Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Lost summit...(MR trip report)

Interesting story. I agree with BobR's comments. It seems like this situation developed over many hours. I would be interested in learning more about the decisions that were made and why.

nice pics!

Pics inop.

Chris, if you make it out in a couple of weeks and decide to go for the summit on the 11th, or 12th, let me know. I'd like to join you if it works out. I've been climbing fairly strongly in the past couple of weeks and the MR has been on my mind.

The warnings about weather should be taken seriously though. Last Tuesday night there were snow flurries at UBSL and I'm sure you've seen the creeks icing up, so winter is approaching. (I'd been intersted in hearing how you guys avoided slipping down the slabs below UBSL during your downclimb? I climbed up to UBSL in the dark on my recent trip to avoid having to deal with possible ice in the morning.)

Nice presentation. Keep up the atitude of willingness to help others, even when it costs you your summit bid. It's definitely a good way to live your climbing life.

I was thinking of heading over and trying for the summit via MR on the 8th or 9th October if the weather is still fairish. If that's not too early for you, I'd be happy to have some company. I plan to get up and down in a day. Did a reconnaissance trip a couple of weeks ago, and on that basis expect to be on the summit in 6-7 hours.

the group roping up to summit above the notch made fairly decent time - they started a little later than wanted to see if the guy they left at notch would recover satisfactorily to summit. he was feeling better but was deemed wise to let him recover his strength more while the rest of the group summited. being there i saw no bad decisions. if i felt there was a problem - i would have stayed behind to help.

like chris said - if the party had not stopped they may have just pushed on and been out sometime in the middle of the night. noone will ever know. i think guides were making good decisions and the party was in capable hands.

chris - congrats on your day in the moutain - you now know you have the stamina to summit including reserves in case small adjustments which may cause unexpected delays - maybe i will see you back in a couple weeks. so far no new snow - conditions about the same - will monitor for next week

Chris - Unfortunately, now that I'm trying to view your pictures at home, I'm getting nothin' but a bunch of red "x"s also. I've tried all the usual stuff (right-click, show picture; cut and paste URL) and nothin' works. I did read the rest of your report, however. If my PC ever brings up your pictures, I'll look at the rest of them then.

CaT