Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Meysan Lake

I'm interested in doing a dayhike of Mt. Mallory and Mt. Irvine this summer, but I've never been on the Meysan Lakes trail. how long does it take to get to Meysan Lake? Any estimate of how long the entire hike would take?

People do Mallory + Irvine in one long day. It's roughly 4 miles from the trailhead to Meysan Lake, with roughly 3.5K' gain. The trail is excellent to the uppermost Grass lake, after which there are several options for gaining the Meysan Lake bench. It does get quite warm on the lower part of the trail during the mid-day. I think 2.5 hours would be a pretty reasonable time from the campground to the lake for a fit, acclimatized party carrying light daypacks.

Doing this in early season while there is still snow in the chutes (with crampons and axe) is highly recommended.

A few years back three friends and I climbed LeConte, then traversed over to Mallory, then went on to Irvine. We descended Irvine's NE ridge and dropped to Meysan Lake, and out. This was mid-June so the snow helped, as crag has suggested.

We started from the car at 6 AM and were on top of LeConte at 2 PM, Mallory at 4:30, and Irvine at 5:30. Back at the car 9 PM so got by without using headlamps.

A nice trip. Long (I calculated 7800' and 14 miles), but one of the more enjoyable ones I have done. I was 63 at the time, and I don't think I could handle it now.

Bob - for our end of July/first of August trip, was thinking about doing the class 2 route on Lone Pine Peak from Meysan Creek on day 1, Mallory/Irvine/maybe LeConte on day 2, then head out on day 3, and if not too beat from days 1 and 2, maybe do Thor before leaving the Portal. Sound doable?

Bob R., you're inspiring me - maybe I'll try to add LeConte to my Mallory/Irvine dayhike. Last year I dayhiked Whitney/Muir in just under ten hours. How would that compare with a dayhike of LeConte/Mallory/Irvine? I'm also interested in estimated times for a Russell/Carillon dayhike, and a Langley/Cirque dayhike. Thanks for your expertise.

Hightinerary, 10 hours for Whitney and Muir is excellent. Before my heart surgery I would do it in 12. So I'm sure you could add LeConte. The only question is route-finding, but that isn't much of a problem here.

Russell-Carillon? Last time, in 1994, I did it in 13 hours.

But my times are just for a guy plodding along, slowly but steadily. Sounds like you could beat them easily.

I haven't climbed Langley and Cirque on the same trip, but adding Cirque to a Langley ascent shouldn't add more than a couple of hours. Getting ready for an expedition a few years back, I pushed it some and managed Langley in 9:05 round trip, so I would think you could do them both in 10 - 11 hours. An issue is how you would descend Cirque. If you are interested, e-mail me when it gets closer and I'll show you a neat and fast way.

That's interesting... I dayhiked Langley last year, too (without Cirque), and it took just as long as the Whitney/Muir hike. I used new Army Pass. Is Old Army Pass a lot faster?

Here's a <a href=http://www.summitpost.com/cgi-bin/trip_report.pl?trip_report_id=669&mountain_id=1649>Trip Report</a> that you might find interesting.

Thanks, Crag. Exactly what I needed. Very helpful.

Two of us are going to try to attempt the peaks surrounding Meysan lake around April 6. I have never been there this early in the year. Will crampons and axe suffice to get us up to the lakes or are snowshoes required?
Does anyone camp in the Whitney Portal campground while it's closed? I take it that there is no one to chase you out.

I'd bring snowshoes unless you are planning on getting a very early start up to Meysan Lake, or the temperatures cool off quite a bit. Otherwise it's going to turn into post-hole hell pretty early in the day.

You can camp pretty much wherever you like until the "Road Closed" signs come down.

Good luck and post pictures!

Using Old Army Pass saves about 1,000 feet of elevation gain...500 each way.