Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Any Mosquito's Up There

As I plan for my 2 day hike to Whitney I was curious if there is a need to have bug spray or a mosquito net covering my head.

Last week when we went backpacking out of Onion Valley we used our mosquito nets whenever we cooked. The mosquitos weren't swarming but they were still pretty bad. The worst place was Flower Lake on the east side. However, there was no wind when we were there and maybe that is why they were so bad. Whenever the wind picked up at the other lakes (Rae, Kearsarge, etc.) the mosquitos went away.

Nope not many. We just brought bug spray which we did not use. I got one bite the entire trip and never used any spray even at the Whitney portal campgrounds.

I was up there last weekend and there were quite a few mosquitoes at both Trail Camp and Outpost Camp. The ones at Trail Camp were much more agressive about biting, and they were not deterred by citronella based (SSS) products. Take some DEET if you want to avoid the bites.

i was there last week and got eaten alive at lower boy scout

How about further north. I'm headed to Virginia Lakes area for five days this weekend.

Not as far north as you're going, but on the Kearsarge Pass crossing, I was bit by only one, and none on the hike to Piute Pass a couple of weeks ago. I didn't break out the bug juice on either hike.

I'm not sure where the Virginia Lakes are located but on July 28th we took a hike along the chain of lakes to Gem Lake from the Mosquito Flats TH (north of Bishop) The 'skeeters were thick and hungry all along the trail. We topped out at around 10.950 in elevation but couldn't admire the lakes because we kept swattin' bugs.
The next day we took the old Bluebird Bus in Mammoth down to the Devil's Postpile to walk along the river to Rainbow Falls. Upon exiting the bus we queried the ranger there about bugs and he said that they had been bad a couple of weeks earlier but had moved up the mountains as the lakes opened up.
So by now I figure that the mosquitos must be way upslope!
My guess is that the critter are up past 12,000 by this time....

We did the JMT from July 26 - August 3. We camped at Virginia Lake on the night of the 28th. The mosquitoes were thick at that point. This picture caught a few of them:

http://www.alank.smugmug.com/gallery/1750396/3/86646979

We hiked the Mt. Whitney trail on Aug. 8 and 9 with an overnight at Trail Camp. We did not have any problems with mosquitos and never used the bug repellent. The weather was nice with little wind. I also spent a couple days in Mammoth after this and also, no problem with bugs (although I did stay in a motel instead of camping.)

AlanK - Thank you for that first hand report. Nothing like a picture to illustrate the misery. I sure hope they have thinned out some by this weekend.

Well, it was a month ago! We encountered far fewer mosquitoes in some other places, inlcuding the Whitney area. I hope it goes well for you. If not, there's always DEET!