Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Winter Access Forum MR 25-27 April 2008

Hello,

I'm planning to try the MR on 25-27 April 2008, and I wonder if anyone else will be there that weekend. It will be my first time, so I'd like to accompany someone more experienced.

By the way, does anybody have pertinent suggestions or advice?

Thanks,
J

There are two of us hiking the MR this w/e also. We plan to start on Saturday (the 26th) and drive as far as the road will let us, hopefully to the Portal Store. The ranger today said that the road was closed due to a boulder but may be open by the w/e. She said the road was closed at "hogback" which meant an additional 2.5 hour hike (one-way I am assuming). She also said that the temp. at 14,000 feet at 2PM today was 13 degrees and that the bears are awake. The w/e at high altitude should expect single digits and teens for the temps.
I would also like to hear from people about any recent experience on the MR as far as snowpack, conditions, snowline, photos, etc. Perhaps we'll see you on the trail Elvis.

A group of us went up the MR this last weekend (4/17 - 4/19). Other than some incredibly strong winds up at Upper Boy Scout Lake where we camped on Friday night, the weather was fantastic. My photos are posted at this website:

http://gallery.mac.com/dullum/100053

Like everyone else that went up this weekend, when we got up there on Thursday night we simply moved the "Road Closed" sign, drove by, put the sign back, and drove up to the trailhead. On Friday morning, right as we were about to head up the trail, the ranger came by and warned us that we (and the 10 to 15 other cars worth of people that were up there) weren't supposed to have done that, and that they would be calling the sheriff to come up and give tickets. It's a long story about what happened next, but ultimately between the ranger and the head of the road crew (responsible for blasting the rock) who showed up, we ended up driving our cars back down and had to hike back up. (An extra 2,000 feet of elevation I wasn't planning on knocking out, but at least I didn't have to carry my pack up.)

Ostensibly the reason we weren't allowed to drive on the road was because they were going to blast the rock with dynamite. That seems to make sense, I suppose, but (1) didn't they already try that a few weeks ago and fail? Geez, what's taking so long?; (2) they were perfectly fine having us WALK up the road right past the blasting -- we just couldn't DRIVE past it (???); and (3) ultimately, the road crew guy let it slip that they werten't going to be doing the blasting until the following Tuesday (4/22). Whatever. In the end, we didn't want to get ticketed or towed, and, more importantly, we didn't want to ruin it for everyone else. So we played nice and drove the cars down. I hope they get the rock situation taken care of by this weekend. The road is as smooth and snow-free as it can get, so it is a shame not to be able to drive up to the trailhead. Good luck.

N

Not sure if you'll be able to read this before you go since it's 9PM on friday...

I'll be heading up there tomorrow morning. I was up there a few weeks ago and drove past the road closed sign and dodged the boulder. Snow conditions were good, but there being a lot of snow it dictated the use of crampons at higher elevations. Snowshoes weren't necessary as it was pretty hard packed.

If that boulder is out of the way. There should be no problems driving up to the trailhead. I haven't yet attempted MR this year so I don't know those conditions. If you have crampons the whitney trail isn't a bad option. It's kind of a long way around but you can avoid the bazillion switchbacks and just straight up climb that ridge with crampons. As a bonus, you can then glissade all the way down if you know how to do that.

Temperatures are cold at night, certainly but the weather was clear when I went and forecasted for the same. With the UV and clear skies, it was no kidding about 70 degrees in the daytime. I was climbing at 12-13k' in a t-shirt because it was so warm. Bundle up at night, but expect no problems during the day unless it gets really windy which it shouldn't until you reach the summit and associated ridgelines.

Good luck and I hope you get a chance to read this message before you press.