Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Marmot Opinions

Planning to leave non-essentials at Trail Camp while trying to summit next month. My plan is to drop load at Trial Camp and summit on Day One, then overnight at Trail Camp on way back down. Any suggestions on things to do to reduce Marmot interest in body salts, etc.? If we set up tent, leaving it zipped may increase Marmot interest in chewing through the wretched thing; not exactly something I want to happen. On the other hand, leaving it unzipped for free exploration seems not to be so good of an idea either-- given weather possibilities and general animals-in-tent potential issues. What do you veteran Whitney folks generally do? Suggestions very welcome. Thanks in advance for helping a relative nOOb.

You have a bear canister, right? So that's where the food and smelly stuff marmots are interested in goes. Leave it somewhere in the shade, but not in the tent to reduce the temptation. I wouldn't hesitate to leave the tent unzipped, or back packs open, for that matter. If you're really expecting bad weather, you're not going to be heading for the summit anyway, right? Besides, if your tent has a fly, they can crawl underneath it even if it is zipped. If they can't, then leaving it partially unzipped still won't threaten the dryness of your sleeping quarters. That you can leave wide open.

I always leave my tent partially opened so that if they want to look inside, then by all means go ahead. I figure if they want to get inside they will and I really don't want the tent chewed.
Also, I usually always leave all pockets on my back pack opened a little. Though last Tuesday when I went up I forgot to open one of the pockets, but that didn't stop some animal (a chipmunk, maybe?) from getting its paw into a small unopened pocket to rip out a plastic bag that contained a small box of water proof matches. It left the box of matches (a bit chewed), but scattered the plastic to shreads. I'm just happy it didn't take the matches and take up smoking or even worse - start a forest fire : )