Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board current trail camp conditions

Hello, I'll be hiking Whitney in late September with a small group. Our original plan was to hike to Outpost Camp, stay the night, then summit the next day. A 14 mile round-trip hike seems a bit strenuous for some and we're now considering hiking to Trail Camp but have heard it can be an unpleasant stay. I'd love some feedback on current conditions there and any advice, tips, etc. anyone may want to send my way- thanks! Nube

My two cents… the Outpost Camp to Trail Camp leg with a full pack is actually a fairly tough stretch. But if you do spend the night at Trail Camp, the trade off is; you get a bit more time to acclimate at a higher elevation at Trail Camp and you get a nice head start on the switchbacks. Last August we overnighted at Trail Camp and it was great. Lots of water and lots of camp sites. It was nice to break camp before daybreak and to hit the switchbacks first thing. We were at Trail Crest before 8 AM and on the summit before 11 AM. You pay a price lugging you’re the extra distance to Trail Camp but I think it gives you a nice head start to get up and down before a thunderstorm too.
People will have strong opinions on both options.
Good luck,
Ron

We enjoy the trip to Outpost for one night and then the next two nights at Trail Camp. We then drop down on the fourth day. We carry two canisters but the extra time on Whitney is great plus there is plenty of time for side trips. Acclamation is easy with this schedule and it allows plenty of time for the summit. A pancake breakfast to hit the trail on and then a burger and beer when we come off. A truly relaxing trip!

In 2006 my 14 year old son and I climbed Whitney via the main trail. We hiked to trail camp on day one, summitted and returned to our campsite on day 2, and returned to the Portal on day 3. It was a relaxing and enjoyable trip.
The stone "forts" around the tent sites at trail camp are an indication that it must get some extreme weather at times, but luckily I have not seen it.
The primary benefit of this itinerary is that it allows one to leave late enough on day one to have one of Doug's famous pancakes for breakfast and you arrive back at the Portal early enough on day three to have one of Doug's famous burgers for dinner.

You basically acheive the coveted Whitney hat trick: pancake/summit/burger.

I would agree with what has been said. Obviously, there is not one best answer.

If you want to increase your chances of actually making the summit, and you haven't spent a lot of time at the higher elevation, you need to go up slower. Spend one night at the Whitney Portal Campground, one night at Outpost camp and one night at Trail Camp before attempting to summit. This would greatly minimize altitude sickness issues and increase your chance of summiting.

If that is not your concern, and you are spending only one night on the mountain before your summit attempt, then either will do.

Outpost camp is certainly not as far in. At about 4 miles and 10,300 feet, it is only one third of the way to the summit. The advantages are a nicer place to sleep in terms of scenery, wind and temperatures. Also some people just sleep better at a lower elevation in general. You are also carrying that heavy backpack a shorter distance in general.

On the summit day, with a day pack, you will have to hike another 1 1/2 to 2 hours to get to Trail Camp. From Trail Camp to the summit is still a considerable distance in terms of elevation and distance. But keep in mind, many start their day hike from the portal, which is much further then either.

Trail camp can be cold, windy and freeze any night of the month. You may not sleep well, but you do start the next morning over half way to the summit.

I would recommend getting an early start and backpacking in to outpost camp. That will seem like a huge effort. If you still have more to give, stick it out to Trial Camp if you want to get closer.

Nube,

I double overnighted at Trail Camp in mid-Sept last year. Both nights were pleasant with temps dropping to about 30. But hikers the day before experieneced very high winds that prevented much sleep if at all, and very few summitted as a result. Either could happen to you.

Can your group manage the weight of overnight gear all the way to Trail Camp? The best way to determine what's best for you is in your practice hikes. Practicing with a realistic weight in these type distances should tell you your limit.

Your acclimatization schedule may dictate where you should camp. I was fully acclimatized and went straight from Owens Valley (4.5) to Trail Camp (12.0) and slept very well. If you plan on acclimatizing on the trail, consider camping at the portal (8.3) or Lone Pine Lake (10.0). As others have mentioned, consider spending two or three days on the mountain. This leads to a greater chance of success and I think it increases the fun factor. Last year a single climber at Trail Camp told me that her schedule was to camp at the portal, Outpost, Trail Camp before summitting and again after summitting. This is a near perfect schedule for the body to adapt to the altitude with plenty of extra time built into the schedule. Oh yeah ... no night hiking.

The Orientaion Notes on this site are great ... take advantage of them. My final piece of advice is to add a day or two into your schedule to allow for additional acclimatizing and/or bad weather. If everything goes perfect (and it may), then burn those extra days playing in the Alabama Hills. (The views of the Sierras are really nice when you can say I've just been there)

LonePalm

Myself and a few friends are going to try Whitney on 6/21. Given recent accumulations of snow I am thinking I need a plan B if there is additional snow as we do not have crampons etc.

Any suggestions?

Is White Mountain likely to have better snow conditions?

My 12 year old daughter and I reached the summit last June after a slow and deliberate acclimatization process. Coming to the Portal from sea level, we spent our first night there. We then backpacked to Outpost, set up camp, ate lunch and walked up about another 1000 ft. to just above Trailside Meadow. After an hour or so at Trailside, the clouds began to darken so we headed back down to our camp at Outpost. The following day we leisurely backpacked to Trail Camp arriving mid-morning and spent the rest of the day acclimatizing settling in for the night after witnessing a summer snowstorm. We started for the summit the next morning at 6 am, arrived at 11 am, back down to Trail Camp by 3 pm, packed everything up and back to the Portal by 9 pm. The only issue was my inablility to sleep very well at Trail Camp. In summary to assure success we stayed hydrated and maintained a slow and methodical pace.

White mtn would be an option. the route is totally exposed to the sun, so it should melt out fast. Mt Langley via New Army Pass should be a good option....once again, the route sits in the sun. BobR will have a TR on NAP early next week, and that should be revealing.

Thank you all for the wonderful feedback. What I'm hearing most is about hiking with pleasure and with the greatest possibility of summit success- take it gently and enjoy the journey. We do plan on spending some acclimatizing time in the White Mountains a few days prior to heading to Whitney Portal camp and now we can talk about the option of adding a night at Outpost Camp. I had heard that Trail Camp is "dirty and stinky" because of folks not using waste bags. Is this still true (or was it ever)? Thanks again and keep on adventuring! Nube

It is not true. Never was. When the solar toilet was there, if you were within 50' and downwind, you could easily get an offensive whiff. But the toilet is gone. And, now and then, someone leaves a used wag bag behind or doesn't use one at all. But my experience is that downtown San Francisco, for example, is far worse.

Go back before wag bags. Before quotas. Before permits. There were far more people climbing Mt. Whitney then. On Labor Day in 1967, I summited around sunset. 278 people had signed the summit register before me that day. There wasn't a problem then, and there isn't now. (Well, I mean there wasn't a problem in the context of "dirty and stinky." That was about the time the Forest Service began to be concerned about the human waste impact there, but they wanted to address this issue before it became that severe.)

Actually, I think the real problem here is the Internet, and message boards, and the easy flow of bad information along with good. Inyo needs to contract with snopes.com.

People keep repeating those same old ridiculous stories, and they keep painting the same old tired pictures. "I saw some brown scum on a stick, or I saw some toilet paper, or I saw a dog crapping." Maybe it happened and maybe it didn't. But even if it did, I'm saying that you can't draw sweeping conclusions from it.

I have camped at Trail Camp as much as anyone, for a long time. I could go back and estimate the numbers, but it went into triple digits years ago. I have never encountered issues such as you allude to. Sure, some human feces now and then--but rarely--and they're always dried and well on to their way through the organic decay process. And not nearly as abundant as those from animals. You can find more if you turn over some rocks. So, don't turn over rocks.

And you can't expect it to be as clean as a microbiology lab. Many thousands of people stay there each year, with no maid service, no janitors. Some human impact is inevitable, and I am continually surprised that it is so small.

Sh1t disappears, due to natural forces such as wind, sun, rain, and animals. And time. If it didn't, the earth would be covered in six feet of it. Try this: Go off trail somewhere and do your business on a rock slab. Go back in a month; I challenge you to find anything left.

Last June I hiked the Whitney trail and found a big fresh pile with toilet paper at a switchback around 9600'. Ten days later, the toilet paper was still there, but the pile was gone. You know the rangers didn't take care of it, because they would have picked up the toilet paper too.

This is not to say that people should squat with abandon at Trail Camp. They shouldn't. But the current wag bag / pack it out policy is working. The Inyo rangers who oversee the policy, and the people who follow it, get the credit. The few people who don't follow it are down in the mud (pun intended).

Sorry; you pushed my button. Climbing Mt. Whitney is a wonderful experience, however you do it and whether it's the first time or the nth. Don't let these ridiculous stories detract from it.

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Summary: Before the quota system started over 30 years ago, there were many more people camping at Trail Camp. There were no wag bags or solar toilets, so everyone--perhaps 100 people a day during peak season--defecated in the area. We never thought anything about Trail Camp having a special "problem," because we didn't notice it and there were no Internets and message boards to tell us.

Compare that with the handful of people not using wag bags today and, well, you get the picture.

"But my experience is that downtown San Francisco, for example, is far worse"

It's not just a smelly urinal downtown. It smells everywhere in this town. In fact, my front door gets pissed on randomly and the smell stays until you can hose off the front porch.

I plan on moving to a city that does not smell so much.

In addition to being good acclimatizion for Whitney, the White Mtns are pretty interesting in themselves. There is a good paved road to Schulman Grove (10.0) which has a visitors center and a couple of hiking trails. It's easy to spend 4-5 hours here, be sure to visit Methuselah. Beyond that point the road isn't paved and it is much slower going. I drove a rental Dodge Charger and averaged about 10-12 mph, so it's a 90 min drive to the Barcroff Gate (11.7). Camping is allowed here and in Sept you will probably have it to yourself (not mentioned anywhere but this site has a pit toilet!). If you have gone that far, it's only about a 7-10 hour stroll to the summit. If you can climb White (14.2), you can climb Whitney. Check out Summit Post for more details.

I had your same concerns about Trail Camp, but I found it exactly as BobR posted. I didn't look for anyone's waste and didn't find any. There are many camping pads with rock wind barriers available. I lucked out and came across the nicest pad on the trail (adjacent campers called me the Ritz-Carlton).

There is also an excellent water source adjacent to Trail Camp. You can filter "green" water by the campsite or walk about 200' to where it flows off the slopes and drink the cleanest water on Earth.