Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board july 23 trip advice

we are a group of six hikers (with only one that has summitted once before) planiing an overnite at trail camp sunday nite with a summit attempt early monday am. does anyone know what the temps have been at trail camp at nite? any advice on thunderstorms in relation to summitting? Any problems with ice on the trail to the summit in early am? Any advice on time to leave trail camp to avoid thunderstorms? all advice would be greatly appreciated. wish us luck.

Your best bet is to check with people hanging around the Portal Store on the day before your hike. Everything keeps changing. Bob R posted a report last week that said temps were in the 20s. ( http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=004685 )

Bernie - With only one of the six having prior Whitney summit experience, that means that five have never tackled the 97 switchbacks before. Also not knowing if your group has any high altitude (13,000+ feet) experience or not, makes it hard to give a good starting time from Trail Camp. My recommendation is to start as early as possible, but probably no later than 7:00am. You'll have five miles from Trail Camp to the summit, and that should give you the needed time to start your descent before any thunderstorms might appear (they usually show up in the afternoon). Good luck.

Michael T.

I encountered temps of 40 at night and 84 during the day at trial camp. (july 14-16) The weather was so nice we didn't even use the tent or cold weather gear we carried up. I stayed in shorts and a t-shirt the whole time. The temps at the summit were also close to 80, not a breeze or a cloud in the sky. We sure got lucky.

A friend and day hiked on Thursday, 7/20 and it was definitely not shorts weather. I'm not sure if it was the thunderstorms that had been coming in each afternoon but it was pretty cool at Trail Camp. On the way up at 7am and on the way down around 11am I was in pants and three shirts and when the wind kicked up I was still cold.