Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Trip report 7/1-5, NAP, Miter Basin, Summit

Well, better late than never! I finally got <a href="http://www.jpedigo.com/whitney04/">pics</a> posted of our trip to the Whitney summit over July 4th weekend. We started at Horseshoe Meadows, hiked over New Army Pass, up through Miter Basin, over Crabtree Pass and up the infamous sand hill to Discovery Pinnacle and the summit. Return was the same route in reverse except we substituted Cottonwood Pass for New Army Pass for ease and variety.

I'll have to say this was one of the hardest things I've ever done - the folks on this board helped a TON in preparation, but many of them are seasoned high-country travelers and can make things seem a bit easier than they might actually be for the average joe. Lesson learned: you will probably overestimate your abilities at altitude (speed, distance, etc.), so plan accordingly. That said, thanks to Kashcraft, Powergui, ellenclary (sorry to hear you didn't make it!) and others. Here's the blow-by-blow:

Day 1 - Horseshoe Meadows to Soldier Lake via NAP. We took the South Fork Trail (look for the left turn about 100 feet past the first stream crossing). Nice route, but make sure you get off the trail at the first South Fork Lake (unless you want to summit Cirque) and follow the south shore of the first two lakes to avoid the worst of the boulder field. Heading north at the third lake will bring you back to the NAP trail. NAP had about a 15 foot cornice at the top, but wasn't too difficult to navigate. It took 8 hrs. to cover the distance to Soldier Lake.

Day 2 - Soldier Lake to Crabtree Lake. OK, we didn't make it to Crabtree Lake. We got cocky and thought it would be a light mileage day, so we left late. We didn't count on the fact that route finding above Sky Blue Lake was quite difficult. We actually ended up camping between Sky Blue and Crabtree at the small lake next to the one marked 3697 on the USGS maps. There were only about two or three possible tent spots here, but there was a decent campsite for more just below us. It took us about 6 hours to complete.

Day 3 - Unnamed lake to summit and back to Sky Blue. It was about 45 mins from our camp spot to the top of Crabtree pass. We thought about trying Kashcraft's high route to skirt above the worst of the sand, but couldn't see the way to enter the route from where we were, so we dropped down almost to the lake and climbed the face of the sand hill. We didn't cross to the west side of the lake like some do; just started climbing pretty much straight over from where we landed at the bottom of Crabtree Pass. It took us about 2.5 hrs to climb the sand hill with day packs on (and it was 2.5 tough hours!). I summitted, returned to camp, broke camp, and went to the bottom of the waterfalls below Sky Blue. All that took about 12 hrs and I was completely spent at the end of it. Granted, I'm 40 and not in top shape, but it was HARD!. BTW, having someone who knows the route from Sky Blue onward would've been tremendously helpful.

Day 4 - Sky Blue to Horseshoe Meadows. We decided to go out Cottonwood Pass instead of NAP to give us a more gently climb and to avoid the cornice. We also heard they had hail on NAP two days previous. Easy enough hike - about 13 miles that took about 8 hrs (but we were moving pretty slow by that time).

Out of the 7 people in our group, I was the only one to summit. 4 of the group were just enjoying the experience and turned back just above Sky Blue when the route finding got tough(at our Camp 2). Of the remaining three, one turned back at the foot of the sand hill, and the other turned back just past Trail Crest (ouch!). Most of the reason for that was time constraints we had to maintain in order to exit in 4 days. I had to maintain a pretty good clip to meet the cutoff times and they took their toll (I still can't feel my big toes!), but it was an incredibly rewarding experience. Can't wait to do it again!

Oh, and powergui, it wasn't quite a summit round trip from Sky Blue, but it was close. You can buy me a burger at Doug's sometime ;-)

Congratulations! As you said, this trip is not for the faint in heart. From Sky Blue Lake to Discovery pinnacle may not be far on the map, but it takes A MIGHTY EFFORT!

But you showed it could be done. Good luck to those who read your report and follow in your footsteps.

Congratulations on doing the whole trip and sorry not everyone made it, but it is hard! I enjoyed your pictures as they brought back good memories of one of my all time favorite backcountry trips.
Adrian

Thanks, guys. It was a tough climb. For those first timers planning a similar route, I can't stress enough scaling back your expectations of time and mileage. Not only does the altitude slow you down, but route finding and boulder hopping in the backcountry where there are no trails can be very time consuming as you are constantly coming across impassable situations (snow, cliffs, etc.). Our trip actually would have been more enjoyable if we had allocated another day or two and/or started hiking earlier each morning. It still would've been hard, but we wouldn't have had to push ourselves so much to beat the fading daylight or self-imposed turnback times. I also learned why many who take this route leave out Whitney Portal. If your main objective on the trip is to summit, once you've expended the energy to do so, all you really want to do is finish. Having to climb back up Crabtree Pass after summitting and hiking the 13 miles over Cottonwood Pass the next day seemed very long indeed. Of course, leaving out the Portal involves lugging your full pack up the sand hill, which I don't even want to think about. If you're thinking of summitting and hiking out a backcountry route, I'd recommend having something else to look forward to after the summit, like a day of lounging and fishing in Sky Blue Lake.

In fact, now that I know what to expect and I know the best route in the cross-country parts, I'm looking forward to trying this route again. As enjoyable as it was, it can only get better.

It seems like this hike is like being between a rock and a hard place. If you backpack one way and come out the MR or Main Mt. Whitney trail you have to pack your full gear cross country from Sky Blue Lake, up over Crabtree pass and somehow up the dreaded sand hill. Certainly this is not an easy choice.

The second option is to camp at Sky Blue lake or closer to Crabtree pass, attempting to summit and return to camp in one day. Many have tried this route and turned around...some at Crabtree pass...some at the bottom of the sand hill and unfortunately some at the top of the sand hill (ouch!). This is a long hard day, probably equal in effort and time to just doing a one day up the MR or Mt. Whitney trail.

The reward is making it a new way....a hard way for sure. Very few people can say they did it the way you went...You are a tough & persistant mountaineer!

PS. My group turned around at crabtree pass when we looked across what appeared to be a small grand canyon and we realized we would never make it in time. I was suprised how far it was and how much time it took to get to crabtree pass from sky Blue lake.

Great job! Sorry not all were able to make it. One thing rings with me in particular - how long it really takes to travel sky blue lake to crabtree pass. I applaud your incredible time going up the sand hill, not to mention making it up all the way as well.

pack it out: you are so right, there are pros and cons to either way. I actually thought our itinerary worked out pretty well. We camped about as close to Crabtree Pass as we possibly could and round tripped it.



The evening before summit day, I did a recon hike to Crabtree Pass from our campsite just to make sure I knew the route. There was a fairly well marked route (what exactly is the difference between a duck and a cairn?), but I still had to double back a few times to get it right. Having traveled the route in both directions before doing it "for real" on summit day was a huge help, especially considering you can't really navigate it in the dark, so it limits how early you can leave. BTW, our campsite, while small, was actually quite comfortable. We were on crushed granite (quite soft!) and could hear the outlet stream from the lake going right by us. Like sleeping in a big sound machine.

If I had to do it over again, I would camp in the same spot but get up earlier. We left about 6:15am, but there was enough light an hour earlier to navigate. As I mentioned earlier, I would also plan a relaxing day after summitting, partly because it's gorgeous back there and partly to take the pressure off of having to return from the summit so quickly.

hikern8: I was also surprised by how long it took to navigate from Sky Blue to Crabtree. Heck, it's only about a mile as the crow flies, but it probably took us close to 2 hours to cover.

<blockquote>Adrian: <em>Congratulations on doing the whole trip and sorry not everyone made it, but it is hard! I enjoyed your pictures as they brought back good memories of one of my all time favorite backcountry trips.</em></blockquote>I couldn't have said it better myself. Miter Basin is my favorite place in the Sierras, I think.

Reading pediwent's trip report gave me deja vu; it is right on the money. The boulder field at the upper end of South Fork Lakes? Yep, been there, did that. The maze of boulders and dead ends above Sky Blue Lk? Yep, been there, did that, too. Can't wait to go back? Yes, me too. Really hard but worth every bit of it? Exactly.
<blockquote><em>You can buy me a burger at Doug's sometime ;-)</em></blockquote>Deal.

One comment for others considering this route: Ducks (cairns) draw you in the direction shown on Pediwent's map, but what is not marked is taking the drainage in a direct line between Sky Blue and the big lake below Crabtree Pass. What looks like an intimidating cliffy bench is actually like the Eberspacher Ledges and easy to ascend by walking up a series of ramps. This puts you right at the big lake without the wandering around when you go to the left from Sky Blue. If I ever get that Slide scanner, I'll post a picture.

Cheers...Adrian

Many many congrats on your great trip (and the icing on the cake of the summit.) I see you camped at Terri's lake. Isn't that a nice little lake? We camped just to the left of your campsite on the map.

I very much agree on how much time the route finding takes (we took a long time getting from Sky Blue to Terri's Lake because of that cliff-face that was mentioned). It's much slower, but very rewarding and no crowds!

Many kudos on toughing out the sand hill. When I was on it I kept going to the left (and up) since I knew I wasn't going to make it to the top of the Pinnacle in the time that I had and I wanted to see what the somewhat level spot (just off your map) looked like. It looked like the moon! Very trippy indeed.

I came back via the other side of Crabtree Lake. Mistake - it took forever and it was before I had snow skills so the snow traversals were nerve wracking.

Glad you had a great trip - I love the Mitre Basin.

Ellen

Terri's Lake! I like that. Much better than "that unnamed lake next to that other unnamed lake". It is a nice little lake and the only area we saw that had anything resembling habitable campsites. What do you mean when you said you came down the sand hill "via the other side of Crabtree Lake?" I was going to recommend staying to the left (facing downhill) and following roughly the same route I took on the way up (basically landing at the foot of Crabtree Pass. I came down the side which drops down to the west side of the lake. I don't think it was any easier and then I was stuck with traversing the lakeshore to get back to the foot of Crabtree Pass. Not a tough traverse, but probably an extra 15-20 minutes and tiring after summitting.

Adrian: I figured there was probably a way to navigate straight up to that other lake and that's probably the way to go if thru hiking. I was happy we took our route, however, or we may never have found our camping spot. We were also able to (mostly) maintain altitude all the way to Crabtree Pass, so the climb up to the slightly higher elevation of the smaller lake wasn't lost.

I went much further west on the sand hill as it gets considerably less steep the further west you go. (though enough out of one's way that it's probably not a way to actually climb Discovery Pinnacle).

Anyway, when I got back down (I had hit my turn around time) I was west of Crabtree Lake and a wacky boulderer/scree surfer encouraged me to try the South side of Crabtree Lake as it was "fun." Argh. While fun for a short while. It made me quite fatigued, which made the acent up Crabtree Pass much more risky and decidedly "unfun."

I read with interest that you opted for Cottonwood Pass over NAP. When I was coming out on Cottonwood the trail was so sandy, I was wishing very much for NAP. (I think the stock on the PCT makes the trail quite sandy.)

<blockquote><em>Ducks (cairns) draw you in the direction shown on Pediwent's map</em></blockquote>
It's worse than that. There's a pretty well worn use trail drawing you in that direction, as I recall (the use trail kind of disintegrates once you reach the boulders past the small tarns above Sky Blue Lake).

Thanks for the tip. That route takes you around the east shore of the large lake, right? That looked pretty steep and loose to me. But not too much of a problem?

For Powergui;

That route takes you to the West shore of the large lake and puts you right where you want to be for the easier approach to Crabtree Pass. When I was up there it looked pretty dicey attempting the East side of the lake. One could end up in the lake with no bank to crawl out on.

I've been up there twice and the first time I got sucked off to the left and wandered around until making it to "Lake 3697", the big lake. I got curious and wanted to look back towards Sky Blue Lake because I knew I'd taken a detour. My companion was out of gas and we were out of time so we headed down that bench. You can see the way along those ramps pretty easily from above. There was one dead end with a body-wedge crack leading down, but it was only 10-12 feet high and the ramp below was nice and wide. This was the only place were you couldn't just walk up that bench. The bench itself is several hundred feet high, but it was all class 1 except for that one little step. This was the way I went on my second trip up there when I actually ended up crossing the pass. For all I know there may be another way up the bench that avoids that short vertical step, but I don't know.

All this talk is getting me excited. I may just go back up there this September. I personally think Miter Basin (Rock Creek Canyon) is totally cool as a destination itself and one could spend several days camping up there and have fun. It's a wonderful place to take pictures...

Cheers....Adrian

pediwent, I have one last question for you if you're still looking at this thread (you have the mail option turned off or I would just email you). You say that you went straight up the sandhill, but I remember looking at that view from Crabtree Pass and it didn't look very doable as it seemed to have a steep section (that you can see in your photo of it.) Do you remember how you managed to negociate that portion?

Ellen

Ellenclary: Looking at the narrow band visible in pediwent's picture makes it look very steep. When you actually get there you will find there are many places to climb up and through. It doesn't so much matter which route you choose. Just pick a spot that looks best to you. That portion turns out to be much nicer then the loose sand portion. Pediwent drew a line that went up and then to the right, not the line I expected to see (going straight up from the lake area). That would have been to avoid the loosest portion of the sand hill. He (like we did) attempted to stay on the bigger more firm rocks. The Infamous sand hill is very wide with some areas looser then others. There would be no best way, but you try to pick out one when up close and personal. In fact you would probably not pick the same exact route twice.

kashcraft just posted his pictures of his Miter Basin to Crabtree pass to Whitney hike. Sounds like quite the hike.

<a href="http://client.webshots.com/album/225902303LpAqHk">Miter Basin, Crabtree Pass to Whitney</a>

<a href="http://community.webshots.com/photo/225902303/1225906094061435028HISvML"><img src="http://thumb8.webshots.com/t/16/16/0/60/94/225906094HISvML_th.jpg" border=0></a>
Miter Basin