Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums Active Threads

With a view like that the insurance company will deny the claim without a doubt! "Sorry Richard, but we simply can't afford to pay out your claim when your bike includes Mt. Whitney and a decent chunk of the surrounding area..."


Sorry to hear about your bike! I thought the videos you posted riding up to the Portal Store were pretty awesome.

They're what reminded me to actually make an account here despite "creeping" on the posts since 2023 :p

Bump

If anyone has any recent photos of the final 400, or obtains some in the coming weeks, please post!

*This also applies to any helpful material regarding the current conditions of the MR!

Hi Comradebear,
I haven't hiked Mt. Baldy since last September so there was nothing to report except many photos from Ontario peak. Timber, Telegraph,.......
https://photos.app.goo.gl/EZpMV8WDZP3tAY5H6
Since I don't have $5000.00 for the fine, I have been looking at Mt. Baldy from the distance just like looking at the Mona Lisa in a museum.

According to local tv news, ktla, a 40 years old hiker wearing a light jacket, shorts, and tennis shoes with a dog got rescued from sketchy narrow trail covered with snow and ice around 9000 ft. This was the perfect example of kind of situation which authorities want to avoid or fed up with.
I hope the authorities won't penalize us for postponing the opening date of Mt. Baldy because of this rescue operation. I have met several hikers who had hiked Mt. Baldy illegally and bragging about their conduct openly. Either way, we have to pay the price at the end.

Mt. Baldy is still the best local mountain for hiking and all other outdoor activities.

Have a great hike.

P.S.
All trails to Ontario, Bighorn, Cucamonga, and Etiwanda are still covered with good amount of snow from Icehouse saddle because they are on north facing slopes and canyons.

YouTube is about my only form of "TV Entertainement" these days...far more fantastic channels than I can "afford" to watch...

Favorites these days is a Swedish Woman who's in the Nepal Himalaya right now...she rode from home...a German dude riding an e-bike all over...focused on watching his Ladakh videos right now...heading there in late-August...and of course, there's Itchy Boots...who's been in the Saudi Desert recently...the only reason I'd want to go there would be to ride Dakar...and I'm way too old for that...

I wish the Chinese weren't so strict on Foreigners...I'd love to figure out how to ride from Ladakh to Nepal via China/Tibet...

I'm calling this my Old-Life Crisis...went through essectially the same thing in Mid-Life...some of the best times of my life exploring places outside of the US...

Hightinerary,

Thanks for sharing your extensive array of experiences. I just sent you a follow-up private message.

Jim

For me, the Lone Pine Airport is located at Ground Zero of my primary interests in the Eastern Sierras. My family used the commercial service there many years ago.

In 1959 (for the 50th Anniversary of the Mt Whitney Summit Shelter), my Dad and I hiked the High Sierra Trail. At the conclusion of the hike, Bob White flew us back from Lone Pine to a airfield near Three Rivers. We then hitchhiked back to our 1950 Plymouth in Giant Forest.

The Bob White Flying Service operated out of Lone Pine for several decades. It would be nice to see the Lone Pine Airport "put back on the map." A fairly new outfit "Friends of the Lone Pine Airport" intends to do this. Their most recent fly in last October had nearly 100 aircraft participate.

Jim

Not an Rver, but this guy does a lot of camping news that is balanced in its presentation...

Doug Sr,

many thanks for the reply appreciated.

Yes I specifically want to climb the mountaineers to summit Mt Whitney and have seen the varying classes of climbing required; I have much scrambling experience in the UK.

Appreciate this is not the main trail and turn off at North Fork. Was going to camp at Iceberg Lake. Also wayfinding is trickier in parts

Mark

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