Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Whitney in May?

Hello, New to the forum.

I was very excited to have received confirmation of a date to climb whitney in May of this year...may 10th to be exact. However, while researching, I've come to find out this is quite early in the season. I am a very experienced hiker and I am confident I can handle the physical element of the hike, however I have never hiked in Snow, used cramp-ons or an ice axe. Should I assume the peak will be covered in snow the second week of May? Will it be possible to summit at this time without significant snow experience? Obviously this will be dependent on future storms (if any) but I also know there has been significant snow fall this year already...

I know we can't predict the future, but I would love anyone who has experience w/ hiking in May and/or are just familiar w/ the potential conditions I will be facing so I can prepare. If summiting is not an option, I'd like to prepare myself for that now!

thank you so much for the feedback.

best,
Brett

You'll need Snow Travel Skills in early May...
It is almost guaranteed that you will be traveling on snow to get to Trail Camp and will need to "climb" The Chute to get up to Trail Crest...

Understood. have seen some photos of this...seems doable...although will make the day much slower. thank you for the response. appreciate all the info I can get!

If you're willing to put in the effort...
The lower section of the Baldy Bowl can be used for training...
Get yourself an axe and crampons (and microspikes for traveling the more level iced up trails)
Read up on self-arrest...
Go practice...

If you ski, (in my opinion) The Chute on Whitney is no steeper than Chair 5 at Mammoth Mountain...There WILL be an established boot track up...get the timing right so you aren't coming down after the slope has iced up...

Oh, and commit enough time in the Sierra so that you are acclimatized prior to the climb...

I've found it's actually quite a bit faster to do Whitney in snow conditions, but training and conditioning (and knowing the winter routes) is key.

Yeah, imagine how fast Dr. Dirtbag, or one of the other FKT people, would be on a packed (efficient) snow track up the MR...

An old friend Matt currently has the Whitney FKT (2:38 c2c) and his wife has the 2nd FKT (women, 5:10), but those were summer MR trips. They definitely could shave some time off those on a good hardpack morning. My oldest daughter's first Whitney trip was a winter climb when she was 11 and we boogied straight up to Trail Camp in 4 hours.

A few of my GPS tracks have had the Main Trail at 8+/- miles using the more direct Winter paths...