Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Crampons/Ice Axe for early June - a must??

Wow! I'm surprised at the lack of prudence and preparation people exercise when risking THEIR LIFE and are demonstrating on this post. Just watched two great "documentaries" last night, The Beckoning Silence and Touching the Void. In both movies the climbers had a "we can do it" attitude and were very accomplished. Nature had other plans for them and it was exactly these attitudes that got them in trouble.

I learned that 80% of problems happen on the decent. It's not about getting up its about getting down. Everyone always thinks "it won't happen to me" but then again, no one ever thinks it will.

Would you go out on a freeway your first time behind the wheel of a car? Then why would you "learn" winter mountaineering skills your first time on Whitney? Sure you make be completely successful but you may not. I know I sound sort of preachy and I'm by no means "safety man" but I do strongly believe in being responsible. Going up uninformed and unprepared isn't brave its reckless and dangerous.

I'll be up Memorial Day Weekend. Best wishes to all!

Speaking of chopping steps ... I spent several hours chopping steps this past Friday coming off Thor Peak (and I should know better). A friend and I climbed up the Stemwinder (which I've done before) but got started far later than we wanted and were over confident that we'd make up the time. Well, we didn't and ended up topping out on the route just after sunset. Because I had hoped we'd be on our way down before dark I expected we would have soft snow for the descent and therefore we only brought ice axes. Unfortunately half way down to Lower Boy Scout Lake (in the dark) we hit increasingly hard snow/ice. Up to this point I had been able to kick multiple times with my heels to form a step but the lower we got the more solid the snow/ice became. Eventually kicking as hard as I could only resulted in my foot bouncing off the hard surface and so I was forced to start chopping steps. The snow was so icy hard that this turned out to be extremely slow and laborious. The further we got down the slope the worse it got. Glissading was not an option due to the hard slick surface. It was a silly situation to be in and I berated myself for assuming we'd be ok without crampons. After hours of chopping steps we finally veered off to the side of the slope just above the camp at LBSL. Here we were able to set up a few rappels off rocks (we had climbing gear) to get further down but the mountain fought us to the very last inch. At one point I even started to chop a bollard (for a rappel anchor) but my partner (probably wisely) urged me to abandon that idea. We finally got back down to the Portal after 1am.

So anyway, there are plenty of others to offer advice. It's always nice though to have the right equipment when you need it. Sometimes the conditions don't turn out quite as you expect.

sctrojan308 - how right you are at the frivolous nature climbing
actually is. Not a secret that most us go up with happy hearts and return dead tired glad its over. How do beginners learn this reality without doing the climb? Really I do know "its" going to happen to me, assume it every trip. So I'm ready for "it".

TheBug84 - Be ready to handle the inevitable disaster as sctrojan308 so wisely advises. Practice, train, psych up!

R Kent - Good ice axe work! Chopping steps lower than your boots,
at night down the mountain is hero territory. You deserve a medal friend!

A clip from a steep section of the trail MartiniGal posted:O-Eek!
http://gs344.photobucket.com/groups/p349/OU0CGKS29G/?action=view&current=P1000594.flv