Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Tyndall/Williamson

Having only been in the bowl twice a long time ago... I suggest not dropping down into the bowl until it's getting light. Even the pass might be tricky in the dark if the trail through the talus is in the typical state of disarray.

Sounds like a plan.

Casey - good to see you around - back in CA for a while?

I'll be finishing a Mammoth Lakes to my house and back to ML trip on Friday with my daughter (hope to do Ritter and Banner) and should be perfectly acclimatized for this - I'll have to work out a few red tape items first and travel back for my daughter (and deal with overcommitting and trying not to get fired) - Tony B.

Tony,

It would be great to do this trip with you if you can make it. Knock out Ritter and Banner real quick and then meet up with us. Didn't you do them last year anyway?

I applied for a permit for 6 people to enter Shepherd's Pass Trailhead on Saturday July 10th and to exit on Sunday July 11th.
They allow 15 people to enter there per day (9 can be reserved and 6 are held for walk-in). I randomly selected Jeff Scofield, Tony Boiteux, and Lori Williams as alternate group leaders. I hope that is cool with you guys. It's okay if some people have slightly different plans, but I wanted to have some spots reserved because I imagine it will be a desirable date. Let me know what you all think.

thanks, that will encourage me to make it - I had to cancel last year's trip and fix my leach field (not a fun job)

Snowman

Thanks for getting the permit and welcoming me on your trip. I am in unless my Rainer permit comes back for that weekend but more than likely it will be pushed later in July.

My permit got shot down- they only had 1 reservable space. They still allow 6 for walk-in though. Arrrrrrr. Chances of getting a walk-in are probably pretty decent though. Who all wants to give this a shot?

My daughter doesn't want to sleep in the snow - so I may change our Ritter trip to August, which guarantees I'll be there for Will/Tyndall - I don't think it will be a prob getting the permit either.

Tony,

Sorry she doesn't like to sleep in the snow. Who does though? Well that would be awesome if you could make this trip. I had a blast with you bushwacking from Cloud's Rest to HD last year. Incidently, I'm heading back up there on July 2nd. I'm going to attempt my gf to make it up the cables. I have your number and will give you a buzz later.

Now I'm thinking to go in before Saturday - I'd really like to do both peaks - that may also ease up the permit situation. And I've been reading trip reports on how difficult the Shepherd's Pass hike-in is. If anyone else is interested, let me know so I can attempt to reserve permit spaces. And Casey, we'll meet up with the rest of you guys in the Bowl to do whichever peak is your highest priority.

I talked to Casey today and called the Bishop Ranger Station four times (I kept having additional questions) – so this post is informational. Then the next post can be our tentative plan, if it sounds good to you guys.

As Casey said earlier, Shepherd’s Pass has a quota of 15 people per day (9 reservable permits for $5.00 per person, 6 walk-in only permits which are free)

I asked about everyday from 7/8 to 7/14 – basically there are not any reservable permits left (1 on 7/8 a Thursday and 2 on 7/13 a Tuesday – 7/14 has all 9 open, but that’s about the time you are prohibited from doing Williamson)

They begin issuing the walk-in permits at 11:00 a.m. the day before. Only 4 Visitor Centers along 395 issue the Shepherd’s Pass trailhead permits and it’s first come first serve. So, if Person A is waiting in line at 10:59 in Bishop and Person B is waiting in line at 10:59 in Lone Pine and they both want 6 walk-in permits for their group and the Ranger in Lone Pine is a faster typist than the one in Bishop, then Person B is the only one who will get any permits that day.

Only one person needs to be present to get all of the permits (up to the limit of 6)

Potential problem: Snow and route-finding to the Bowl can be a time wasting issue since we are trying to do this in a day or two. (See solution next post)

All of the Rangers that I spoke with stressed the importance of a back-up plan. (see next post for back up plans)

I spoke with both Casey and Adam today – Casey can only enter on Sat, 7/10. Adam and I are flexible. One of us can enter on Thursday or Friday (7/8, 7/9) by picking up a walk-in permit the day before (if anyone else wants be in on that, let me know, we might also be able to get Tyndale, Trojan, and/or Versteeg on Thu/Fri) – If that’s me, I’ll struggle with the route finding on 7/8 or 7/9 and then head part way back to meet everyone else and show you the least difficult way to the Bowl on Saturday morning. Then the other person can attempt (by being in line before 11:00 a.m. on Fri 7/9) to get the 6 (or however many are going) permits for Saturday entry. Then that person can meet with the others sometime between say midnight and 8:00 and begin hiking in.

Here are some possibilities for back-up plans (from South to North):
Plan A: Mt Langley
Plan B: Russell, Carillon
Plan C: Some combination of Temple Crag, Gayle, Sill, Polemonium
Plan D: Thunderbolt
Plan E: WMP
Plan F: Ritter & Banner

Tony I wasn't going to make this trip after ZombieDude said he couldn't make it but if Adam goes for shure I can go. I'll call Adam today to discuss some details. I most likely can only go Sat and Sun though and for me in the shape I"m in Big WIllie would be to much but Tyndall would be doable. I"m open as well but would prefer not to kill myself physically...It's been a rough year with small naggin injuries.

I want to try to do as much as I can this summer too. I'm game for Conness, Lyell, Russell, Langley, Tyndall, and T-Bolt.

I'm 99% sure I will be entering to do Williamson/Tyndall by Shepherd's pass on 7/8 or 7/9. If anyone would like to join me, let me know.

My trip plan is still subject to revision, but at this point two of us are planning to leave Cottonwood Lakes trailhead on Sunday 7/4, and exit Symmes Creek on Saturday 7/10, with a day of cushion at the end just in case we don't exit until Sunday 7/11. We would be climbing Williamson and Tyndall on Thurs-Fri or Fri-Sat.

Big question is route- If we're coming by trail then we would have a base camp on Shepherd Pass. If we come over from Russell to Barnard to Trojan and Lk Helen of Troy we may camp in the Williamson basin Thursday night, then on the pass Friday night. Which way we travel and our pace will also dictate which mountain we do first.

JimQ, I'll try to be around those areas Thursday or Friday and keep an eye out for you guys. I'll have my green REI backpack. And I'll post again one last time around 7/2 or 7/3 to see if anyone else has an interest. Hoping to get in Conness on Tue and WMP on Wed with future-son-in-law so I should have some good acclimatization. Hope to see you thereabouts. Tony B.

Tony,

I can't do Conness during the week. Do you want to do it one of these weekends with me? What's your schedule looking like?

Four of us from Las Vegas are planning to try Williamson and Tyndall on July 11-13. I haven't been to that area before. On the first day, do most hikers camp at Anvil Camp or Shepard's Pass?