Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums Active Threads

A slight system moved throught Monday afternoon/night not much more than a dribble held on the north facing slopes above 12000'.
This next system looks north but you can never tell how far south it will drop watch for the pressure drop to be below the bay area before we get a decent coverage

Hey great day at the Heroes hike I like the new route
I think it gave many more people the chance to reach the top and cut some hours off of the day that could be spent at the notch. A big shout out to Patrick for getting us registered and all his help with the event
Great to see Mike Bob Ed and all the Whitney hikers we have met over the years Thank you

So happy!!!

Whitney Recon - 11.10.2024
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Here are a few screen grabs from a GoPro video of the hike up to Trail Camp:





Outpost Camp.



Mirror lake with Thor Peak above.



The view from Trail Camp.


Won't mean much if the current storm dumps more than a few inches of snow...

I was up at the Portal today...hiked up to Trail Camp...more in the '24 Thread later...
It was packed...even lots of vehicles down in the Overflow...
Campgrouds are closed...
WPS is boarded up...

The rest of the year (conditions depending) is going to be focused on Whitney...I'll be back up on Tuesday if the storm rolling thru on Monday is a weak as I'm hearing it will be...

If I go back up to HM, I may bring a chainsaw...hate to think about having to climb over those trees until next summer...

I was up there two weeks ago, I hiked with the grand kids, ages 5 and 7. We did Trail Pass to Mulkey and made it into a loop. The youngsters beat me to Trail Pass...no excuses. They're in better shape than I.

The day after the kids left, I did Cottonwood Pass to Chicken Springs and then South on the PCT to Trail Pass. I saw no one, and the parking lot only had 3 cars in it, including mine. Pretty lonely hiking.

What was interesting is that prior to this hike I was up there for 3 days of hiking two weeks earlier. No trees down. But apparently between the two hikes there was a major windstorm. One tree on the trail approaching Trail Pass. The tree was lengthwise, not perpendicular to the trail. The tree occupies some 5o or more feet on the trail.

The second tree was on the PCT, a rather large, 4-foot diameter monster perpendicular to the trail. Some good trail work come Spring,

Hey, Richard, good to hear that the road is still open. And for Inyo Road conditions, it would be nice if they gave updates, at least when the anticipated Portal Road might be completed.

Oh well....keep us informed.

I assume the store is closed since the water must be turned off. I spoke with Emily (camp host) prior to Halloween and they were closing down the week before.

Finally, I noticed tha the lower campground, Lone Pine Campground had trailers and such parked there when I dove by. Finally opened.

Richard, do you have any upcoming hikes?

Paul

Jim, I'm still trying to find the motivation to do the JMT in a single 15 day push...thanks.

Paul, Thanks for all the burgers...I don't know the count but a guess would be 5...plus the Red's burger that really hit the spot too...


I did my usual TP/CP loop yesterday. Inyo Fire was up just past the gate...I had seen smoke while approaching Lubken...they were still there when I rode down in the evening, but all signs of fire were gone...The upper gate at Lavender (sp?) was open and there was a front loader just up from the gate...

There is absolutely no snow yet...2 vehicles when I arrived and none when I headed home...

Here are a few photos showing the conditions:


The slow moving streams were frozen.



Trail Pass.



Cottonwood Pass.



CP Trail stream crossing.

Good season Richard, and from miles to Portal burgers, you accomplish new milestones. Have you totalled the number of burgers eaten this past season?

On a side note, it's nice to see you in a grey beard. Welcome to the group, the old geezer’s group that is.

For me, I ended with 213 miles of day hiking this year. I miss the backcountry, maybe next year.

Paul

Oh, BTW, I contacted Inyo Roads because I was concerned about the "stale" road conditions PDF...
The woman assured me that the closures are accurate...they only update the PDF when conditions acutally change...
Horseshoe Meadows Rd is still open...;-)

https://www.latimes.com/california/...-life-amid-eastern-sierra-housing-crunch

Haven't read the full article yet...
Caught a youtube ad that actually held my interest from Jack Dolan of the LA Times...

Richard,

Thanks for sharing. You certainly covered many miles at the end of the Season.

Tack on the remaining miles of the JMT early next Summer.

Good luck on your training this Winter.

Jim

I needed to pick up my pickup, so I headed over Mammoth Pass on the 29th of September...
Covered MP to Red's...
It was smokey, so the photos aren't worth showing...

I headed back to Yosemite on 10.01 for the TM to HI hike...
Here are a few photos:





The burn scars really bothered me...
And, the trail got really crowded as I approached Half Dome...



Flow was low enough that people were walking down to the drop-off...



At the End/Start of the JMT.


On the way home, I dropped off the motorcycle at Mammoth with the intention of finishing off the North Lake/Piute Canyon To Mammoth Pass Section that remained...it sat there for about 10 days before I decided I'd better go pick it up...(I really did like Piute Canyon...) My guesstimate is that I came up about 40 miles shy of the Full JMT...

Interntion, going forward, is to do more long-range hiking (instead of cycling) over the Winter to see if I can get to the point where 15+ miles isn't so painful (seriously hated how I felt at the end of a bunch of these days...)
One thing that did work for me was going up a size of the Hoka's...was worried about blistering with a bigger "boot," but it didn't happen...
(I experimented with a "real boot," but that didn't help and the weight was definitely a negative...)
The GoLite worked for 3- sections, but the heavier Gregory, with more weight, was needed on the longer ones...

I think it was a lingering Y2K issue.

Hi Doug,
So Happy to see the message board is active again. Since I saw you at the store, explored the north fork
big pine creek and discovered a great canyon... any chance you could locate a branch store/grill there?
It would be great to be able to get burgers and pancakes there also.....Have a great Holiday season. See you next
spring or on Baldy this winter... Unfortunately can't make the hike this weekend.
All the Best and Happy Hiking to all.. Rick

Doug and Jeff- Awesome job getting the WPS Message Board back on line. Much appreciated!

Rick- Thanks for planting the seed that became the Mount Baldy thread. Shin- Thanks for being the Guardian of the Mount Baldy thread.

Hike for Heroes- Strong work, Climb On!

Already planning for the next season on Mount Whitney.

Jim

I think everything went wrong when I started crossing the dateline in the southern hemisphere. Not sure how that all worked, but glad the spark plugs have been replaced, the oil changed, and the flames have been painted on the hood...

Hey another shout out to the world traveling man and Brooke at UBB getting the board uploaded to our hosting company requirements

Another first this summer I met Rick you know the guy that put the first post about Mount Baldy. Now that threads has over 7 million views he said he just had a question! I noticed the post and my self established rule keep my bloated ego out of the way and let others reply ...I still follow that thought the group has a very experienced hikers/climbers that often reply with solid advice.

OK next the Baldy hike for the Heroes is this Saturday hope to see you there The sign up for the team is Whitney Portal Store message Board Please join read the history of the project and cause