Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Some thoughts on weather

Hi Many question this last week about weather reports. We never look at reports. We watch the local conditions , based on what may happen by the the clouds and air , that means 24 hours a day we are watching the sky. N- E- S- W, so this storm came from the south and east ,cold air moved in with the storm system and I saw snow on Williamson,

Now the parts of the puzzle we look for. The vapor image on the NOAA site 16km photo and see if we can spot the center of the system , that found we will know if we are in the path or spin . This will tell us what we should expect. Wind or the system is stalled, best of both conditions ,if stalled the same pattern is here ie rain, snow, hail, sleet, heat! next if the system is moving high wind could happen.

So we can watch the creeks and dry canyons to judge the rain above the portal and which canyon is holding the storm.

Now the head works we know most people will quit after seversl hours of misery , wet, cold , overcast, pouring down rain, sleet and hail and snow in July.They will be wearing shorts and not enough layers to stay dry and warm so they turn around. Best and only option they have.
Group two will buy long pants, jackets, boots and go about an hour longer get wet cold and admit they have had enough, another great choice.

Group three will have a weather report, all the gear and charge on! We see them in between group one and two in the parking lot talking about the gear and f.... weather report.

Group four you don't want to hang with these people , they wear cotton, trashbags to stay dry and eat cold canned Franco American and Velveta on white bread.

What do you do? You have No control of the weather, best option if you can stay a few extra days get another permit and do the hike when the weather is clear, dry and warm.

"We are going early to be off the summit before the storm" , That would be nice but most storms we have are late night and early morning so you are walking into a storm in the dark.



What is the weather next week??? By the looks of Noaa we are in for a ride ! Best chance would be the main system moves north and the other system stays south.

Thanks Doug

Are those garbage bags 2-ply or 3-ply? 15 gallons or 30 gallons? And can I get them at REI?

Just tell me when it will be safe to climb Mt. Russell!

rain, sleet and dense smoke here in Mammoth today, trying to keep up with the Joneses.

fire is 20 miles SW of here. 5000 acres . hope we can slide south of it and smoke does not chase us to Doug's .

Well, I'm glad I didn't try to climb LeConte today.

Mammoth? So many celebrities in the area lately!

I attempted Corcoran and LeConte today, got turned back by weather. Also, the gully due south of Meysan lake is still flowing strong with runoff from the recent rains. That gully is also a shooting gallery of frequent rockslides, some of them BIG. Find an alternate route. I was going to use the alt gully to the sw, but thunderstorms had other ideas

Did Langley (via OAP)yesterday with a 5am start. The weather played coy mistress with us as the sky was mainly clear at the start. Should've known better as I was able to see wave after wave of rain sheets on our drive up the 14 & 395 from SoCal.
Got a good start but before we had reached Cottonwood lakes the rain started and wouldn't let up for more than 5 minutes over the following 13 hours. I was running on less than two hours of sleep and was greatly tempted to call it a day but we had brought rain gear and my companion was a 14er newbie and he was feeling good (a rarity). So we decided to press on.
We got a brief break atop OAP but we were socked in by rain and fog very quickly. We took forever but reached the summit, only having decided to top out at the last second when the weather finally cleared (no thunder had been heard!). We took a long break but were scared s***less when lightning struck the lower summit a hundred yards away (in a patch of blue the bolt arced from a cloud above the Tuttle-Diaz Creek drainages). I have heard stories but I never imagined how gut-jarringly loud and terrifying thunder is up close. We shoveled our belongings into our packs and descended IMMEDIATELY. The weather then closed in and continued to hail on us for the next couple of hours until we reached the Lakes. Thunder was more frequent in the afternoon.
Fortunately the rain let up as we reached our car. Even with waterproofs we were soaked (but warm! [and exhausted]) it was a good day, but mentally challenging with combination of relentless rain and lack of sleep.

Pictures, Snacking Bear? Love that area. Glad you made it down safely after your close call.

Even lowly little Five Fingers was dangerous...
Rode up to the Sonny Memorial Trailhead for a little exercise and the first thing I hear when I turn off the motor is a LOUD bang. Sat there for a while cause it didn't look close, but it just kept getting louder. No sense sitting around waiting to find out if it would strike.

The rain did feel real good though!

Unfortunately we didn't take too many pictures due to the weather but here are a few...



In a rare weather-break atop Old Army Pass



Soldier Lakes from the summit



Jeff and decided some hot ramen and oatmeal would be in order atop the summit, this was minutes before we were driven down by the thunder.



A massive thunderhead crowning the Inyo Mountains east of Lone Pine (from Horseshoe Meadows Rd).

Nice! Thx! Love the ramen summit snack idea....

Yup, I saw a bit of snow Friday on Whitney summit as I arrived at 0830 after spending the night at the flat spots just below the JMT junction. Got rain, some heavy, all the way down from Trail Camp. Wanted to stop for hot chocolate but was never dry enough so made tracks for the Portal and the usual great burger.

Nice day for a change! Jack the Jinx and Wildweather Betsy must have left town...