Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board tent or no tent ?

We're planning on staying one night at trail camp in mid July. Should we bring a tent or not ? Am concerned about wind and rain, but would rather not mess with a tent for just one night. I need some veteran advice having not camped above 10K before.

Weather is kind of a funny thing. On many trips it has been nice, sunny and warm, except for some afternoon thunderstorms common in the summer. I have also been there when it was cold, rainy, snowy and wet even with a tent. I have slept at 12000 feet with and without a tent.

Having been nailed by bad weather before, I must admit.... you make a choice and take your chances. If you are leaving the tent home to save weight, consider a blue tarp or plastic in case weather turns bad. It kind of depends on how much risk you want to take.

A "C" student is correct about trail camp. It can be very crowded. If you would like more privacy, head over to Consultation lake. Just a little out of the way, but feels very remote.

Expect trail camp to be quite crowded. Even if the weather is good a tent will give you a little privacy which might help you get some sleep.

The problem is, this is a somewhat committing trip. Once you are at Trail Camp, you will have do deal with what the weather gives you, and you usually will not really know in advance.

I've usually found wind to be the main problem, biting, arctic-cold wind, and having a tent to hide in was wonderful.

I sort of think that you need to, at minimum, have something that will allow you to survive, should it start to pour. Nothing won't do it. One of those disposible bivy's will(Adventure Medical Thermo-Lite Bivy). Frankly, I'd think a bivy to be a minimum, but I'll bet you could get by with a tube-tent.

Think of it this way....if there is an afternoon thundershower, if you have no shelter, your trip is over, even if the next day is glorious.

In my opinion, when doing the overnite at trail camp, you don't need a tent. Sure it gets windy and chance of snow and all of that fun stuff, but if you have a really really good -20 degree sleeping bag, you will be as comfy as you can be on granite, with of course a pad to cover the ground.
Plus you save weight by not packing a tent

good luck

Hey Cable Guy,

What do you do when the clouds form west of the Sierra Crest and come over and dump 4 hours of rain you you? Since you are so close to the crest you will not be able to see the formation easily.

Bill

Wbtravis5152 is right. I have tried with and without a tent.

A couple of years ago we went up to Trail Camp is blistering hot weather, no wind, no relief at Trail Camp until sundown when a huge storm just appeared and drenched everything. Totally unexpected. Also there are mosquitos at TC and a tent will stop them from buzzing around your head all night.

Golite has some new one-person tents under ten ounces and we used a very light tent that withstood the winds that came with the storm. you don't need free-standing tents. There are boulders to anchor tent corners. It's worth the hassle of packing one up, but you don't have to worry about a bear sniffing your face on those really dark nights.

I just spent the weekend car camping at Lake Alpine (7200 ft.). On Friday we showed up and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Three hours later a heavy thunderstorm moved in that dropped heavy rain and hale on us for three solid hours. I sure am glad I had my tent.

;-)