Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board MC has spoken - MR - April 16-18, 2010

MC, Was looking at those awesome PNW photos again. Some nice big targets up there. And no haze! You could see for miles (and miles...). Is there a way to zoom your photos? When I hover the mouse over it says Click to zoom but nothing happened.

Hi I have delete several post. This will not turn into a pissing match. Thanks Doug

There have been references to “family” on this board for years, and at the risk of stirring up the pot, I’ll just say that this is one of the dynamics of family life. Some members plan events…some members question that decision…some members are comfortable with their abilities and experience…and some members, either by their own experience, or “lack of”, worry about the decision and the safety of those very family members.

I will admit that I DID worry about this trip. And I also admit that I am in the category of “lack of experience/knowledge” of winter hiking. I wasn’t able to make it down for this trip, but even if I could have, I would not have attempted it. I knew that this was not the trip for someone with NO winter experience.

I think it’s fair to say that Sky Pilot DID have a point in that it was lucky that the weather was so favorable. Especially on the heels of recent storms AND Doug’s warning the week before about avalanches. ....Causes for anyone to worry.

Every single person on this board was happy to see the success of this trip, and congratulations were exclaimed by all. And yes, there was a sigh of relief when the first reports were posted. That’s also what family members do.

It was obvious from a number of posts that there was “talking” going on both sides. Maybe not the best of human traits, but that’s what people do.

However, one of the BEST human traits is that we care for each other. I don’t believe that anyone said anything that wasn’t because of concern for each other.

Rosie

Rosie,

Good post.

What impressed me most about the group was how each person gauged their abilities and comfort zone.

I don't think that the risk factor would have increased significantly even if weather had been the same as the previous week. The turn-back point would have just been much lower for most. Of course the misery level would have been greater!

Jim

"Lead from the middle; it’s easier to see both sides." m.c.

Definite big targets... (after clicking on link to each photo, you can enlarge by clicking on 'sizes' at top left)
Mt. St. Helens
Mt. Rainier
Mt. Adams
Mt. Hood
Mt. Jefferson

Here is a link to my pix.

Right on Jim. We "listen" to DMatt all the time and his accuracy rate is pretty high. We'd have adjusted plans based on any change in the forecast. We did have communication down the mountain, so if anything unforseen came in, we would have heard about it.

Recall my conversation on Sunday afternoon: Many of these people have not seen what the Sierra can throw at you and to assume that you'll have three days of favorable weather in Spring is foolhardy. My thought was that if we have a "bad" weather forecast for next year's event, we head up to a reasonable elevation and see first-hand what the Sierra will throw at us. Of course, if we do have a bad weather forecast, I'll be doing those day-climbs I thought about doing this year.

I was exiting the North Fork on friday the 16th and ran into a few folks from this group. I only formally introduced myself to GigaMike, nice meeting you Mike. I'm glad it seems as though everyone had a great safe time up there- couldn't have asked for better conditions. I snapped these two pictures on my way out, I'm sure some of these folks were in the message board group. I have higher resolution pictures if anyone else is interested. Just shoot me an e-mail (info@sierramtnguides.com):

I'd like to say thanks to the group and certainly Richard and the rappel team––it was great to meet you all, even if I didn't get everyone's name . . . but I have a slightly off-topic question.

We got down to the portal on sunday afternoon, about noon, and drove into LP and came across someone humping it up the road––I thought it was a woman and "she had an old,huge, external frame pack, with what appeared to be several yellow plastics jugs attached––about 6-8 of them. looked like either some serious training or someone was getting a little too much desert heat??

bob

Ha, I saw that same person myself and was kind of curious what was going on. Sure had alot of empty yellow jugs!

People who are "housing challenged" in the desert often need to carry a lot of water to their temporary domicile.

Well, for a second we all thought it was the European gal––what was her name??

night before we were sitting around at UBS and up she skips, calling out for someone. so I slog over and she casually says she's looking for XX and "I have a pizza delivery!"

. . . needless to say, she's got nothing aside from a small backpack and crampons dangling and we're like, uhhhh, okay, . . . she proceeds up and over to Richard's camp and then a while later, she comes skipping back down and says she has to get back to her room and again, we're all thinking, sure . . . back to your room, right

Super woman. we were impressed . . . so when we saw the woman with all the yellow jugs, we sort of all sang out, now she's bringing them orange juice!

Great days!

BMan, that is such a perfect description: "The 1st Annual Unofficial, Un-sponsored, Much Maligned, Non-WPSMB Spring Assault of the WMR!" Enjoyed the conversation with you complemented by the Alabama coffee eggs and bacon - and look forward to to the 2nd AUUSMMNWPSMBSAOTWMR.

Well, having just retruned home from the "rescue mission" to retrieve the ropes, I would have to say we did get lucky.

The weather was nice, but quite a bit cooler and windier. (Is that a word?)

The Final 400' went from being a cruise-up to a lot more work.

Thanks Kurt for cleaning up the mess of ropes that I left up there and the pointers on how to set up a more reliable rap station.

Good work getting the guy who thought he could shimmy up to the summit on his stomach to turn around and head home.

We hung out on the summit for quite a while and a loud WTF came out of my mouth when I got to the edge and looked down... How the heck could there still be that many people heading UP and down that late in the day?

I am a firm believer in the requirement for year-round quotas on the route. There ARE just too many people on the route now in the weeks leading up to the summer quota season and one of these days, someone is going to get hurt during one of the jam-ups on the route.

BTW: a 25 pound daypack is way too heavy...