Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mountaineers Route for beginners in a day

Do not do it! Do not underestimate this ascent.

This posting is not meant to scare anybody, but if you are not a skilled hiker,the Mountaineers Route can be somewhat overwhelming.
After monitoring past postings and having checked out numerous sites with info about the route, it seemed that reaching the summit via MR would not be too difficult. Having some minimal hiking experience to draw on and being somewhat in shape, my tentativeness to the ascent was nominal.
The initial hike to Iceberg lake was arduous but not at all impossible or overly difficult.
However, the ascent through the chute is definitely tricky and potentially perilous, mainly due to the falling tallus and sometimes difficult navigation over the moving rocks. Woe to the person below you. There is nothing wrong with wearing a helmut on this portion of the climb. One would have been nice.
It took us 10 hours to summit via MR and another 6 hours to return via the John Muir. It was a long day.
In the future we will break it into 2-3 days. You don't need to do it in a day.

What, if any, permits did you have or need for this dayhike route? A small group of us are doing the same route this Sunday, and I'm trying to resolve last minute conflicting issues with Inyo's permitting rules. Your particular experience would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

CaT

Hi CaT,

We dayhiked to the Whitney Summit via the MR on 8/13/04. Our trip down the mountain was via the Main Trail. The trip up was beautiful, and we saw just a few other people on the way up, as opposed to the masses on the top and back down.

I had read multiple times on this board and elsewhere that one does not need a permit to utilize this route; that is, a dayhike up the MR and down the Main Trail. I spoke briefly with two different rangers on the trail that day -- around Trail Camp and Outpost Lake -- both of whom affirmed that a permit was not necessary for this specific itinerary. No dayhike permit, no exit permit, nada. Hopefully this arrangement won't change next year.

Have a safe trip!

CT

CFT - Thank you, thank you! Your response was very helpful. If what the rangers on the trail say conflicts with what the people in the ranger station say (whether Bishop or Lone Pine), then it's not even a contest -- I will take the word of the rangers on the trail any day! They are, after all, the ones who write the tickets (or not).

Richard and lawaneke, I hope you are reading this.

CaT

We had an overnight permit allowing us to camp although we didn't. I don't think you need a permit for that route, although you still need the day permit I believe. The nice thing about the MR is there are virtually no other people on it. When we eventually summited we were surprised ar how many people were at the top.

Oh yeah, when you are in the chute, stay to the left.

greenhorn - First, welcome to the message board! I see you are our newest member!

Thanks for the caution concerning the chute. You're in good company, as others here have also advised against going up the middle of the chute for the same reason; and so, we have planned on going up to the left or right, as the spirit leads, when we get to that point.

The day permit was the issue I was having with Inyo. You always need a permit when overnighting anywhere in the wilderness, including entering it via the MR.

CaT

Greenhorn: I second your comments. The chute with the loose rock was the hardest part for us, even though most advice seemed to indicate the climb above the notch would be the hardest part. I made the post below on another topic in response to a question, but it fits this topic better.
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Whit Walker

I can offer a few comments regarding your question comparing the Whitney MR to the Half Dome cables since I have done both. In a nutshell, the Half Dome cables are like a stroll in the park compared to the climb from Iceberg Lake to Whitney's summit.

My son and I did the regular Whitney trail as a day hike several years ago when he was 14. We trained like fanatics to be sure we were ready and did the hike round trip in a little over 8 hours. We went back to California this year for a 5 day back pack trip in the high country of Yosemite and decided to finish the trip off with a day hike up the Whitney MR.

We scouted the lower part of the trail the previous afternoon up to Lower Boy Scout Lake. The next morning we started at daylight, pushed a hard pace, and made it to Iceberg Lake in 4 hours. The next section from Iceberg Lake to the "notch" was to us the hardest part. This took us 2.5 hours (counting a first aid stop) and left my son with some nasty cuts on his hand where several moderate size rocks broke loose from his hand hold and slid over his hand. We climbed the chute to the left of the scree filled gulley, but the rocks were still very loose and it really worked on our minds, especially after my son cut his hand. After the notch we climbed the left chute all the way to the top, staying on the steeper left side instead of traversing across. Even though it was much steeper above the notch (almost straight up at the ending by the toilet), we made this section in 1 hour and found it overall easier than the section up to the notch. Overall time on the way up was 7.5 hours... much longer than our trip up the regular trail. We descended the regular trail in 3.5 hours after a short rest on top.

I think a lot of people probably underestimate the difficulty of the MR as compared to the main trail. I know I was a little too confident, but it all worked out OK in the end. Having said that, there were quite a few places where a small mistake could have been fatal. That is not the case on the main trail or even the Half Dome cable route.