Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Water to pump near Trail Camp?

My husband and I will be doing Whitney for the first time 9/29-10/1. Is there still unfrozen water in the lake near Trail Camp to pump? We plan to spend the night of 9/29 there and will need to pump water.

As of last Friday, the temperature of the lake near Trail Camp was quite a bit above freezing, so I'm sure you're safe there, but the springs on the switchbacks above were frozen.

Have a great trip!

Great question! So we're planning to do the trip in 3 days and will be staying at trail camp as well. Considering carrying weight, how much water (just a rough range in liters etc) should one bring from trail camp for the day of the summit and trail camp return? Have a Katadyn water filter, and assuming that the water on the switchbacks will still be frozen as we do this Oct 11th...

Consensus on this board seems to be about three liters for the round trip from Trail Camp to summit, assuming you are hydrated to begin with, and not very fast or very slow. I drank a lot of water before leaving TC, and ended up using a little over two liters on the trek to/from the summit. But I don't mind the weight of that extra liter or so "just in case", especially when I'm only carrying a summit pack.

Check past reports for water on the trail. On my mid august trip I got water at the spring by Bighorn Park and at the stream feeding into Trail Camp Lake. Thanks Bob R. Both very clean sourses so no need for a filter, why carry the extra weight?
Drink each time you get water, encluding at the trail head. I carried about a half liter leaving each stop till Trail Camp and about two and one half past that. I had plenty left over after summiting and going on to camp above Guitar Lake. The weather was cool for me though and a hot day would change things.

The stream feeding into Trail Camp is currently non-existent (frozen?) so you have to filter/add tablets from water below Trail Camp.

I pumped 2L of water at Trail Camp after lunch. While I should have had more, I was not lacking since I was able to eat snow along the way.

2.5L would have been more prudent.

I arrived at Trail Crest at 3:15 pm and Summit at 5:30 pm and back to Trail Crest at 7:25 pm.

This was on Thursday, 9/22.

Just a note: I stashed some stuff at trail camp to lighten the load. Some of you guys may have seen it piled in rocks. (Stove, water pump, extra layers, etc).