Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board June 4th partial conditions report.

For those considering venturing up soon:

I was on the Main Trail this morning, wanted to see what conditions were like and given the forecast, was managing my expectations as far as whether this would be a summit climb or a recon climb. I started at 2:15a, solo. Skies were fairly clear, light winds.

As others have mentioned, trail is clear for the first 2 miles or so, then patchy snow, trail still easy to follow.

There are a couple snowfields to cross, but pretty straightforward with well worn boot paths to follow. The trail re-emerges here and there. The snow was in solid shape (hard) in the early morning.

After mile 3-ish, the trail/route becomes vague/disappears and also as others have said, around this point, boot tracks go everywhere with seemingly no uniform direction (maybe there was one, but I couldn't comfortably identify it in the dark).

As there was possible snow in the forecast and not entirely confident of route finding coming back in the event that there was new snow covering any recent tracks to use as a guide, I opted to turn back around 10.4k (shortly after the red Not Trail sign). I barely worked up a sweat :-(

I always regret turning around like this, and sit here second guessing myself...especially when I feel strong, as I felt I could have gotten up following "a" route up the drainage - and had all my gear; it was getting back down in time that concerned me if there was a whiteout, etc. with the uncertain forecast (at least at the time when I left this morning). Maybe I was too conservative...

For those who went up, does the route become more recognizable after this point?

Driving back later, I saw the summit was enveloped in clouds.

So, was there any snow above 10k today?

yes, it rained at the Portal, and snowed up high.

Snow sets everyone free to find their own paths. There are often paths from those who know the way(s) and those who don't. If "all your gear" includes a topo map, compass and the skills and experience to use them, you can chose between boot tracks or make your own as time and conditions allow. Other posters on this site have described approaches for snow travel on the MMWT. They are still available while enough snow lasts.

On the other hand, knowing the weather report, having a turnaround plan and actually executing it! That begins to reek of the initial signs of mature wisdom. I just hate that, particularly on those rare occasions when I show signs of having exercised it myself.

Dale B. Dalrymple
http://dbdimages.com

Yes, following the 'Not Trail' sign the route through the drainage becomes much clearer and there is a solid boottrack in which is discernable from some distance. Once you climb those first slabs it becomes quite clear.

Hmm, figures. looks like this will be a pretty snowy year huh?

I would still like to do the climb utilizing the slope to the right of the switchbacks in the snow. Do you think that snow will still be in shape to climb it early July?

I was there on June 4th and our party made it to trail camp. Lots of snow and wind. Planned to set up camp. We decided not to summit the next day due to weather conditions and turned back down the mountain. Ran into other climbers that summitted and they stated it was whiteout conditions at top. You made the right decision.