Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Outpost Camp vs Trail Camp

I will be climbing Whitney for the first time later this summer and I was wondering if I could get some opinions of leaving from the Outpost Camp vs leaving from Trail Camp. One makes for a shorter summit day while the other offers a shorter distance with the full pack. Any suggestions? Also, do you have time estimates from each camp to the summit? I've seen times listed for leaving from Whitney Portal, but not from the camps.

I hiked up to Trail Camp last Wednesday. I carried a 45lb pack, basically took my time enjoying all the sights along the way and it took me and 3 others about 8 hrs. We didn't attempt to summit since we're all inexperienced and had no crampons/ice axe, but if I were to do this again my plan would be to hike to Trail Camp the first day, summit the 2nd day and hike back down the 3rd day. There's quite a trudge in the snow yet between Outpost and Trail Camp that is pretty physically taxing if you're humping a pack. The hike back down, which we again meandered and enjoyed all the sights, took about 6 hours. All in all, great trip. Good luck!

In July, 2001, it took Nathan (then 12) and me about 5 hours from Trail Camp to the summit. We had hiked in the previous day and camped at Trail Camp in order to have a shorter summit day. That worked out well because the thunderstorms blew up as we were between the summit and Trail Crest on the way down, so we probably wouldn't have made it if we had started at Outpost.

Our hike (with full packs) from Portal to Trail Camp took us about 6 hours, including a good 45 minutes of waiting at Outpost for t-storms to clear out. From Trail Camp back to Portal the third day took maybe 4 hours, although the last mile or so, when you can see the cars in the parking lot but still have a bunch of switchbacks to go down just above the Portal, seemed interminable.

Trail Camp is pretty barren, being above treeline, but the views of the mountains along the ridge more than make up for the lack of trees. There should also be fewer bugs up at Trail Camp. Outpost has lots of grass, trees and water around to encourage insects.

2001 trip report is under the "highpointing" pulldown on my <a href="http://www.mtritter.org">WWW site</a> with photos and panoramas.

There was a pretty good discussion early this year on the subject. Check out <A href="http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002736">THIS</A> thread.

I would definately push for Trail Camp if your serious about the summit. As I remember it takes a fair amout of energy to get from Outpost to Trail which may ruin your summit attempt.

Thanks for all the replies. Seems like we have a unanimous decision. I'll post a trip report when I get back.