Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Current Conditions

What are current snow conditions? Roads, trails? Considering a Veterans Day hike.

Road is ok bathrooms are closing today, all water is turned off in the area and the upper gate may close soon ,the gate about 1 mile from the trailhead is open now but like the upper gate may close anytime. Another storm may come in this weekend ,
Now for this week we had high winds Friday, Saturday and Sunday periods where calm but cold .Snow Friday night and Saturday afternoon , scattered , we were in the Inyos on Saturday and watched the Sierra get the storm. So the key is Cold temps and ice on the trail , with more snow higher up , few reports I see most turned around at trailcamp.

Not enough snow to use the chute above trailcamp and most likely the lower part of the trail will be clear in the sun
but covered higher up making it slick and post holing. Also ice in the shady areas and near the stream crossings. When the next storm moves in wind! Short hours , sun drops on the west side about 4 PM .

So Doug, Meysan Lakes would be an option?

Meysan starts lower and the trail is N/S most of the way so it will get sun about 10 AM but gone about 3-4 PM . Sandy section and no water till about 3 miles . I like this canyon but always stress that the 5 miles feels like a whole Whitney Hike!

Some where near Grass Lake you will see a sign in the meadow don't fall for it the trail makes a 180 turn and takes you up on the east facing slope on a good trail " good because many hikers don't know it is there and stop about Grass Lake . You have one more bench and will see the outlet of Meysan Lake.

Very few hikers in this canyon , most that go are climbing Lone Pine Peak or the peaks at the South end of the canyon. Also bears live in the canyon and we think cougars Doug and I was followed one night either by Big Foot or a lion or was it lack of sleep!

Well, Doug that's encouraging. See you at the hostel later maybe. Will be rolling at 6 pm.

Doug,
We had a great time staying at the hostel, and a great day hike to Meysan Lakes. All of your info pertaining to the trail was accurate except for the bit about Bigfoot. We did see one big print though.

IMG_20201111_103833092_HDR by john hinman, on Flickr


IMG_20201111_101638046 by john hinman, on Flickr

I walk along sometimes and see a print couple hundred feet along I ask myself One print that makes no sense! Then the bear track only two track for 4 legs? The best was we did a hike one winter to check the store Earlene and the camphosts wife turned around as the snow got deep , they said they would wait near the lower campground in the sun , the truck was about 1/2 mile lower. On our walk down I see they had left thought it was cold so they went to the truck . I notice cat tracks walking down with them . As we drive down Earlene says something didn't feel right . I said maybe the cat watching you ?
It wasn't crowded up Meysan was it! Thanks for posting the pictures

We had it all to ourselves, except for that criitter.