Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board MR route conditions?

Has anyone been up the MR route since the April 2-3 storm? Where is the snowline now? Using the ledges I assume (?)

We will be climbing the route on 4/17-19. Anyone else going to be there? Any info would be appreciated.

My partner and i just climbed east buttres this last weekend(4/9-4/10) which was pretty cold and had some definite snow on it still. We then descended via the MR which is totally full of snow but very easy to come down. The ledges on the approach up the creek were completly free of snow and they were dry. However we did run into snow before the ledges where you have to cross the creek and after the ledges before lower boy scout lake. Once you run into the snow after the ledges you will be in it untill the top of mt whitney. Overall it was an awesome weekend and the weather was almost perfect.

Thanks for the info. Sounds like you guys had a blast. What about snow shoes? Did you guys use them? We are planning a late start on our approach day so we're contemplating whether to bring them or not.

We didn't bring snow shoes and we were able to move just fine. We walked with just our boots on during the day and then put our crampons on in the morning and evening. I remeber punching through only 3 or 4 times the entire weekend. However, we did see people with snow shoes i think that it was a bit of an overkill though.

I was up there last weekend also, 9th and 10th. The snow was great for crampons in the morning, till about 11:00 then it really started to soften and I spent a lot of time up to my thighs. We did try snowshoes but the snow was so wet that we spent more time sliding so the best for us was just using crampons and pulling ourselves out of the snow. It was a great time though and the weather was fantastic.