Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mountaineer's Route Conditions

thank you! Will do!

Hi,

I'm coming out from NY and possibly taking the mountaineer's route. Are the Ebersbacher ledges clear enough of snow for route finding or are folks still going up the drainage? I have rock and ice climbing experience but it's all back east. I know it can be quite dangerous out west if you go off route so I'm trying to do what preparation I can. Thanks for all replies...

I did the Mountaineers’ Route two days ago. Everybody is still going up the snow, but it appeared that the ledges would work. I saw a few wet spots, but no snow until the “trail” takes you into the brush. At that point, you could easily walk up to Lower Boy Scout Lake on the snow. BTW, the chute was good snow almost all the way to the top, and the final 400 was mixed snow and rock.

Hi bob,
I've only done the ledges, but I'm guessing it's straightforward to go up the snow, easy to see the trail? Heading up tonight.
Thanks for all the beta everyone. Do you recommend snow shoes? I did a few hikes last weekend and post-holed mid-day.

Hi, Daav. Crossing the stream below the ledges was a bit of a pain. After that, you can walk/climb on snow almost all the way to the notch. Snowshoes would have been a waste. I only took a few steeps deeper than the tops of my boots. However, warm weather will have an impact. It won’t be long before the ledges will be mandatory, dirt and rock will be visible, and the snow will be really sloppy in the afternoon.

Thanks Bob. That really helps! I'll give the ledges a go at least on the way up.

Bob's description is accurate. The lower half of the gully below Lower Boy Scout Lake is melting out VERY FAST. The snow bridges are collapsing, the willows exposed.

The upper part of the gully was good firm snow before sunrise. And the snow to the notch also good. As Bob noted the final 400 was a mix of rock and snow.

The descent in shade was crunchy and slick, in sun slushy.

Thanks JamesL. I notice there is more snow expected...
https://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Mount-Whitney/forecasts/4418

How does that affect avalanche conditions in areas like the canyon below Lower Boy Scout? Or has all that melted out already (or is that really not significant snow; it's only a couple of inches basically).

I ended going up on April 30. The E-ledges were fine ( although there is some rock debris on the lower path closer to the edge near the first bulge that would make footing dangerous if you chose that option. For some reason the granite out here grips well but when broken down and a little wet acts like ball bearings :P )

Didn't summit but got almost to Iceberg lake; it took me awhile to work my way through this first time so. but the snow was decent though the morning and early afternoon. The snow bridges on the drainage are definitely falling apart though.

My party of two had a smooth dayhike up the MR and down the trail side on 5/29 during a nice break in the weather. E-ledges were dry and easy, then there was firm snow for crampons all the way to Iceberg Lake where there was crust over sugar. In the MR, itself, there was occasionally some wallowing in steep sugar snow at knee deep or worse, but mostly great styrofoam snow with continuous spin drift and old graupel rolling down the chute. The final 400 had solid coverage with very hard snow at the steepest section but no sign of ice and almost no exposed rock. The nearly 2-mile journey to trail crest from the top had lots of deep, soft snow with the initial post holing trail provided by some generous PCT folks. From trail crest on down conditions were great with more snow then I've ever seen this time of year. Hats off to the CHP folks who plucked a backpacker with what looked to be a broken leg off of the ridge above Mirror Lake.

Pretty much a damned-near perfect report. Good job. Here's a current photo so people can match the write-up in perpetuity (meaning future years when they're asking the same old question about spring conditions---but then again, that infers they'd use the search function, and that's a stretch. We'll see...).


[Click me---no really!]

Young lady and her dad came in this afternoon they had just finished the Mountaineering Route she is 9 not sure of her father's age they also did the approach to the Buttress and East Face for future reference.The young lady said they had short piece of rope so would be back.

MR conditions on June 21, 2019.

1. Expect wet socks on any of the stream crossings. The Elephant Ear by-pass can help avoid 2 stream crossings
2. No snow below LBSL, but pretty much everything covered in snow above LBSL
3. UBSL was frozen in the morning, but semi-thawed in the afternoon
4. Iceberg Lake to completely frozen
5. Good snow conditions all the way up the main MR gully, with some dry areas around the notch. Even a snowfield at the start of the East Butt.
6. Lots of firm snow/ice in the final-400. Crampons/axe required.
7. Miles & miles of excellent glissading on the way down.
8. Be safe & enjoy

MR Main Gully


MR Notch area


Lower section of the Final-400


Upper section of the Final-400


"Easy Traverse" from the Notch


Glissading down the MR Main gully with frozen Iceberg Lake in the background


Boot glissading towards LBSL

Thank you, Graham for the update and photos. With a wet winter and storms packing on snow into May, I assumed there would be a great deal of snow and ice on the MR.

I'm planning my first attempt of the East Face in late August and will be watching the conditions on the MR as my trip approaches. I'm planning to descend the MR, and want to know if I will need to pack crampons.

Again, THANK YOU for the excellent photos and detailed information on the current conditions. This is great information and I hope others will continue to update throughout the summer.

Truly Grateful,

Z

Hello all! I will be climbing Whitney via MR next week (7-30 to Iceberg Lake, Summit 7-31, return portal 8-1). My concerns at this point are the conditions of the shoot and the final 400. As of Monday, the Inyo National Forest folks are still recommending ax and crampons. Has anyone been up in the last two weeks since Graham's excellent trip report of 6-24-19? I would be interested to know if it would be better to descend via the easy walk off rather then negotiating the icy final 400 on the way down. We are a team of two and fully intend to bring 30 m of rope, alpine rack, ax and crampons if needed. Am hoping to get away with Kahtoola micro-spikes if conditions dictate. Any recommendations/suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

Howard

Correction - "chute" !!

@HJK - Can you pleas share your trip report . Climbing MR in few days.

Mahi - I'm just seeing this and hope I didn't miss you. First time doing MR - July 31. Per my earlier post, my main concern was snow above Iceberg Lake. We (son and I) avoided the lower snowfield by staying to the left and scrambling up the slot in the rocks. This put us above the lower snowfield. The upper snowfield can not be avoided. We brought mountaineers ax and microspikes (Crampons still better but we made a calculated risk to save weight), which were very helpful - I would bring same again. After the upper snow field it's clear sailing to the notch. The final 400 had a small patch of snow on it, but we were able to avoid it by staying left of it the whole way. However, we both rock climb and were comfortable with the scramble. So be careful! "Easy walk-off" still had snow on it and did not interest us as a possibility at all. Recommend leaving a pack or something to mark where you emerge from final 400 so you can spot it easily on your way back. Hope this helps. Good luck!

I did the MR today. There was about 200' feet of easy to traverse snow in the chute. There's a lot of snow at the bottom of the chute but you can avoid with the scramble on climber's left. Final 400 has snow but there is dry class 3 to climber's right.

My climbing partner and I climbed the East Face on Wednesday (Aug. 21) and descended the MR. As BFR mentions, a steep slab of snow persists within the Final 400, but can be avoided by traversing to climber’s right and ascending the blocky 3rd class terrain to the summit plateau. Below the notch the chute was clear of snow except near the base, closest to Iceberg Lake, and again as BFR accounts there is dry terrain to scramble up on climber’s left.

The update, I suppose, is that we did not encounter 200’ of snow within the main chute, which must have melted during these last two weeks. All in all, the conditions are great right now on the MR. Pick your way through the loose scree and find the paths that are starting to form in more durable sections. I found that the climbers left along/ near the main chute wall worked well for me, however, my partner did a bit more traversing throughout the main chute.


All the best,

Z