Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board New MAP of the Switchbacks

For years now I’ve wondered just how many switchbacks there really are between Trail Camp and Trail Crest. To satisfy my curiosity, I took my Garmin 12 GPS and my Suunto altimeter and recorded the latitude, longitude and altitude for each turn of the switchbacks. Talk about tedious and time-consuming! Well, after many hours on the switchbacks, I discovered I had entered figures for 97 of them. I took all of the readings back home and used trigonometry to calculate the lengths and rises in height for each of the switchback segments. I found that the switchbacks go 2.1 miles in length, with a rise of over 1,500 feet. After compiling all of the figures, I then laid out a hand-drawn topographical map in an Excel spreadsheet with a scale of one inch to approximately 300 feet. The best USGS topos I’ve seen for Whitney only show one inch to 2000 feet. I used my GPS recorded data points, photos and USGS topos to draw the map. Bob R. on this Board was kind enough to verify a number of my readings and give me written descriptions on various aspects of the switchbacks, such as the seasonal spring shown on the map (fed by the winter snowpack). He has been an outstanding source of encouragement and inspiration to me personally--so much so, I dedicate the map to him! You can get the map and data by clicking on this link <a href=http://www.ridgenet.net/~rockwell/Climbing/WaynePyle97Switchbacks.xls>Map of the 97 Switchbacks</a>. It was designed to be printed on legal-size paper (8 1/2 x 14), but can be printed on regular-size paper (8 1/2 x 11). The map is by no means perfect, but I think it gives a fair rendition of the Mt. Whitney Trail from Trail Camp to Trail Crest. I’ve also included trail mileages, based on the book, Mount Whitney Guide for Hikers and Climbers, by Paul Hellweg and Scott McDonald. They show 6.3 miles to Trail Camp from the trailhead. I allow one-tenth of a mile farther to the start of the switchbacks at 6.4 miles. The map is for all of you reading this post to enjoy! Happy hiking! And special thanks to Bob R. for allowing me to post the map on his web site. I also thank Scott McKenzie for also posting the map on his own site, as well as my Whitney Mountain Sightings. See his posting here on the Board. If you have any questions, please click on my email button above this post.

Wayne,

I would like to know how you set up that map on excel?

Matt.

Wayne,

This is so cool! Thanks.

Wayne,

Thanks, you put a lot of hard work into this. It is great.

wayne,,, thanks for your efforts on the map....i have great .jpg of part of the switchbacks set to my background at work. you may have already seen it but i can send it to you if you like.

Wayne - Your spreadsheet answers a question I've wondered about for some years: what is the percent grade of the switch backs? It works out to almost 14%! Compare to the average grade of the whole trail at only 10%. This shows the importance of training on steep trails like the Mt. Baldy trails discussed in another thread. Thanks for posting.

Nice work !!

But exactly how did you draw the map. It is intriguing.

Being the inquisitive guy that I am, I wanted to know where the steepest grade was on the switchbacks. So I calculated the grade for every switch back and found that there was an engineering miracle taking place here. Evey switchback had exactly 13.7824% rise to it.

Either this is perfection at its best or the rise for each switchback is estimated.

But great work indeed any way. & how did you convert the Excel spreadsheet into a map

That is great Wayne, thanks for sharing your hard work with us.

That is a great map and your spreadsheet contains some interesting data!

Have you thought about doing the same thing for the 24 switchbacks between the John Muir sign and the traverse over to Lone Pine Lake? That would be useful for people going up/down in the dark.

Demonguy - I added a column to calculate the percent grade of each switchback and got the same result you did. However, a simple check with a hand calculator gives a different result. Something is going on behind the scenes of the spreadsheet. I haven't had a chance to look further.

ALL of the distances and elevation rises are calculations. The only way I know of to get something more precise would be to send a professional surveyor team up the trail. As the day drew on when I did my altitude measurements with my Suunto, high pressure built in the area, dropping my altimeter readings--making the readings lower than the actual elevations. Moreover, many of the switchback segments were so short, my altimeter could not detect the rise. I made adjustments when I got home, but I found so many unreasonable variations, I went ahead and calculated the rises based on the total lengths of the segments and the total rise from 12,062 ft. to 13,677 ft. (A little higher than the Park Service height of 13,600 ft.) Please bear in mind that the switchback lengths are calculations! These are straight-line calcs, which means the whole length of the switchbacks in reality is a bit longer than my calcs. A measuring wheel would be much more precise.

As far as laying out the map in Excel is concerned, I used the vertical and horizontal grids in the spreadsheet as latitude and longitude lines, with a grid line for each 100th of a minute in latitude and longitude. Then I took my readings for each switchback, and pinpointed them on the grid. Later, I used my GPS's "bread crumb" trail, photos and Bob R.'s drawings to change segments to be closer to reality. The contour lines were actually more difficult, because the latest USGS topo I have is all in meters for the contours, which I had to convert to foot-contours, take latitude-longitude readings at frequent intervals, then transfer the readings to my Excel grid. All the lines were done by Excel's drawing tools.

Anyway, save yourself from recalculating all the rises, as they were based on the average rise from the bottom to the top of the switchbacks. (Good observation, Demonguy. I chuckle when I run into stats like this in various publications.) It seems to me the rise is pretty constant on the switchbacks, but I think it would take a survey crew to nail the rises for each switchback segment. (Hang in there Richard. The rise must be between 10 percent and 14 percent.)

Bear in mind that all of my latitude-longitude readings are also subject to errors, plus or minus about 30 feet. It would take a much more expensive and sophisticated GPS instrument than my Garmin 12, I think, to do better.

As far as mapping other parts of the trail, I'll leave that to future mapmakers who can take the time to do it.

Trigonometric proof that the switchbacks are as theoretically tedious as they are in actuality.

Richard - the reason you get a different result with a calculator is that you are only using the displayed whole number in the calculator, whereas the spreadsheet uses the entire value which contains a decimal fraction part out to many decimal places.

I did the same thing you did but found that when you click on an altitude in the spreadsheet you see the entire number, like 12065.7655214563 on switchback #2, which is obviously too much resolution for a barometric altimeter.

GaryM - Thanks for pointing out the explanation.

Wayne - Obviously, detailed measurement of each switchback would require very sophisticated equipment. But, I think that your result for total rise and total distance should be fairly close. Hence, 1554 / 11279 = 13.78% grade which is steep enough for me. Thanks again for sharing your hard work.

Great map! Thanks for doing all that. Truly the work of a mad genius or some body with OCD. LOL. Okay, is that the way you calulate the percentage of the grade? That would mean that the Baldy trail from the church to the summit is something like 16 to 18 percent grade, no? It is somewhere between 6 and 7 miles with a 6000 feet elevation gain. Yes, Baldy is a good training hike for Whitney, but it doesn't get you prepared for the altitude.