Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board New camera , snow stuff

Walked up again on March 18 to check roofs, and any new slide activity, Snow returned that night and only cleared late yesterday , so kind of a two updates with corrections , first the road: first 2 switchbacks were melting fast about 80% clear but random rock fall and a slide over the road just above the first switchback ( a often area of slides) area of the second gate and towards the campground a mix of dry road and deep snow from the campground to the Portal very deep snow 4'+ , used snow shoes this trip , went with a low budget brand but picked the upper weight selection , 180-250 they float OK. I ran into a group coming down and one guy had a shoe I think Doug and I tested years ago a plastic plate style , he said worked ok but thought add the optional tail for soft snow.

Ok so now the gate is closed at the bottom , I could see small slides on Lone Pine Peak area and Candellight and a slide down the Ski tow chute also I am thinking one about the log area of the trail I got a picture but with the lighting hard to tell for sure if it was just a wet slide area ready to go or a debris field . North fork has slide and above has had slides (guide reports).

My thoughts are run off will bring more slides down and with the walls loaded they could be anywhere, I talked with young man that turned around at Iceberg ( guide group advice don't go any higher solo) I ask if he had ever heard the whumph? The whumph is the slope talking .The snow is compressing and loading up pressure on the slope and may soon release or the good news never? Thats the problem , just below Iceberg you hear this often at the bottom of that short down climb and into the boulder field so the snow is loading into this valley area. One year we had a group camp near the Whitney face and a slide (with luck) pushed one climber out of the tent and he was able to pull his partner out. Run outs from these slide can be very long,since we don't often have this much snow we could see slides from new areas.

In his post yesterday Doug Sr recalls the slide that buried four climbers in their tent below the East Face of Mt Whitney. This occurred on April 4, 2006. The interested reader should refer to Bob R's post on the Winter Access Forum on April 16, 2006 "North Fork Avalanche on April 4." In that thread, Brian Spitek of the Mt Whitney Ranger Station provides an informative and detailed write up based on an account provided by the four climbers. The four were fortunate to survive, but they certainly had a "bad day at the office."

A recent heavy snowfall winter was 2016-2017. The final week of April (just before the permit quotas started) saw many hikers, climbers, skiers going up the North Fork. On April 22, a football field size slide occurred in the canyon at 9500' just below LBSL.
Several people were hit (without significant injury), but one disappeared. Fortunately for that fellow, there was a quick search by numerous people in the area, and he was quickly located (very cold, talking, half buried, pinned down by a large block of ice, unable to move). A shovel was used to dig him out, but a significant leg injury was apparent.

This fellow was fortunate and made it down the hill to the hospital ok, thanks to the immediate presence of personnel trained in avalanche rescue, nurses, guides, and and eventually a helicopter ride.

When this slide occurred on April 22, there was actually a helicopter overhead headed to the three lakes below the North Face of Mt Whitney to make a recovery. The day before, a solo climber fell 2000 feet while attempting the "Easy Traverse" from the Notch.

As I recall, last April, four people died on Mt Whitney, all from falls down steep snow.

Seems that history is telling us to be careful as the upcoming season approaches.

Be safe,

Jim

One of the positive results of all this precip...
Southern slope of Five Fingers...
I've ridden past this hundreds of times and can't recall it ever being this colorful...
I'd imagine Sand Canyon and Death Valley may be doing a Hundred Years Showing this year...
I've heard some places down south are pretty wild...

But, the damage to the "roads" leading in to the canyon is pretty extensive...I wonder how far down the road the BLM budget will allow for repair?

I think just go to page 8 on the Winter forum and read all the back and forth. .
This link above will take you to a map/ article Bob R wrote some years ago , also read the comment on the winter forum April 4,6 2006 from Kurt W. When you join the two articles one can see the issue the old chicken or egg. Bob stresses why would you blindly go into the mountains and be caught in an avalanche ,Kurts after many years of world travel in snow enviorments , dig the pit use all the alavanche jargons and dig um out! Wait can't it be both? As it should be. Bob has a map of areas that had slid in the Whitney area , I agree with all his location but could add more , But to Kurt the entire Whitney Area is of concern and it should be .

I like the middle of the road use all the information from Bob and Kurt stay away from the run out areas ( this assumes your are aware of the term ,going in the daylight hours and are watching the slopes as you travel setting up camp far from toe of slope ) and not going into the mountains with a storm coming in . Let me touch on that. Last year I had a call from a friend in town that works at one of the hotels , he ask about a coming storm , a guest said he was going up the next day I replyed wait till after the storm , he went and 2 days later a recovery . No amount of information will deter these types of accidents.

Jim F suggest the number of fatal accidents last April , This will be our 35 th season at Whitney and are acutely aware of the number of accidents . Spring and fall seasons are serious periods for snow/ice accidents , First many will come before the permit season or after, many are not aware of the extreme winter condition and are not experienced in winter mountaineering AND with social media now a person or group will Summit and post about a great trip they had, may suggest they only used...(I coin these as cheerleader post on social media).

Mount Baldy is a perfect example of how serious winter mountaineering can be. Baldy in my mind can be worse with high winds whiteouts and steep icy slopes.

This season we will experience more slides, more water on the stream crossings and a later time period that we have a dry trail ,with the melt we will see more late night/early morning ice covering the trail and rock fall in the area from before Lone Pine Lake to trail crest . This all adds hours to your trip making it very hard to do a day trip. Requiring more gear for a very cold overnight trip ,staying at outpost VS trailcamp as the trail camp area will be in snow.