hiking Mt. San Jacinto through the Marion Mountain Trail twice.

We headed out from Whitney Portal at 9:30 Monday morning with the intent of making it to Trail Camp and making the summit and heading back to the portal on Tuesday. (I'd recommend an earlier start as the temperature was higher than was comfortable.)

Hike to Trail Camp was beautiful and uneventful with only a couple of places where we had to cross snow.

There was no snow in the camp itself and plenty of water.

We started up the switchbacks at 6:00 Tuesday morning. There was some snow at the beginning which forced us to cut a couple of the first switchbacks, however with the snow melting as quickly as it is, this will probably be all gone in another week or so.

The cables are about half way up and there is still snow there. We met some people that turned around there however we were very comfortable crossing them. In the morning with the snow solid seems to be easier than after it starts to soften. With that being said, everyone should make their own decisions before attempting any part of the climb based on their comfort level and experience.

It was great to make it to Trail Crest. It took us about 2 1/4 hours to that point and we passed two groups going up.

Found the 2 1/4 miles to the Summit to be more physically challenging than we expected. It took us about 1 1/2 hours. Only snow was at the very end before the final 1/4 mile to the summit.

The view from the top is everything we imagined. It was windy and cold and after spending about 15 minutes on the summit with our new German friends we began our decent.

My son experienced mild altitude sickness (watch for the symptoms) on the way back down so we took our time coming down and we made it back to Trail Camp around 1:00.

After a short break and packing up, we left Trail Camp 1:30 and was back at Whitney Portal before 5:00.

Nobody is using crampons or ice axes - They are not needed at all unless you are hiking off the main trail. The snow fields are very short and easy to cross. Based on the snow melt and temperatures expected, the balance of the snow should be melted in a couple of weeks.

Hope this Hike Report helps. I want to thank all those that have posted before as we found them very helpful in preparing for our trip.

Have a great trip.

Cliff - I hike San J all the time with my 13 year old son. Maybe we will see you guys out there sometime. We plan on summiting via every trail this year and will do C2C2C on 9 Oct to complete our goal.

Congrats on your successful trip!.......................DUG

Here are the pictures from our trip. Don't know how they got to be in reverse order. We'll call them pictures from our trip down from Mt. Whitney.

Enjoy...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51856716@N06/

Great trip report and pics. Glad to see a fellow Powegian (well actually I live in Carmel Mountain Ranch but I train over at Poway Lake and Iron Mountain) making the hike up the big mountain. How bout the Mountaineer's route next time?

Cliff, congratulations on a fine, successful trip to the top with your son!

I love your sunrise photo. At that time of morning, my sunrise table shows the sun coming up over Keynot Peak, 20 miles away, but your photo has stumped me as to what "peaks" (rocks?) are in your photo. If you can give me a clue, I would appreciate it.

Not sure the name of the rocks - We were at Trail Camp so they were due east of there.

As far as the Mountaineer's Route, possibly next year. Met several people on the mountain that came up that way and and it sounds like a great challenge.

hello cliff