Portal road should open 8 AM on the 25 th Jan. per INYO PW .
On conditions I would stress hard surface as we haven't had storms for weeks now and the melt freeze cycles , also could be tree wells/rock wells and not enough snow to cover the brush in the NF . I have watched the webcam rocks on Thor showing and the area of the route up to Iceberg getting rock showing now.
I talked with some one last week that said they were told on the main trail use the bypass above the Permit sign just past Lone Pine Lake , I suggested if you don't know that area you can end up near the waterfall above Outpost camp area and sections are steep with several boulder fields that could be land mines now .
On the North Fork people often miss the saddle left of Upper Boyscout lake and end up in the canyon North'ly and wester'ly. Enough traffic going to Russel can also lead people into thinking this must be the way to Whitney. On another note there is a great scramble up the prow just past the saddle, some low class 4/5 blocks to scale and a down hill walk into Iceberg.
