Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Trip reports & Rte conditions N Fork/Mtneers Rte.

I'm new to the message board. I have noticed that some times there is fairly current route conditions tucked into a fairly old message that is titled with a fairly old date ie. "Mountaineers route conditions 10/12/08". If you scroll down through that post, you eventually find much more current reports.
I thought maybe we could just have a post for a specific route and as people report conditions, they can just include the date in their report. Just a little less "hide and seek" to find what we want.
I hope to be back to this post soon to post some actual conditions... Maybe I'll find someone has added some as well!

welcome to the board. all sorts of friendlys here. good idea, look forward to your TR.

Oh man, when I saw this thread I was foaming at the mouth hoping for a new report that would tell me the Willows in the North Fork were buried. You big tease!

As of right now, the willows in the north fork are covered enough to get by them on the north side without climbing the ledges.

Just the sort of information I was looking for. Thanks!

just got back from attempting a climb via the mountaineers route. We were able drive within about a mile of the trailhead without chains or much difficulty.
The trail head to the northfork had some snow, but bootable. About halfway from the main trail to the entrance to the ledges, we slapped the snowshoes on because we were breaking through a thin crust and stepping at least to the knees in the powder below. We skipped the ledges by wading through the willows.
The whole route up to Iceberg lake was snowshoes with the exception of the last little pitch up to the lake. In some of the steeper parts the shoes would grab the crust and it would break free and slide over the snow below. Made the going fairly slow. We made a camp at iceberg lake. While making camp, a pair of climbers came down the route from the summit. They were very strong climbers and have done the round trip mountaineers route in several time in one day pushes. This time, it took them 7hours from iceberg lake up to the top and back to iceberg lake. And I should say again, they were fit and pushing really hard. They took the route up to the base of the east buttress start to avoid the deeper snow in the main section. It was knee to thigh deep up the section and thigh to crotch deep up the rest to the notch.... with snowshoes on! Tough going! They went up the section to the climbers left at the notch. He said it felt like fifth class and they belayed the whole section. For the way down, they went down the north face to the notch and down the rest of the regular route to the lake. Our water supply was meager and with those conditions, sounded like more than me and my partner wanted to tackle. We descended to the car the next morning. It had been warm for the previous couple of days and things below lower boyscout were melting quite a bit.
Obviously I would have liked to have made it to the top, but I was glad to scout the majority of the route and will come back and hopefully top out under better conditions.

** One of the strong climbers that we had talked to after they had come down from the top, was Tony from LA. If anyone knows him, maybe he could give his trip report?

I'm surprised you got so far up on the road. Was the sign for the trailhead buried under snow?
In December my group met another group that had done the North Fork up to UBSL in January of 2008. They told us that when they had done it last year the willows were completely buried under snow and they were basically cramponing over them. It sounds like we never reached those kinds of conditions this year. Can you speculate on the snow depth in the North Fork? How about on the south side of LBSL?
Thanks

On the east entrance to lower boyscout lake, there was only a foot or a little more,,, more where it was drifted. Along the south side of lake, maybe a couple of feet (2-3)and again, more where drifted.
a number of areas between lower bs lake and the main trail where really thawing out on our way down,, rocks and bushes showing.
Maybe the snow expected this week will help?

A group of 4 headed up on the 18th and camped at around 12,100' in the valley in front of Whitney. We had a late start around 10:30am and made our campsite between 4:30 and 5:30, depending on the individual. It was a pretty fit group with pack weights between 45 and 56 pounds and we could have easily gotten higher had we started earlier. It probably could have been a day trip if we packed light and left early.
The road is now clear, and the trail was dry until shortly before the 1st creek crossing. Time of day matters, and it can be an icy or slushy mess in the North Fork before Lower Boyscout. The ledges look like the best way to go now. Above LBSL it is still winter looking, but the snow can be soft or hard depending on time of day. Above Iceberg conditions were perfect with ready made stairs and solid snow almost the entire way to the summit. We had the summit to ourselves and total descent time from top to bottom was around 4.5 hours, 2/3 of which was with packs that added lots of weight.

Congrats!

Just a note: the south facing slope below Icebeg is prone to sliding in Spring. A few climbers got caught in one that buried their tent a few seasons ago. Haven't looked at any photos this year, but I'm guess there isn't enough snow to be concerned.

Thanks, it was a good trip. My party, and another group camped below a rock face where there appeared to be no risk of slide. The area directly below Iceberg did have the look, but might not have had the snow.