Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board MR in the dark

Is MR pretty difficult to navigate for 1st timers? I've read that it can be tricky to stay on the trail in certain sections. And how about for the first few hours in the dark with only a headlamp to light the way?

Glenn,
I assume you're talking about after the snow melts out. When I did the MR for the first time last summer, I went up the afternoon before and scoped out the trail to just below LBS lake. I was very glad I did the next morning in the dark. There are a lot of little dead end use trails in the drainage and you can spend a lot of time thrashing about if you don't know where you're going. In any event, it would be safer to do the E-ledges with a little daylight. Good luck!

You go up the regular Mt. Whitney trail for about 20 minutes before you leave for the North Fork. The start of the North Fork trail is not that easy to see, even in the daylight, unless you are actually looking for it.

I would not recomend starting any sooner then 20 minutes before light, since the North Fork up to Lower Boy Scout Lake would not be easy for a first timer in the dark. My first time, it was not that easy to figure out....during the day.

If you do want to start sooner, ask around and tag along with someone who knows the route. Quite often we now start a few hours before light, hoping to get to Lower Boy Scout lake by first light.

Glenn,
I went up the MR 2 years ago for the first time the 2nd week of July and we began at the trailhead at 4:00am. I had a map and had read many books on the area and still managed to walk right past the turn at the north fork of the creek. After climbing the Main Trail for much longer than I care to admit I realized the error of my ways and started back down. There was plenty of sunshine by the time we reached the turn at the creek and it made sense and there is even a sign if you look closely. The ledges were not too bad to negotiate however above Lower Boy Scout Lake the trail is hard to follow and when we got to the boulder area to the left side of the creek it was not clear to me how to cross. My 13 year old son and my brother in-law had had it by that time and after a short rest we started down. Disapointing as it was we learned alot about the area and met several really nice people from all over the world who had come to climb this breathtaking mountian.

I've done the first leg of the hike to lower boyscout in the dark several times but I know the trail well. Suggest you do a day hike to lower boyscout to become familiar with the section you'll do in the dark which includes the ledges. I usually leave the trailhead at 4am. Each time I encounter people lost before the ledges sitting around waiting for it to get light before continuing.