Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board 2024

Backcountry Recon Photos:

I can't answer that question for you...you need to know how to use the tool...whether that is articles/videos/experience with friends...

Baldy still has snow...go practice...

OKay. Thanks. I did by phone last year and was informed that Ursacks were allowed but not recommended. So we used on and a ranger told us the opposite. I will do some more investigation.

Richard, you are awesome! Thank you for the photos once again, and congrats on another summit! And thank you for relaying the information gathered from the hiker who went up the MR.

Appreciate the snapshot of Iceberg lake in the backcountry recon photos. Looks like the icy surface is juuuuust starting to pop out.

Hiked out at onion valley today. Great acclimation.

Anyone hiking tomorrow? Main concerns are wind at the summit. Anyone have experience in these conditions?

First look at the webcam , snow moved in and strong wind getting colder so a night time start would be tough. Weather reports say -3 with wind chill , not that serious if layered but walking in the wind beats you down quickly , hard to balance and walk. I put wind as the only thing I hate to work or walk in, snow rain fog heat what ever easy to deal with not wind ( first years on the farm was in the dust bowl so maybe biased!)

You can find the info here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/inyo/recreation/?cid=fsbdev3_003846

Mt. Whitney area requires a bear canister. Ursacks aren't acceptable anywhere in the Sierras as a replacement for a bear canister.

https://www.nps.gov/seki/planyourvisit/upload/Final-NoYear-Allowed-Food-Storage-Containers.pdf

For SEKI

System moved out over night . cold air mass yet to clear but should today or next few days. Check webcam

Thanks. It seems that we received some bad information last year.

Thanks. It seems that we received some bad information last year.

Hello All,
Hiking to the summit tomorrow (the 7th), and worried that the streams may be a challenge to cross (or get me wet) - how deep could they be? should I prep for it in a certain way? thanks!

We are planning to hike next week when it's (hopefully) looking even warmer! Would be very curious to hear from you about what the conditions are!

The incredible melt continues...

I'd call it easy for Tourists to get to Lone Pine Lake now with a little bit of care on the few remaining snowfields...you will be on snow in the forest leading to the Junction...

Anyone with experience walking on snow can make Mirror Lake with a bit of care and attention to navigation to the easiest terrain where the trail disappears under snow...

The Weekend Storm did nothing to the lower elevations...

But, a few inches of snow and massive movements due to wind is making the Upper Mountain (from the Alternate route on) significantly more fatiguing...

I saw 1 tent at Outpost Camp (I believe that climber was on the Main Trail at Trailside Meadow.), passed a couple at Consultation Lake (It looked like they called it part way up The Chute.) and 2 climbers who had come up the MR (10 hours ascent!).

Only took 3 photos all day...here are 2 of them:


Climbing back up to Trail Crest and not looking forward to The Chute descent...



Trail Camp Pond is starting to show water...

Posting an update from our summit attempt from Sunday! First timer here.

You never truly know what mother nature has in mind. There was a big storm Saturday which was supposed to bleed into Sunday morning. We ended up giving it a go and made the call in the morning at 1:00 am Sunday to go check it out know that if the weather is as cold or windy as it says it's going to be and we need to turn around we can. Thankfully we went because it ended up being, what felt like and ideal day for a first timer.

Now for the hike, we did not summit due to a group member getting altitude sickness at the base of The Chute but we turned around and as we descended he was feeling better and better. For someone experiencing a person with altitude sickness for the first time is was a bit overwhelming but we stuck to the plan of hydrating, fuel, and descending and things got much much better within the hour.

Garmin GPS route mapping was a life saver in the fresh snow for keeping us on track. It did take us to a pretty tricky traverse near lone pine creek by consultation lake which I would not recommend in the snow. On the decent be took a more traveled route. It seems like this is the move in the snow based on the number of tracks in that section (I must have missed that in these threads haha).

Overall, an awesome experience. We will definitely be back to another go at it.

SO many people who don't make the summit don't bother coming back to explain their experience...thanks for doing it...

And, glad the Bug bit...

Tried to get to the summit today. Started at 2am and got to the switchbacks around 8, well today it was a wall of snow more than anything. Got two third of the way and realized that's way beyond my skills, turned back and slipped uncontrollably for at least 100ft, luckily all is good. There were three other folks who were ahead of me and kept going, would love to hear they're all made it safely back to their cars.
The things that I was worried about turned out to be non issues:
1. The stream crossings are negligible
2. The temperature didn't go below 20 and the wind wasn't rough (don't know if that's true once you get to the ridge)
3. Didn't have any ams symptoms even though I didn't aclimitize and assuming that's going to be true for most people

Glad to hear you made it back safely and made the right call for yourself! Did you have crampons for the switchback section?

Adding a 2nd question:
Did you make it up past The Cables?
(They are at Switchback 46 of the 97: https://piotrowski.smugmug.com/California-Mountains/Mount-Whitney/The-97-Switchbacks-061012)

I'd love to hear that a path up past The Cables has been established...

1. I used microspikes not crampons
2. I got much higher than the cables (garmin says 13k ft) but i only noticed the cables on my way back, which means I and the others didn't walk on the exactly on the switchbacks but afew hundred ft further