Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Whitney Portal snow camp TR/pics - 12/19/10

Many years ago at Camp Pendleton, I once had to have my van pulled out from pure mud. It was stuck, along with about 3 or 4 other vehicles to the doors. A four wheeler came to help us, fell on it's side, injuring someone in the back of the truck. Finally, a large tractor showed up and the driver said $250.00 each car. We had no choice but to say yes. We all got out. Remember, $250 back in 1976 would probably translate to around $1000 now (more or less).

Wow! Just missed the Darwin Award nominations!"
Wow! I just don't get "The fair weather sailor" comment!
These guys were experienced, prepared and had the appropriate clothing and equipment for adverse weather. The forecast snow dump,snow level and storm intensity was wrong. The walk out breaking trail would be inconsequential and certainly not life threatening.

Milo - the guys did do great! But perhaps an excellent A+ rating
would have gone like this: after dinner in the tent Luciano would
insisted on packing up and hiking out via headlamp, collecting
the cabin people on the way down (if they'd go), and thus driving down before the snow got too deep on the lower switchback.

Since Luciano's pics show it was snowing where they parked their
vehicle(snow on jacket), then after seeing how hard it started
snowing after the hot coco break at the cabin; deciding to believe their eyes rather than the forecast and go down right then would be an A++. I know hindsight etc etc. Luciano and his friend did very well and we should thank them for sharing.

A friend of mine and I are thinking of doing this same winter hike in early February, and stay the night at the Portal. We are both experienced winter hikers, and have all of the proper gear. My question is are there any permits required to spend the night at the Portal during the winter? Where is the best place to pitch a couple of tents for the night? Thank you for any advise. Whitney Mike

Thanks for the nice words . At the car itself, it was actually raining and turned to sleet a few hundred feet up (roughly where the first pic was taken). It only really turned to snow shortly before the cabin, which is located just below the 8k level. So, we really thought it was still raining down at the car. The temps at the portal also remained really warm, so we were very surprised to see the snow line had dropped that far down. My guess is that the temp at the portal was not much lower than at the bottom of the road, which is pretty unusual for the elevation difference. Oh well

As far as I know, you don't need any permits if you are just on the road. As far as tent location goes, it doesn't matter too much if the weather is fair. In our case, we opted to be away from the trees (since they were shedding large amounts of snow and could easily bury you) and from any slopes that could be avalanche prone. The middle of the road seemed like one of the best spots . If it snows a lot, you might also have to clear the tent during the night.

Hi Been going by the car all week the snow in the area is about 6-9 inches and the tracks made by the Jeep are solid , so you may have a chance to drive down soon. Still several soft areas in the shade but nothing like two weeks ago.


Track to the Portal is in fine shape about 6" wide so stay focused. Thanks Doug