Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Saturday in the Park

Since the weather wasn't bad, today I got around to another route I’ve been meaning to try for years. First I climbed Langley via the Cook’s Shortcut, which I found tiring and of dubious merit. From Langley I descended toward The Fin, which I hear is Class 4 from that direction, but I don’t know what that means. After The Fin I plodded up and over Woollyback, which I believe Carl Heller misspelled on purpose. From Woollyback I went cross-country ESE, and climbed five promising piles of rock, hoping to find a register, but had no luck.

In defense of Carl Heller, woolly has 2 o's and 2 l's.

There is (or was the last time I was there) a register in a tiny, old metal Johnson & Johnson Bandaid box on the summit of Woollyback.

That rusty old can is gone. Now there's a bigger plastic container.

In case anyone couldn't tell I was kidding, the Thompson Shortcut to Mt. Langley worked fine. It was steep and loose near the top, but it was convenient to have a good water source in the lower part of the route. The route also gave me a good look at the chutes coming down west of The Fin; I would have used one of them had I not been able to climb The Fin from the west side. I heard Betsy actually ascended one of these chutes, which makes me feel she deserves her spouse's nickname more than he does.