Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board WPSMB Group MR Climb, Second Edition?

Mirza just sent me this pic. He is crossing the Braldu river in Shimshal pass on one of his yaks. He told me this one will be mine. Strong yak!

Regarding the MR climb... Good luck Jim, Peter and whoever else heads up. Hope the afternoon snow stays descent. Will look forward to a TR and pix...

I didn't know yaks had gills.

This one does...

Heading up this afternoon and looking forward to meeting some of you on the mountain.

look for tents near the store.

packing up right now at the hostel to head up.

You guys driving up or parking at the road closed sign?

Hi Warm in town this AM several groups going up today .Miles and Amy were able to stay on the surface most of the way but had several adventures with voids , one was luck they found water near Upper Boys Scout Lake after launching into the void. Second area was in the first canyon willows are showing now and are melting out below ....drop maybe 10'-15'.Snow bridges ,if you know the canyons stay clear of the water courses and I think maybe skirt Lower Boyscout Lake on the North ,this lets you avoid the slope off of Thor and join in the same are by the Big Rock.Thanks Doug

#1 - The first rule of Fight Club driving past the Road Closed sign is, you do not talk about Fight Club driving past the Road Closed sign.

#2 - The second rule of Fight Club driving past the Road Closed sign is, you DO NOT talk about Fight Club driving past the Road Closed sign.

aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......I mean good movie

Those who cancelled really missed out. All but two of the "April Fools" managed to summit yesterday.

That's not to say it was easy. Not at all. Last year was a softball, this year was a bit tougher. First was the extra mile of walking to get to the Portal.

Then there was the soft snow to LBSL. We didn't need to use the ledges, but the snow gave us some good snowshoe practice.

The entire group arrived at Girl Scout Lake around 3:00 PM Friday. A nice campsite with mountain and valley views was chosen on the ridge high above the lake.

Fishmonger had offered to share his uber-stout expedition tent with me. I decided to humor him and leave my bivy sack in the car, knowing that such a fancy tent is complete overkill for Southern California.

While cooking an early supper I foolishly stood up from the pad and down jacket that I was sitting on. Faster than you can say "parasail" they both took flight. The jacket stopped on a ledge partway down to the lake, the pad kept going. I grabbed ice axe and dove off the cliff, scooping up the jacket as I plummeted to the lake. Reaching the lake, I probed with the axe to ensure I wouldn't be going for my final swim. There was about 2' of snow then a hard thunk of very solid ice. My pad was halfway across the lake and I sprinted for it (as much as one can sprint postholing knee-deep in snow). It danced away once, then twice toward the far shore. Determined to capture it, I prepared to expertly throw the axe to pin it down. Luckily I remembered that the self-inflating pad might suffer if impaled so I stepped on it instead.

The little pre-supper exercise taken care of, I returned to enjoy chilled smoked salmon over coconut rice. Unfortunately the dish was designed to be served hot, so I utilized my hybrid aluminum-titanium "Extreme Double Boiler" to return the meal to appropriate temperature.

During the night, there was a repeated annoying noise. It would build off in the distance before taking on the sound of a jet engine. Then the guy lines would whistle with an angry note, causing the tent to vibrate. Oddly, I was sure that is was just a trick of my ears since the tent didn't flap or sway like a tent normally does when hit by a strong wind gust.

Finally I concluded that the noise and shaking was just Richard P. playing an April Fools trick on us.

Morning came too soon, with the 3:30 wake up call preventing sufficient rest. I stepped outdoors to practice my WAG technique. Unfortunately it seems that there was in fact some wind. There's nothing quite like the feeling of ice crystals propelled by 40 mph winds hitting one's exposed backside.

After returning to the shelter of the tent, I realized that it was possibly slightly more pleasant than a bivy sack would have been. Fishmonger and I enjoyed some sugar and caffeine-laden beverages before commencing to prepare for the summit assault. After a great deal of soul-searching, consultation of personal schedules, and review of the expedition success so far, we decided to defer departure for the summit until a more civilized hour.

Fishmonger, feeling a bit of jealousy over my fun sojourn across the lake the previous evening, experimented with using his Jetboil Helios to melt snow. After marveling at the device's performance, he turned to take a photograph of the ice crystals blowing off Thor. As he did so, the pot lid decided to become airborne. It disappeared from sight. Fishmonger jumped atop the nearby rock to see it high above the lake.

Grabbing his ice axe, Fishmonger did a backflip off the cliff to land in the soft snow at lake's edge. Bettering my performance, he sprinted across the lake and partway up the foreslopes of Thor to retrieve his errant lid.

Satisfied with the amount of exercise experienced so far in the day, we decided to forgo the summit this time around. Instead we had a lovely stroll back down to the portal, learning some interesting new snowshoe techniques on the way.

As I said, we were the only two of our group to not summit.

Who's up for the WPSMB Group MR Climb, Third Edition?

Great TR Jim, had me cracking up. And then the plot twist at the end about the two that did not summit. Well done all around, even without the summit. Glad you guys had a nice trip.

Wind is a pain. It ruins fishing trips, camping trips, and summit attempts.

Nice TR Jim, know you two had fun trip up there and even though you didn't summit just the views there are awesome...

can't wait for pictures

mark

I kept from looking at the end of the TR first...

I knew you had to be pulling my leg. The weather has been butt ugly this weekend, save for (maybe) your approach day.

Very entertaining. Glad (I think) you guys enjoyed the experience.

that weather has moved east, snow in Nevada and Utah - I70 closed, stuck in a motel in Rifle, CO... so here we go:

Getting last minute pointers from the authority:



this was the easy crossing of the North Fork - coming down that bridge was almost gone



two from Wisconsin breathing heavily


snow shoes in the slop



the infamous marmot poop sandwich

looking back at LBSL



heading higher



meeting near UBSL



camp site with a view



Frog Pond drainage below us



soaking up the last rays of the day

this mouse gets around


time to start some jetboil action



another product shot



the pad retrieval mission



layering up



lightshow at the end of the day

getting the melter started in the morning



returning with the pot lid (which for some reason is the perfect frisbee and cleared the lake below)


spin drift below - ok, we're done here



that's as close as we got to the summit



extra grumpy cold face look



ok, now we're talking cold!

trying out the crampons before the slush elevation is reached



obligatory peak pose



speedster on the slope to LBSL



clouds move in before noon


hardy lunch



down the slush channel



a true subaru owner - overloaded roof rack and a bike rack, heading down the Portal road

Not sure which I enjoyed more: Jim's TR or Peter's pix. Thoroughly enjoyed both!

AHHHH!! I am so jealous! I cant believe that I got called into work on Friday/Saturday. So for those of us who were unable to go this last weekend, is there any interest is getting another WPSMB MR group climb going, say on the weekend of the 16th starting on Friday?