Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Bear Canisters

Did I read it correctly that they rent beat canisters at Whitney Portals? If so, how many do I need for an overnight party of four?Should I purchase my own to save weight or do they rent hiking-efficient canisters:?

I believe you can rent them at the Eastern Sierra InterAgency Visitor Center in Lone Pine (where you go to pick up your permits), for $2.50/day, and also at the Whitney Portal Store. I think they rent standard Garcias.

Especially if you repack your food, all four of you could probably share a single, regular sized cannister on a 1-night hike (if 2-nights, then probably 2 cannisters). Remember, you only need to store the food you do not eat on the first day, plus any garbage and scented toiletries. So, if you are on a one night hike, you just need to be able to store your food-related garbage from the first day, plus your breakfast, snacks and lunch for the second day.

Probably not worth buying your own. The Rolls Royce of bear cannisters is the Bearikade, which you can rent, if you really want to, online directy from the manufacturer for $5-6 the first day, 2.50 thearafter (they cost 200 and up to buy). Go here for info. But, for the trip you envision, the ounce savings would not be worth it.

As someone who regularly backpacks, I own my own, far cheaper (and smaller) cannister, the Bear Vault BV450.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your reply and helpful advice....

I can vouch for the BearVault BV-500. Plenty of room for my wife and I for overnighters.
Have fun!!!

I can vouch for the BearVault BV-500. Plenty of room for my wife and I for overnighters.

You and your wife must be very small.

But at least we are indoors and out of the weather, Tom. Good one!

Sorry guys, but do we really need bear canister at 12,000 foot elevation? Are there really bears at this altitude?

Probably no bears, but plenty o' marmots. Can be nearly as destructive as bears, for their size.

If there were few people, the bears might spend little time at 12,000'. The Portal bears associate food with people, particularly large concentrations of people. And the bears don't fear people. If they ever found accessible food at Trail or Outpost Camps, they would be there all the time. The only way to prevent that is to assure there is never accessible food on the main trail.

Dale B. Dalrymple

Dale, how do you know this to be true?

From observing and studying the interactions of bears, humans, and policies in the American west for the last 40-50 years.

If you want something you can look at right away try:

Inyo NF 2011-2012 Visitor Guide see p2
http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5324602.pdf

"They learn quickly and can remember feeding locations for years."
"They adopt their lifestyles to the availability of food."
http://nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/misc/ht_66.pdf

CA-DFG
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/hunting/bear/statewidepolicy.html
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/hunting/bear/habitat.html
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/hunting/bear/biology.html
BlackBearMgmtPlan.pdf
bear_ja02_29-31.pdf "Taking the wildness out of California’s black bears"
www.dfg.ca.gov/projectwild/bear/05-06.pdf "Bear Reality"

You might look at Doug Sr's comments in this forum on his experiences with Portal bears.

Dale B. Dalrymple

having spent a decent amount of time in the Yosemite back country, there are little to NO issues with bears because YNP has trained its human visitors to be diligent about using canisters and bear boxes. Different from Yosemite Valley, where people are completely cavalier about how they handle food/trash,etc. If the Whitney visitors were as particular, this would no longer be an issue.

You do have a point...the point here is not containment, but prevention...got it...thanks guys!

I wasn't asking about the bears at the Portal.

Specifically, I was wondering how one can predict which places with frequent human visitation at or above 12,000 feet in the Sierra are likely to become problems for human-bear interaction while other nearby areas are not?

Which areas at or above this elevation have historically (pre-canister) been plagued by frequent human-bear interaction?

I wasn't replying about bears only at the portal, however, it is the bears at the portal that are available (and trained) to become the bears at Trail Camp if there is food available there.


The ones with bear accessible human food. The likelihood of human-bear interaction problems isn't a matter geography. It is a matter of stupid human behavior. Bears everywhere are proficient at locating and using the most readily available food resources. That's not just bears while they are at the Portal or where you have heard of problems in the past.


I'm not aware of any areas in the Sierra that have historically had the frequency of human presence at high elevation as the MMWT. That makes it a location where we can chose to prevent detrimental human bear interactions.

Dale B. Dalrymple

So why not at Iceberg Lake?



Can you cite a single area in the Sierra at 12K where bears have been a frequent problem in the past?

Were bears a big problem at Trail Camp before canisters?

"Specifically, I was wondering how one can predict which places with frequent human visitation at or above 12,000 feet in the Sierra are likely to become problems for human-bear interaction while other nearby areas are not?"

Places that see a lot of hiker traffic, inasmuch as it seems to be a function of bear habituation to humans.

"Which areas at or above this elevation have historically (pre-canister) been plagued by frequent human-bear interaction?"

None that I am aware of-yet. Trail Camp would be the most likely place in the Sierra that I could think of.

"So why not at Iceberg Lake?"

Much less likely, because of the vastly lower volume of humans, HOWEVER, bear sightings are much more frequent in the last few years in the north fork drainage, where they were very uncommon before, indicating the bears are following humans up there, too.

"Were bears a big problem at Trail Camp before canisters?"

No, although marmots were a significant problem.

"Can you cite a single area in the Sierra at 12K where bears have been a frequent problem in the past?"

No.

The more appropriate question might be, "Can you cite a single place anywhere in Sierra bear territory where food is regularly and readily available that they are not a problem?"

Generally speaking, bears don't go this high - but not because of the altitude. They range to where food is available. Above 11K' in the Sierra no vegetation grows in abundance except polemonium, therefore the bears have no reason to wander to 12K'. If, whowever, there was a ready supply of unsecured human food at 12K' - and I believe Trail Camp is the only densely-populated area this high in the Sierra - I suspect bears would hear the dinner bell ringing and converge like they do at Mammoth, Tuolumne, the Portal and elsewhere. There's a reason there are bear lockers at Horseshoe Meadows at 10,000 feet.

The altitude in itself is not a deterrent to the bears. They acclimate like we do, so 12K' is no big challenge for a large mammal living constantly above 8K' or 9K'. They just have to be motivated to go that high, and a bear's top priority is food. I don't recall exactly where it is (Yellowstone maybe), but there's a bear population in the Rockies that regularly travels high above timberline in the summer to feast on moths that appear each year. Bear-watchers couldn't figure out why the bears disappeared from the lower meadows in late summer, and finally found them in high elevation, pure-rock terrain, rooting out these moths that are high in fat.

Bears live by the "Build It and They Will Come" credo - build a buffet and they will come, regardless of elevation.

Thanks, Ken.


ep, what is your point??? That we don't need to carry canisters at 12k?

Steve, I'm just curious. My own experience is not comprehensive so I'm asking questions.


The more appropriate question might be, "Can you cite a single place anywhere in Sierra bear territory where food is regularly and readily available that they are not a problem?"

Bulldog, I mentioned Iceberg Lake, and I'd add Glacier Camp in the Palisades to that. Both of these spots are heavily visited in the summer but, at least to my knowledge, bears are not an issue.

Weren't there some bear problems pretty high and just north of Forester Pass several years ago?

There are a couple of simple points here.

Other than the reasons already given, there is a much more simple reason why you have to have a bear canister at trail camp. You simply cannot get there without passing through the lower portions of the MMWT which are known bear country. Now the argument might be that you have no intention of camping at outpost camp, but anybody who has been on the mountain knows that plans change all the time.

Black bears do prefer a nice foresty habitat, but they can certainly be lured to a nice rocky terrain for a snickers bar or...moths.

Bear canisters are not required on the Meysan Lake trail, which is spitting distance from the MMWT. And you ask, why not? well, there just aren't enough people on the trail providing fun snacks to offset the smorgasbord at the portal.