Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Trail Camp or Outpost

What is the feeling? I plan to climb Whitney over a 2 day period.(Entering June 3rd and getting out on June 4th. What is the gerenal feeling regarding camping at Trail Camp or Outpost Camp? Does the anticpated wheather conditions make any difference? Is the water frozen at Trail Camp?

If you have a good sleeping bag and don't mind a cold night, going all the way to Trail Camp cuts a couple of miles and 2,000' off your summit day. You should be able to find flowing water just below Trail Camp even if the lake is still frozen/snowed over.

The <a href="http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=lone+pine%2C+ca">long-term forecast</a> looks pretty promising, so other than being cold up there overnight and into the a.m., weather shouldn't be a problem. (Note that the forecast is for Lone Pine/Bishop, so back off about 4 degrees per 1,000'. With lows down there around 50, you could expect overnight lows down around 20 at Trail Camp, so pretty chilly!)

I left the trailhead with several friends at 6:30 AM and we arrived at Trail Camp at 11:30 AM, pitched tents, took it easy for the rest of day, and camped overnight. Trail Camp is at Elevation 12,039 feet and milepost 6.3 or 2.5 miles further up the Whitney Trail with a loaded backpack from Outpost Camp, which is at Elevation 10,360 feet and milepost 3.8. It was well worth the extra effort and load. The alpine experience and acclimation time at Trail Camp made it enjoyable and easier to summit the next day. It was cold the next morning but after starting up the switchback at 6:30 AM, it got comfortably warm fast and we made it to the summit at 9:30 AM (milepost 11).

Having done both ... Definitely try to get to Trail Camp the first night. When you start your summit day at Outpost, you end up doing nearly the entire trail in one day. (save 3 miles)

Hope this helps.

Neither, if you go down the trail right below Trail Camp, you will find some great spots at Consultation Lake. Its not crowded like Trail Camp and the fishing is un-paralleled. The lake is only about 200 yards off the trail. My first trip, I stayed at Outpost, my second was at Trail Camp and the last three years were Consultation. I'll never stay at Outpost or Trail Camp again.

I would agree on that. Unfortunately when I hiked up the mountain (June 3-4) there was still quite abit of snow at consultation lake. In fact the lake was still frozen.