Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Fall Conditions on the Main Whitney Trail

No one has requested info on recent conditions, but--just in case--here is my report from November 22/23: Whitney trail.

Above Bighorn Park the trail was more often snow-covered than not, and melt/freeze made for slippery going in places.

We went up the 97 Switchbacks. Most people will want crampons and ice axes for that, but we didn't use ours.

On the descent from Trail Crest, we followed the switchbacks down to #90, then traversed an old trail into "the chute." The chute went OK, although there was some postholing at the bottom until we got to the main trail again.

The approaching storm will change things a bit, although I doubt much.

View of the 97 Switchbacks from a window near Mt. Muir:

Thanks for the update as we will be climbing beginning Thursday. We will be bring ice ax and crampons but do we need snowshoes also?

Here is a photo with the top switchbacks numbered.



You can see the use trail that cuts over for Bob's climb at switchback #90.

The "?" is for a switchback that was bypassed many years ago.

Bob, there are a few of us who would really appreciate it if you put up TR's every time you come down from the Whitney area.

I know I can go looking at Flickr, but it's a lot easier to read it here.

Thanks again.

> Bob, there are a few of us who would really appreciate it if you put up TR's every time

I would say a lot more than a few!

Thank you for the reports. And thanks to Wayne, too, for the annotated pictures.

And a curious note about Bob's NOAA Trail Camp link It shows an elevation of 12211 ft, and is reported out of "NWS San Joaquin Valley/Hanford, CA". Alternately, if you click on the Weather Links in the Feature Topic box (above on the left), and on the Whitney Summit Weather, it shows an elevation of 12812 ft (that's as high as I could get on their map), but the temps are quite different. Also, that map reports it is out of "NWS Las Vegas, NV". There is a jurisdictional boundary at the Sierra crest, and the two sites' weather doesn't always agree.

I wish there were actually a weather site on the summit, like there is on White Mountain. It would be valuable and interesting information.

---- Mt. Whitney Hikers Association ----

Thank you for the information, the links and the pictures. Your kindness is greatly appreciated!

It seems to me we had this discussion a while back but I can't remember when so I'd have trouble searching for the thread. I thought the reason we can't get that altitude higher (I have tried too) is the map is somehow averaging things out.

It's storming up in the hills as I write this and raining in Bishop. I'm excited to see the blanket of snow that will be revealed once the storm clears!

Wishing I could do some "storm chasing" up there this afternoon. (Have to drive down to L.A.) I'm sure it'll be beautiful once it clears up. The Owens Peak area was looking really interesting as I was heading out to lunch. Very dramatic.

You, or Laura, ought to get up some pics. :-)