Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Last Official Winter Ascent Of The Year...

Mike made it up to the summit 22 minutes before the start of Spring... And then climbed down in Spring.

Probably also the first day-climb of the year.

More later from him.

At what time did spring begin? I summitted on March 20 at around noon, so most likely that was in the spring. But most of the hard work was done in the winter (March 18-19), while hauling that 60-pound pack up to around 11800 feet.

According to WIKI plus a few calculations it looks like spring started on:

2010 March 20 17:32 UTC
2010 March 20 10:32 PDT

And the longest day of the year should start:

2010 June 21 11:28 UTC
2010 June 21 04:28 PDT

So, who was the last one to the top before 2010/03/20 10:32?
Isn't it cool that sometimes it is better to be slow than fast?
If Mike had been a bit faster it wouldn't have been a twofer.

Looks like I missed it by a couple of hours. Maybe I'll try again next year. It's only a 4-hour drive from Las Vegas to Lone Pine.

It was interesting to see the different climbing methods above the Notch. A couple of solo climbers with just ice axe and crampons, SMI with a fixed line, SWS with some rock and snow anchors (pickets, nuts, etc).

I was on top at 10:10am and had the summit to myself the whole time. I'll have pictures and a short TR tomorrow.

GigaMike, I remember talking to you briefly on Saturday. How difficult was the solo descent to the Notch? Seems like there were some good steps kicked into the snow, but some of the rocky areas might have been harder to down-climb.

Hey Guys,

Looking at Mike's photo's did someone steal the summit register? That really sucks for Kurt's clients, especially if that was there first Whitney summit.
Hey Mike great pics looks like the snow's melting fast on the road here's to a chance we will get to park at the portal in 4 weeks!

Yeah Jeff the summit register box was empty of pages. They had reached the summit via the Main Trail once before though and we have plenty of photos to document the ascent so it's all good. Below is a summit photo. More photos and a conditions update to follow soon.

Summit of Mt. Whitney March 20, 2010


I wouldn't count on getting higher up the road any time soon. An avalanche left about 6'+ of snow just beyond where people had been driving up to. Not only will it block the road for a while it is also a preview of coming events likely to happen in the higher elevations of the Sierra as the spring season unfolds.

Whitney Portal Road March 21, 2010

Indeed, as Vitaliy pointed out in his TR from last week, there are no pages in the register box.

The snow is melting out fast. The crux on the road will be that snow slide that is across it just above the switchback.
The snow at the portal was firm in the morning but was postholing in the pm warmth.

Interesting parade on the MR on saturday. Left the road closed sign at 4:00. Caught up to Mescalito at Iceberg lake, a guided group, and two Russian guys from San Diego on the way to the notch.
Crampons and ice axe up the center of the final 400, great steps kicked in all the way.
Ran into Gigamike in the final 400 as he was descending.
One of the Russians did a polar bear thing and proceeded to strip on the summit, most of us managed to be facing the other way.
Watched Kurt belay some climbers from his guided group down the final 400. I took the rocks down 2/3 of the way of the final 400, then traversed the snow back to the center of the gully.

It was good to have my first Whitney ascent of the year, back for more I'm sure.

Woo Hoo! Congratulations Mike! Looks like you had great weather, too. Can't wait to see your TR.

That slide was pretty wild huh? I remember thinking on the way up that it seemed likely that someone would push through a little further while we were out. Would have been quite a surprise to come down and be parked above that thing!





How did folks make out summitting Sunday? Looked to be quite a crew "in position" but that wind was something else!

Jed
(we didn't summit until a few hours into spring- we were the last to summit via the Mountaineers route on the first day of spring. Is that worth anything? :-))

Here's a link to my photos:

Mt. Whitney, March 18-21

Mescalito,

Great stuff . . . headed up there in another two or so weeks. Get that road cleared, would ya?

bob

Great job, Mike. Looks like there were lots of folks in the Whitney Zone enjoying the first day of spring

fyi, I bumped into Wes up on Baldy on Sunday. He said you were up on Whitney but was hoping you’d zip back down and meet him on Baldy to give him some speed glissade tips

Hey Jim (sierragator), I didn't realize how special climbing Whitney on Saturday was to you until I saw your pictures. Congrats!

Mescalito345- It was good meeting you. The descent back to the Notch wasn't too bad. It would of been easier if I could of down climbed the same way I came up, but other climbers were coming up so I traversed the top and came down on the left side.

Jeff- There is no chance we'll be parking at the Portal in a few weeks. There is still a lot of snow on the road and at the portal. Prepare to hoof the packs up the road

Blooty- Thanks!

Graham- Thanks. I was just too tired after Whitney on Saturday to drive back. I'm sure we'll run into each other again on Baldy soon.

GigaMike, it looked like it might be possible to take off crampons and down-climb Class 3/4 rock to the Notch. Is that what you did, or did you keep your crampons on?

I must of not been paying much attention but Jim (sierragator) said he down climbed the rock part way. I kept my crampons on and stayed on the snow as much as possible.