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Do cell phones work at the top? It would be great to call home when we get to the top. I heard that if you have a direct line of sight to Lone Pine they might work.
Doug
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Mine and my buddies didn't work anywhere from the portal to the summit. We both have Verizon.I have read here people posting about making calls out from the summit.
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I have made calls from the summit. I have a Verizon phone.
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What AlanK didn't tell you is that he uses the next generation Motorola cell phone..... 
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Last week I was at the top of Whitney and tried to make a call using my AT&T (Cingular) RAZR phone....no signal. My sister-in-law had Verizon service and I used her phone to make a call to my wife. It came in very clear!
Is this the beginning of a new advertisement for Verizon.....I hope not. I work for AT&T, not the wireless entity, but we're all tied together now.
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Doug, In July I made a call from the top of Mt. Langley and Mt. Whitney with no problem. I was using a LG cell from Verizon. I've been told that if you have a line of sight from LP to the summit your Verizon phone will probably work. Your mileage may differ with other companies. Just my 2c!  Just a side note here- I didn't get a signal at the hut but wandered over near the MR near the edge and got a very clean signal. I was looking at Lone Pine directly and that was the key to a good connection. Good luck!
Last edited by drhabes; 08/24/07 02:58 AM.
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Mike -- that was last year's call. For my first Mt. Whitney calling attempt a few years earlier, I used this one:  I had to run a wire behind me all the way from Lone Pine.
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Like drhabes said if you can get a line site down to the valley floor you should be able to get out...Just like going by the windows on the back side, you look through the window and you can get a signal...mark
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Wal-Mart's Simple Freedom cheapo works fine up there.
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Here's my 2 cents. I have never been able to make a call from the summit of Whitney with my Verizon cell phone. However I have always been able to make a call at the "windows" on the way down the Main Trail. Other than that, I can make a call from around half of the summits I climb. Verizon is better than any other company that I've had.
Rafael...
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Thanks for all the imput. I think I have one of those black phones, I guess I won't bring it.
Doug
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My first day hike up Whitney I was able to make a call from the summit using an LG phone with Verizon around 10:30 in the morning (clear day). The next year (same weekend in Sept) I was able to get to the top about 3 hours sooner. It was clear again but much colder then. My fully-charged battery started blinking that it was dead as soon as I turned on the phone. Arrrrgh...  As soon as I got back down the mountain, I turned it on again... you guessed it.. fully charged again. The cold can wreak havoc with batteries...
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The thing I've noticed is the Lone Pine vortex. Keep an eye on the time of your phone down in town. Mine usually jumps forward 2 hours (central time) and can throw off your intentions to use the phone as your alarm in the morning... AlanK: I think I saw your phone's cable on the HST above Hamilton Lake. That looked heavy! I got a pic of it, but it walked away with the camera... -L 
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You can have this picture.   On my first trip to Europe I left my camera on a Swiss train. I did not ever get it back. Being in Switzerland, I at least asked the railroad folks. I hate doing that! 
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I was successful on the summit with a Sanyo phone on analog roam. The key, in rural areas, is the ability of the phone to receive an analog signal. Analog networks typically have greater coverage than digital networks. Therefore, phones with analog roaming can use analog networks in many rural areas where digital service is not available. Analog roaming, while useful in urgent situations, has several drawbacks compared to digital service: it is often more expensive, emits more radiation, sound quality is far less than digital, and certain features, such as caller-ID and data services, do not work with analog. Phones capable of analoge roaming utilize a transmission standard known as Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS), which operates only in the Cellular frequency band (800 / 850 MHz). Some of the newer phones don't advertise as being capable of operating with an "analog" signal, but rather "tri-mode" which designates the phone in as one that supports CDMA (digital) in both the 850 and 1900 MHz bands, and AMPS (analog) in the 850 band. I have found this site useful for shopping for phones capable of analog roaming: http://www.phonescoop.com/
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Here is what I know on the subject. (I now have a Verizon phone). I doubt if anything significant changed in the past three years, but I will keep an eye out for any additional insight. Service in the area has improved in recent years. Here is some additional history from my experiences. In 1994 somebody in our group with an analog phone could call from the summit. In 1999, I borrowed a Pacific Bell digital phone from a friend and had no coverage, but somebody at the summit was able to make calls with AirTouch (which ironically was once owned by Pac Bell). In 2000 I bought a tri-mode (digital CDMA and analog) phone with a national calling plan from AirTouch right as it was merging with GTE and Bell Atlantic under the new name Verizon. AT&T wireless was also coming out with national plan service (and had an IPO early that year). Pacific Bell eventually merged with Cingular and in 2004 AT&T wireless merged with Cingular. When I upgraded my Verizon tri-mode phone in 2004, the agent was able to show me a map of the digital coverage zones around Lone Pine on his computer.
While I was only able to get analog service from the summit in 2000, I was able to get good digital coverage in 2004 from near the edge of the cliff. Even though I had good signal strength, it still took several attempts to make a short phone call, most likely due to the limited capacity of the circuit.
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HI some caution on cell coverage, don't get a service that says no roaming charges in rural areas that means NO SERVICE , line of sight is a factor but in tight canyons a bounce can allow calls. Find out where the 911 call will go and how long you may need to explain where nowhere near a town is . This also applies to road service calls that the dispatcher thinks Lone Pine to Frenso IS A FLAT ROAD! And someone will be there in about an hour. VERIZON and Alltel work well in this canyon, this year I was able to call out on several rescues that the FS and SAR raidos would not reach a dispatcher.
Do you need a phone ? we have sliced bread and color in the fat they sale for fake butter , so seems like another choice. More of a factor is when you use the phone. Thanks Doug
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