Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Anyone recognize where I shot this?

It's somewhere along the Whitney Trail.

Photo

Note the Whitney massif peaking up behind the ridge in the upper left of the frame.

Bob

It looks like you are above Mirror Lake...I may be wrong. Either I am hiking at zero dark thirty going up or in a hurry to get back down and I don't stop much to see all around me. Maybe I should start focusing on the beauty rather than the summit.

N2theGr8YdOpn and Bob both have the right line of sight.

I'm curious why you are interested in what appears to be such a non-descript spot on the Whitney Trail, compared to so many grand views?

Bob, if I've figured right, the photo could have been taken on the trail at 11,100 feet. I place the spot at 36 34.306N and 118 15.832W, or UTM 11 386909E 4047613N (WGS84 datum). Candlelight would be a little left of this (by 5 degrees), but close enough. You and Kashcraft could confirm this.

I am sure you are correct about the location of this photo. Looking at the angle of the photo, it would need to be taken just south of Mirror lake after the trail switchbacks up but before it goes to the south of Wotans throne. Bob R's photo shows the canyon well, extending up from Mirror lake to the Pinnacle Pass.

I found this photo on Webshots, taken a little further back, looking up the same canyon.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1206490815060781516ClEowK

- the shaded rock on the left side of your photo is the eastern extension of Wotans throne, which you can see from Bighorn park/Mirror lake area.

- You can also clearly see the Pinnacle pass, with its classic pinnacle point spire.
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1270668097061435028WPYSwQ

-The cliff looking area on the right side of the photo is the south face of that triangular spur which extents out from the pinnacle pass toward Thor Peak...down and left in this photo

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1215988012061435028efyYWI

Bob R.: Yes, you do have to go up there for the the umpteenth gazillion time! Don't you have a cabin near Outpost Camp on the MWT by now?

And take a level and a piece of string so you can see if it is higher than the top of the Whitney Hut!

Chris

Beach...you are soooo funny! You're not stringing us along, are you??

Well..I don't want to start the whole debate over the height of the summit marker vs. the top of the summit hut...but has anyone measured the summit market against the top of the new Starbucks sign?? Although I don't know that I'd bother...next year Bob would just have to go up again to measure the height of the new foundation for the cable car construction...

Chris

Taken on the trail early afternoon yesterday, at almost exactly 11,000' elevation, on the bench above Mirror Lake. The spot you were standing was probably 50' farther up the trail.

I could have nailed it exactly, if I had taken a copy of your picture along.

<img src=http://img.clubphoto.com/jerboa/197421065/512/beac64b587ff945fd446a49289afa905/image.jpg>

No, didn't hike up off the trail.

As for non-descript, perhaps, but the light is a lot better looking on a print than the compressed version that Picasa shows. Also on Picasa with the photo in question is a photo taken looking down on Trail Creek. Much more dramatic.

Yep, that's it. Very close to the tree line, such that it is anywhere on the East Side.

Thanks Bob R. and everyone else.

Bob, the light! In the Range of Light! Yes, your explanation works for me, although, as you say, the Picasa image does not do your light any justice. And, yes, the photo down Trail Creek is much more dramatic.

Thanks for answering my curiosity.