Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Newbie needs some feedback on MR daytrip on 10/6

First: The weather. NOAA calls for possible light snow Tues/Wed but any front should be cleared by Friday. What's the impact (effect on timing, ability to follow trail, difficulty on sections of route, etc..) on on the route with an inch or two and a couple freeze thaw cycles? More that an inch of two, it's a scrub. Opinions?

Second: The ledges. With a planned start at 3-4am and a moderate pace we'll hit the ledges in total dark and be up pretty high before any light. Any tips on staying on route? On not missing the ledges? On not walking off the ledges?

FWIW: I've read everything, checked out route info and viewed all the photo shows of the route. Just looking for some additional info. Also, a newbie on Whitney but have been around. Ranier a few times and Longs Peak on various routes and a bunch of other obscure 13 and 14ers. Nothing fancy but I've been there, as it were.

Went up the MR my first time on 9/24. Left at 6:00 and hit the ledges in full day light. You may want to leave a little later? The trail leading to the ledges is a little tricky to follow. For the most part the trail is well traveled and well marked. By no means is it like walking up the MMWT. As you can imagine, it is steep. Same elevation gain in 1/2 the distance.

A bit of fresh snow will probably complicate the segment between LBSL and UBSL. The trail kind of disappears into talus for a while, which might be more challenging with a few inches of snow, and the slabs above could be unpleasant if the snow hasn't had a chance to melt off (or worse, turns into a thin sheet of water ice).

There were a few flakes falling yesterday afternoon on Langley, but no accumulation as of ~3:00 pm. I heard this morning that it had started snowing up by Mammoth (2-3", snow level 9500'), but they seem to get more precip up there.

If the gully above the notch still holds fresh snow, then be careful that it doesn't conceal water ice or verglas.