Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Whitney Mountaineers Route 07-17-2010

Lisa and I hiked via the Mountaineers Route on Saturday. Last minute decision and almost was unable to get a permit - I expected it to be crowded on the route. As it turns out there was only one other group dayhiking via MR to the summit. That must mean a lot of people were on the MWMT that day.

We met many interesting people along the way including an 80yr old man and his son attempting to summit for his birthday. Conditions for the MR were perfect. Snow was minimal - even more so than 2 weeks ago. Met alot of people at the portal on Friday night before our hike including Bulldog and his family. Congrats to Bulldog on his and Joe's fantastic hike and summit. Great acclimation plan to help insure a successful summit bid.

Happy 80th Birthday


summit photo


rest of photos

Congrats to you both! Sorry we missed you back at the Portal Saturday night. Great day to be in the mountains!

-L

Nice job! You two look so happy in that summit shot. I smiled right back at you.

I had to smile right back at that summit shot myself. You look like a couple of teenagers in love.

Thanks everyone.

Someone said you are supposed to be too tired to smile on the summit - but someone forgot to tell us.

Great picture of you at the summit. You two actually passed my friends and I on the trail between Iceberg and UBSL (3 scruffy looking guys in their 30's). We summited that day but we left from UBSL, not the portal, in fact we were camping right next to the 80 year old gentlemen and his son.

Out of curiosity, did you guys happen to pass by a group trying to get an injured hiker down the chute?

Let me try to remember this right
Lisa and I hiked down with the two Mississippi guys(at least to EF Lake). A couple passed us in the chute - they had summited via Buttress and were enroute back to camp(UBSL)- they were in good shape; saw a group of three still making their way up the chute - tired but still making progress. I think that was all I remember while in the chute.

Guided group had not yet started down from the summit when were gone. Other group of dayhikers decided to descend via the MT. I think we saw you 3 going down the rocks on the right of the final 400 as we were coming up the blocks on the left.

Congrats on your summit also it was a good day. We were going to stop by UBSL and wish him a happy birthday. But when we got to the turn off - there were at least 8 tents that I saw set up; and noone was outside any of them. We figured it would be bad camp ettiquite to further invade a bunch of unknown campsights so we continued on down the trail.

Thanks Tomcat,

There was actually a bit of an accident. A boulder fell on someone from the guided group (who were also camping at UBSL) as they were climbing down from the summit to the notch. The girl the boulder hit had her arm and leg broken. Luckily they got her down the chute and a helicopter picked her up and got her to Lone Pine. I don't know much more.

I was simply trying to figure out the timing of things. We thought we heard something while we were reseting at Iceberg lake but it couldn't have been them if they were still on the Summit as you guys were heading down.

Thenine
Thank you for the info.
Hope the female climber is doing alright and makes a full recovery.

I was also wondering why there have not been any posts from members of that REI guided climb or news coverage by SierrraWave?


Boulders falling into the MR chute onto climbers and injuring
someone is news worthy of reporting 1st hand.

I can't imagine what heroic efforts the group went through getting her down the chute to where the SAR chopper could make a safe pickup. Bravo people!!

Perhaps legal stuff is going on as to who was responsible?

BTW what would you consider serious if a broken arm & leg is only 'a bit of an accident' IYO ?

cheers

lacrosse

Thanks Tom, and congrats to you as well! Must be nice to have to start cataloguing your summits . It was great finally meeting you after all these months on Facebook!

We saw the chopper from the Portal Store and wondered what was going on. Glad to hear she made it out OK.

See ya next year, man!

Lacrosse,

That was probably a poor choice of wording. We were actually quite scared when we saw the chopper and when the group hadn't returned to UBSL by 7pm.

Anyway... I didn't mean to Hijack Tomcat's thread. Like I said, We thought we heard something and I was trying to figure out the timing of the events. I would have felt horrible had I been resting at Iceberg and missed the group calling for help chute. Given the time frame however, it seems that the accident would have happened quite a while after we headed back down to UBSL.

At one point while ascending the final 400, I had rocks drop around me. None were very big, but they do not have to be when falling and picking up speed. Noone else was in the chute at the time and I assumed it related to ice/snow melt fractures. All the guided groups were wearing helmets. We were definately gone before any of this happened and I did not see helo flying during out descent. We were drinking beer at the portal by 4:30pm.

Congrats Tom and Lisa! Tom you got some really nice alpenglow photos of Whitney
Glad you 2 didn’t get caught in the rockfall and wishing those that got injured a speedy recovery

Nice pics. Unfortunately, looking at #80, it appears there is some strange blue fungus growing on the inside walls of the hut. I looks like the mess usually seen at lower elevations and only rarely at altitude. Are hikers really spreading that garbage even here? (And I know Tom and the gang here doesn't do this.)

Cool photos and a h.. (err, ummm) beautiful climbing partner!