Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Birch Mountain

Hi all,

For those of you have climbed Birch Mtn, how is access to the trialheads in a normal rental vehicle? Is 4wd needed to get to the trailhead for the South slopes?

Has anyone been up there lately?

i was there two weeks ago. you can get close to the TH with a 2wd car stopping at the waypoint BIRCHJ. walk from there to the TH. high clearance vehical can get you to the cattle guard/gate which is maybe 50 feet from the official trailhead. more driving directions in the link. as for conditions, you can get all the way to Birch Lake in trailrunners if you can manage a couple of snowfields around 10k'. one of the most barren trails of the Eastern Sierra.

http://climber.org/driving/redlake.html

Follow Kevin's info above if you are heading to Birch Lake. For ascending the south side of Birch Mountain itself you would be better off to continue to the point on his map called McMury (McMury Meadows) and start your climb there. Normally passable in a 2WD low clearance rental car. It isn't really a trailhead so don't expect signage, etc.

ok, thanks guys.

Will McMury Meadows be a fairly obvious place to identify?

How far is it from the BIRCHJ to McMURY waypoints here? Are any permits needed to park here?

Also, do you have a rough estimate of the roundtrip mileage? I am assuming it is around 6500-7000ft vertical gain?

Latsly, for next week, should I assume snow starts around 9500?