Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Doug....Are you opening early this year?

Doug....Are you opening early this year?

Doug, I was looking at Rec.gov for campsite availability at the Portal and noticed they are taking campsite reservations at the Whitney Portal Family campsites on Friday, April 24Th. So, are you planning on opening the store at that time.
Pretty early.

I was up at the Portal early March and, I haven’t seen such lack of snow at this time of the year, however, I know it does happen.
Richard needs his first cheeseburger of the year.

Paul

It's a long process to get opened , Road cleared, any hazard trees that need to come down in the campground and Portal area also clearing all the parking lots of all the branches/pine needles /pine cones, get the bathrooms cleaned and pumped if needed and during this period turning on the water which is about a 10 day process from start to getting the final approval from the State . This is all the background work the public never sees and the agencies do amazing work in a very short window over many miles to get things open. Always with a limited staff and the seasonal hiring ongoing during this period.

Think this on the real world time line: ALL the campgrounds are in some stage of opening and the limited staff of all the agencies it is amazing we most years can get open by May 1. This year since northern INYO is clearing out early there will be more pressure on the water systems to get ready plus all the other conditions abve.

We have our opening meeting on Tuesday so should have a better idea of time lines after the meeting .


On the snow yes south facing slopes and portal mostly clearing ,ground is warm so any new snow will not stay long but I call it extending the melt. Say we get a system that last for 3 days temperatures drop to below freezing (39 degree we see rain starting to turn to a mix of graupel/hail/rain/snow) This slows the melting cycle those days and may add some new snow. This equates to say 5 days of reduced melting . Once we get into the full exposure in the canyon the snow level falls into the 500' feet a week melt this rule of thumb works till above 12.500 then it is a combination of sublimation and melting takes place. This is why some years the switchbacks don't clear to mid to late June and the SNOW FIELD will be icy and during the few warm hours soft and wet. Creating the conditions that then lead to accidents due to the changing surface conditions.

Looking at the pano I did from the parking lot of the Cottonwood Pass Trailhead, the same is true at 10k and higher...It's pretty sickening to think that a LOT of terrain is already snow-free at that elevation in March...