Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mountaineer Route Photos, October 27th and 28th

We begin in the cool forests of Whitney Portal.

Here are some people crossing the ledges. (Look about two-thirds up the photo, about an inch below the trees.) They are near the scariest part, where the trail is about as wide as a curb with a fatal drop to the side.


Sunlight illuminates Mt. Whitney in the early morning, as seen from our camp site at Iceberg Lake. The Mountaineer Route is to the right of the peak.


This is the view from the top of the Chute.


This is the view from the Notch looking down the Couloir and Chute (steep!). The rock slab to the right is the beginning of the Gulley.


Here's a view from the top showing the Mountaineer Route from the Portal to Iceberg Lake.


Here I am at the top (my 20th time). I want to stress that a helmet is a necessity for the upper portion of the Mountaineer Route.

Nice pics David! I was privleged to climb the mountaineers route on September 11, 2003 with Doug as my leader. It was such a thrill and I look forward to climbing the route again next year. Can't get enough of the great Mount Whitney!

Sorry, I always make a mistake in my posts. The Moutaineer Route photos are from September 27th and 28th, 2003. Therefore, they show the conditions at this moment.

Dave, That is a wonderful post. It covers all of the important stuff on the MR. A picture really is worth a thousand words. I was up there a week before you. We spent Saturday night at Lower Boy Scout, and just ran out of time on Sunday.

I got to the top of the chute and entered the cooler. There was a party that climbed too high on the left side. There was one experienced guy and three novices with him. The four argued about continuing along the cliff side, but the experienced guy said that it was the right way, so they went on. I watched the scene from the other side. These people were literally hanging onto this cliff by their fingernails. One of the novices stepped on a rock that gave way, bounced once and sailed about 200 feet down the chute before crashing into some bigger rocks. He was holding a crack with his hand and barely caught himself.

That was about the time that I turned back. It's a mystery to me that more people don't die up there.

Nice picture of the ledges. I had not seen it at that angle. It looks almost impossible. I have toyed with the idea of going mountaineer's route, but it just seems too dangerous. I did the main trail this summer and met some people who had gone up mountaineer but were so exhausted and scared that they decided to come down main trail. They even left their tent and other stuff at Upper Boy Scout Lake! Assuming that they had to go back up the ledges and half the mountain to get their stuff, how bad is the top of the mountaineer's route?

David,

Those are some really nice photos. I was up there a few weeks later and neglected to get some pictures of the ledges and gully. I'm putting together a slide show for some friends at work. Mind if I use a couple of your shots to fill in the blanks?

You can let me know off line: denali@pacbell.net

Steve

I've been asked a few times in that last couple of days about the necessity of a helmet, when so many pictures show people climbing the Mountaineer Route without one. I think a lot of people who have gone Mountaineer over the past 15 years have noticed a huge increase in the number of people using the route. People are generally the source of falling rocks. I was about 50 yards up the Gulley this last time when a shower of rocks came down. I was in a pretty precarious situation as it was. Fortunately, the rocks all missed me, but a shot to the head would be extremely painful, if not deadly. I later realized that the rock slide was started by a group of five about 400 yards ahead of me. They didn't mean to send rocks my way, but it is almost impossible to avoid doing so. Even with a helmet, I was so impressed by the rock shower that I climbed down the Gulley at that point and did the Traverse instead.

Hi David...

Wow-great pictures. I love the mountaineer's route. It is so quiet and peaceful compared to the Main Trail... I was there 3 times this summer and can't wait to go back. Winter maybe this time??

Barb

Instead of calling people Nazis, what about having some beautiful pictures of the mountain be the first thread? Doug, thanks for hosting this site. There is a lot of valuable information here.

Nice shots of the MR...thanks for sharing!

Again, nice photos. We went up to Iceberg and back yesterday. The conditions are still perfect, as seen here.

hey merill did i see u on the trail on sunday?? i was the guy with the red pack and the green shirt on, by myself,young guy, with the white helmet hanging off the pack??

Some colleagues and I are thinking about MR in one day this weekend. My understanding is that no permit is required. I just wanted to leave a comment so John and Steve can find the photos that I'd been talking about. Vinze, above, I think that you talked to my two friends while I was catching up. That happened somewhere between UBSL and Iceberg.

Merrill, I think that no permit is required for either trail after November 1st. You simply sign in at the trailhead. Since the weather is holding up, I'm thinking about the main trail on Saturday. Ice can be a hazard when it gets cold, so I think the main trail is much safer than the MR this weekend.

There are no quotas after 11/1, but permits are still required. Self-issue at ranger station in Lone Pine - NOT TRAIL HEAD.

I was looking for these. How hard is the Mountaineer Route in the winter? When does a sheet of ice cover the ledges? Are ropes necessary at the ledges and above the notch?

It took me a while to find these pictures, so I'm trying to send them to the first page.