Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board which route is less nuts?

Hi. My JMT+ trip i had to cancel last August is on for this August. I'm trying to hit lots of stuff along the way, including a few 14ers. Here are the 2 closing scenarios, and i'd appreciate your opinions on each.

Both scenarios i'd leave the JMT at Guitar Lake and head northeast off trail.

1) Camp at Arctic Lake. The next morning, climb up to the Russell-Whitney saddle, ditch pack, climb the south face of Russell, then back to the saddle, continue up the north face of Whitney, camp at the summit somehow (or head down to trail camp if weather is dangerous). Mt. Muir and finish the next day.

2) Camp at the last water (?) above Arctic Lake. Follow the same route as above, but all in one day and finish.

Any thoughts appreciated, including the difficulty of the routes (i'm counting on finding my way Class 3), campsites, water, summit camp, etc. My background is reasonably experienced with backpacking and scrambling, but limited on technical climbing. My hiking pace is about average it seems, but hopefully by the end of the JMT i'll be going faster than that.

What you are proposing includes some very challenging terrain. Camping on the summit is highly unadvisable due to exposure and rapid weather changes. Camping near to most lakes in the area is better. If you do not have a lot of class 3 and some on rope experience, you may want to try the Moutaineers Route up, main trail down, to test your abilities or take along a more experienced climber familar with the area. In any case, be honest with your skill level, turn back and take the trail when your stomach, not your head, says so.

Thanks for the reply icpman. I do have plenty of Class 3 experience. It's the rope experience that is limited...and that i won't be carrying anyway. The book and reports i can find never mention any belaying or protection for these routes...is the route-finding such that i'll get stuck with 10-foot walls in front of me? It doesn't look like it, but it's a heckuva bad place to find out. I can't really do the Mountaineers Route, since i'll be coming from the JMT, from the west.

I'll count your reply as a vote for the Plan 2 long day, with an added willingness to back down and the next day go back around to the main trail.

Markv - from the description of your post, it appears you may not know the area well. In hopes of saving you from a bad ending, of what sounds like a great trip, If I were you I would consider hiking to the summit of Whitney first. Then decending the MR route, and then climbing Russell from UBSL the next day. Maybe rest a day or hike out after Russell.

I have been in those areas almost every year for the past 10 years.

GL

From the Artic Lakes area the south headwall route of Mt. Russell should be no problem. It is class 2 until you reach the headwall (about 70 feet).

http://client.webshots.com/album/220811305EhuLqw/1

I see the North face of Whitney more of a concern. It is seldom climbed but possible.

See this discussion of the routes on the north face of Mt. Whitney from a while back.

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002463

It might be easier to drop the gear near Whitney Russell pass, climb Mt. Russell via the south headwall route and then drop over the Whitney Russell pass to camp at Iceberg lake. From there you can head up the MR to Mt. Whitney and Mt. Muir. You could carry your gear over the top and come down the main trail (a bigger effort) or just leave your gear at Iceberg lake and come down the North Fork to the Portal.

I've looked at a map which shows the john muir trail crossing both russell and whitney,
I was wondering how difficult it would be to get to that trail from iceberg lake and bag the two peaks using that trail (In mid may)??

Chris,
If you have a map that shows the JMT crossing Russell it is in error. The JMT terminates at the summit of Mt. Whitney.

Chris,

That's probably the park boundary line you're looking at. I think I thought the same thing the very first time I looked at a Whitney topo. In reality this boundary line is the jagged top of the Sierra Crest.

Mark,

I decended the South Face of Mount Russell and ascended the North Face of Mount Whitney last year. As Kashcraft has noted, the North Face of Whitney is pretty tough even without a heavy pack. I shudder to contemplate hauling a heavy pack up that way, but you goal of hitting Russell does pose a difficult choice. I'm still not sure what I would do.

If you go down the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek, then the plan outlined by Kashcraft is probably ideal. If on the other hand you are intent on descending via the main trail, then things get more complicated.

If this is the case, you might consider a third option:

3) Drop your heavy gear at Guitar Lake. Hike up past Arctic Lake to the Russell/Whitney saddle. Do Russell via the South Face. Descend back down to Guitar Lake. Pick up your heavy pack. Hike up the JMT to the junction with the main trail. Drop the pack again at the junction. Continue up to Whitney and return back to the junction to pick up your pack. If it were me (and time allowed) I would also do Mt Muir. Finally, descend the main trail. Camp at Trail Camp and then hike out the following day.

Like I said, I'm still not sure what I would do, but this is another option. I can certainly understand not wanting to descend back down to Guitar Lake.

-Rick

I hiked the JMT in July/August 2003, ending at the Portal. If you are like me, at the end of your hike, extra side trips are just delaying that hamburger you have been dreaming about for 220 miles. I wound up topping out on Whitney at 4 AM in order to get down faster. Boy, did that and a beer taste good!

Thanks for the replies. If you don't mind me digging a little more...

tkid, i do only know the area from research and maps...i've never been there. Is there something in my post that is misinformation? If i'm being clueless about something specific, lay it on me, please for my own good.

Thanks for the links Kash. It's interesting that from you and the old thread, north face of Whitney poses the biggest challenge of the proposed route. From the 14ers book and the summitpost info, it's Russell that looks dicey, and the north face of Whitney just looks like a grind, but not a problem.

Rich, great pics. All the advice about the north face is giving me pause, believe me. Still, my pack by that point should be no more than 25 pounds, and i will have gotten used to doing major miles and gain with it. I just can't believe i'll be unable to do it in terms of strength or endurance. It's the route-finding aspect that worries me, without any rope or pro. But as you know, i don't know the area...i may heed the warnings and just go up the main trail and get to that hamburger and beer faster. I'd just rather not.

Markv - when I read your post I thought about how much snow there is up there right now. I would estimate between 30 and 35 feet for the year so far. In Oct. 98 the MR shute was still full of snow that had turned to almost perfect ice. Along with that Mt. Russell is very blocky; good places for ice and snow, which would make the route more challanging. Another thing about the standard Russell route is that the blocks accross the ridge are loose and sway just a little. The north face of Mt. Whitney will also have snow and ice. Near the top there are rocks that I have climbed through (about 10ft. high) that were a little more difficult then the shute at the top of the MR notch. My thinking is that this area will hold a lot of snow, due to its' slope and aspect.

I hadn't given much thought to snow, since it will be the last week of August that i'm there. Is there a good online source for keeping tabs of sierra snowpack?

You can check out the snowpack at http://cdec.water.ca.gov/snow/current/snow/

However, all the sensors will be showing zero snow long before you are out there and won't give you any indications of patches lying in any shutes and north facing slopes. Watch the sensors for a general idea of how long the snow is lasting then check other peoples trip reports nearer the time.

The South Face of Mt. Russell has Multiple challenging rock climbing routes, hence pages of detailed descriptions available. Since you will be doing the southheadwall route, you will not have to worry about that.

From Mt. Russell, the North side of Whitney looks mostly like a vertical wall. Rick Kent showed it can be done, though. He is a good determined climber though, confident and aggressive, and does things above the average cross country hiker. I suspect you could make that descision went you get there. Take some of his photos along, just in case, since route finding would be real important if you go up the north face of Mt Whitney.

If you choose to go over the Whitney Russell pass, you don't need to drop down to Iceberg lake. You can keep mostly horizontal across the scree field until you come into the MR chute.
That will save you dropping all the way down to the lake if you are taking the main Mt. Whitney trail down.

We were on the Southheadwall route of Mt. Russell in late May last year (2004). It was mostly dry already except for a patch of snow toward the top on a shelf. There was lots of snow on the north side though and down on the east Arete route that early in the year. The MR. often has left over snow or ice patches even in August. Especially the easy traverse route. But July, what snow is there is rock hard. You will just need to go around them, the snow and ice that is still around. I wouldn't suspect that will be much of a problem, even in a wet year.

Speaking of snow, I do recall there being some on Whitney's North Face. It wasn't a real big deal but what was there (in September) was hard icy stuff that I had to detour around occaisionally. I would expect there will be a bit more this year, though I think you should be able to work your way around these spots as I did.

-Rick