Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Best Guides For MR

My friend/climbing partner and I are planning on hiking the Mountaineer's Route this year. I hiked the main trail two summers ago, and togther we spent four days in the Grand Canyon over Christmas. I am looking for the best guide/map of the MR. Thanks.

BigMatt, unlike the main trail and your great Grand Canyon experience, the maps out there are not detailed enough to guide you over the Ebersbacher Ledges or up through the couloir or the final chutes. The best I've seen for topo maps is one inch to 2,000 feet, and that is too big of a scale for the MR. Furthermore, since it is a "route," rather than an established trail, it is not mapped. As I think you know, there are lots of great photos mentioned on this board that even have route-lines marked on them which can be most helpful. If you need a thorough write-up of the route, I've posted here before and would be happy to do so again.

Take a look at this post from Beach. He has many links to photos and reports. They would be a big help.

http://www.mt-whitney.info/viewtopic.php?t=126

BigMatt,
A guide would no doubt help, but could be costly. I recommend a basic topo map, nothing extremely detailed, just so you can match where you are to various features. I found that textual descriptions of the route, along with photos of key areas of the trip helped me prepare the most.

When I did the MR last summer for the first time, I read every description I could get my hands on, including details of the Ebersbacher Ledges. I "previewed" the hike the day before the summit attempt by climbing most of the way to Lower Boy Scout and back down.

The night before the hike, I was fortunate enough to meet someone in the portal store who was going up the next morning. He'd been up a few times before and knew the route, and was happy to have others along. Although I'm confident I would have succeeded without the help, it definitely helped me rest easier. There were a few areas where my knowledge would have led me up a slightly different route, which probably would have worked as well, but you never know!

It's not that you could get "lost" in the sense that you can't eventually find your way. After all, it's a fairly narrow canyon the whole way up. But you can take wrong turns and end up wasting time and energy getting through areas that should go quickly. The whole route is so steep, you don't ever want to turn back, even for just a few hundred feet!
A couple of tricky areas are the final climb to Iceberg Lake, which is easy if you take the right turn, but confounding if you miss it. The couloir has good and bad routes, and the chute can be tricky. If you take a bad route on the couloir, it just means you'll be doing some class 3 a little earlier than expected. Class 3 waits for you at the top anyway, so why not?!
The EB ledges turned out to be no problem, although if you take a wrong turn, they say you can get into real trouble, especially on the way back down. Just remember where you made your turns. There are cairns and conspicuous trees that will help as landmarks.

If you're backpacking (and thus time is less of an issue), you should be able to do it without a guide. However, some would disagree. Many will recommend a guide so that you don't do damage by getting off route and tearing through the vegetation. However, I saw a guided group flailing through some thick bushes apparently on a "shortcut".

Aah, you mean "guide" as in book, not person. Well, ignore that part of my advice... ;-)
Good Luck!

There are many good route guides out there. One that I really like was written by Doug Thompson Sr. It is called "Mount Whitney Mountain Lore from the Whitney Store"

Together with the pictures noted above, his description is an excellent one. You should not have any difficulty staying on route.

The book also has some other interesting things and helpful information in general, even for the seasoned hiker.

Try this. One of my favorite sites, great info on peaks, routes, and lots of pictures to help you visualize where you are going. Best of all, it is FREE! Site is www.summitpost.org the direct link to the Whitney MR is below. Good luck.

http://www.summitpost.org/show/route_link.pl/route_id/70/object_id/45

Eric J Lee

I agree, get Doug's book, and better yet spend some time with him at the sotre as he is an excellent resource.

While you can't get lost in that narrow canyon, do be aware that it's important to not get too far off "track" on the ledges as you can quickly get into an area that requires technical rock climbing and there have been fatalities in that area.

I have a desciption of the lower part of the route here:
http://www.frap.org/Misc/Mountaineers_Route.html

Ellen

BigMatt, I tried emailing you a topo map of the MR that I made with my Garmin 12 GPS, but your email icon says your email is blocked. If you are interested in my topo, please email me (click on my email icon), and I'll send it to you, or anyone else who would like to take a look.

There's a good book out called "Climbs in the Sierra Nevada." I don't know the author, but most good book shops will carry it. It goes over the 3 "crux" route finding problems on the MR and shows good pictures, including the Ebersbacher Ledges. I would be weary of some web pages with descriptions. I have found variations and incorrect data on more than one site. I'll try to find the author of that book. Good Luck!

Also..if you want a good "moving" description and video of the trail send me an e-mail and I'll send you a copy of the DVD we made of our hike up the Mountaineers Route. Unfortunately it ends a couple hundred feet above Iceberg Lake..lol...we didn't make the summit. But from that point on the route is pretty self explanatory I have pretty good footage all the way up to Iceberg though...and good shots of the E-Ledges...

BeachAV8R

hey bigmatt look for dvd..climbing whitney
in winter...made last year,$19.00 but I went to amazon.com and got it for $14.46 shipping included..like other people said summitpost is great,but dougs book is the best. I did MR route last october and copied pages from the book and that was my guide he dot's the I's crosses the T's good book doug..I will be going back up to MR the first weekend in May..can't wait!!!!

The name of the book with an excellent picture/description of the Ebersbacher Ledges and other key sections on the Mountaineer's Route is "High Sierra Climbing." The author is McNamara. It has the best description of the route that I've found in any guide book, including pictures of the key areas! Good Luck!

Being a very visual person, when I did the MR my first time I relied on a description and a few photo's from a friend. I took a lot of photo's and anotated some of them as a bit of a guide <a href="http://file.internetonastick.net/wmr2004/">here</a>. The route is pretty straight forward, the only parts we saw people confused on were the Ebersbacher ledges but if you find the waterfall, it is pretty obvious from there; and the section between Lower Boy Scout Lake (LBSL) and UBSL. Make sure you get on the slabs above LBSL early after going up the boulder field and you'll save a lot of bush whacking. If you go on a weekend, chances are you'll see people going up and coming down and most will be happy to help. Good luck! I'll be making my second Winter attempt March 12th after a <a href="http://file.internetonastick.net/mlk2005/">solo training attempt</a> in January.

BigMatt:

This may not be up your alley, but I heard that Sierra Mountaineering International based in Bishop is really good...albeit pricey ($690.00 for the 3 day trip, but they provide food, cooking and tent.)

Today is my 60th birthday. I bought this trip as a once-in-a-lifetime adventure and you're never really too old to hike Whitney if you stay in shape. Their website is www.sierramountaineeringinternational.com
for all information.Even if you do not buy a guided trip, this info is for others who might be interested. Minimum is a 2 party hike. If you are alone, they will put you with an existing group.