Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board MR April 9-10

A friend and I planned a Whitney summit over the weekend with the intent of skiing and boarding down from the notch. I had Randonee gear and he had a split-board. We got into Lone Pine early enough Friday evening to head up the Portal Road and check out conditions. It was snowing when we got up there. We met some other hikers at the avalanche path everyone has talked about and with a joint effort removed quite a bit of tree debris so that we could drive through that spot. We then encountered a small rockslide blocking the road and again we were able to remove enough of the debris to drive on. Snow stopped us at the Mysan Lakes trailhead. My partner and I decided to sleep in Lone Pine and then we drove up to the ML trailhead Sat morning and started from there.

I have never seen so much snow in the North Fork drainage. I had to hike my skis a very short distance up the NF and then, except for a couple of steeper sections, was able to skin all the way into UBSL. The weather was fantastic and there was 2-6 inches of new snow. Our original plan was to get to UBSL on Saturday, move up to Iceberg on Sunday and then summit and ski out on Monday. Unfortunately, I picked this trip to be one of those forgetful hikers I will sometime chuckle under my breath at. I guess this was payback. When we got to UBSL I discovered that the tent I gave my partner to carry did not match the poles I was carrying. So, we ended up digging some snow trenches and using the tent as a tarp. In the end it worked great but was a whole lot more work then planned. Several hikers and a couple of tele skiers we talked to indicated that the conditions in the couleur were not conducive to skiing and apparently no one was making the summit. Based on this info and getting a late start on Sunday we changed our original plan and just hiked to Iceberg. Sunday was an absolute beautiful blue bird day and skiing on untouched snow from Iceberg to LBSL was a blast. We had 4-6 inches of pretty consistent fresh snow for the entire decent. The skiing got a bit challenging after UBSL when I had the full pack (weighed in at 52 pounds) on. I had never skied with that large of a pack and it was interesting. If anybody out there saw me coming down (I wouldn’t describe it as skiing at that point) I hope you got a good laugh.

I discovered this trip that no mater how many times I do this I always make one or two mistakes. Here is what I will change next time I head up for a ski decent.

1. I will probably try this as a day hike so that I can have a more enjoyable decent. Coming out is so quick; this would be very doable with good snow conditions and would be a much more enjoyable skiing experience for the entire decent.

2. Check all shared gear twice to make sure YOU BRING THE RIGHT TENT. I will never chuckle under my breath again when I hear someone say they forgot their poles or brought the wrong tent.

3. Don’t forget the camera at the office

4. Get some crampons for my Randonee skis. My partner had crampons on his split board and was able to skin up much steeper terrain than I was. The only thing worse than hiking with a 50 pound pack is then having to strap your 12 pound skis on when the terrain got to steep for the skins.

Please stay safe out there.

hey spinefxr, My wife and I agree, the path thru the avalanch field on the road was cleared when we arrived there just before you.
how did your buddies video turn out? you guys passed us above UBSL, there was a goup of us resting.

What can I say, it was a long drive and I was probably halucinating by then. I have not seen the video yet. We drove straight back after getting down on Sunday and he has not been able to burn a CD and get it back to me yet. Hope you guys had a great trip. By the way, when did you get back to your cars on Sunday.

Hey spinefxr,
Doing it in a day is the way to go. I was the single skier that helped you clear the road, and I saw you an the way in as I was going out. It was my first attempt at doing the MR in a day, and it was great. Too windy to summit, quit climbing at 13,400', but the ski out was a blast. I would not have enjoyed the skiing as much with an overnight pack. I'll definietly be back to try again some time.

By the way, I forgot my ski crampons too, and had a ***** of a time in the canyon. I won't forget them next time!