Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mountaineer's Route Trip Report - 6/30

Hi all-I just wanted to post a TR for the ascent my friend and I made on Monday via the MR. I hope some of the info will be useful to others.

My friend Nic and I decided a couple of months ago to do the MR in one day. We are both pretty good mountain bikers and I swim and run and have a 5 year old son, and we both have rock-climbing experience, so we thought it was do-able. I got some day permits for June 30th (which you need for the MR as well as the MT), reserved campsites at Onion valley for Fri and Sat nites, and WP for Sun nite to acclimate and prepare. We both live near LA and drove up Fri, getting to OV about 7pm. As we walked to the water spigot at the campground, the guys camped next to it said "no water-it's solar-powered". We thought they were joking, but, sure enough, there was no water. Luckily we had enough to get through the night (we also could have walked a short ways to the stream). We did the eat sleep thing, then hiked to Kearsage Pass the next day, meeting quite a few people. After fooling around on the mountain trails all day, we did the eat sleep thing again and in the morning, broke camp, visited Vic at the Visitor center to pick up the permits and get some route finding advice (Thanks Vic!) and moved to WP (there weren't any campsites available on the weekend when I reserved). My thoughts about OV: Great place to acclimate, nice hiking and fishing, bugs not as bad as at WP, and a rather mean campground host...

We setup camp at WP in site 41. At the campground, sites 39-43(?) are separated from the main campground, and are in my opinion, much quieter and nicer (although a bit lower). We did our final equipment checklist and packed, then headed to the Store to eat a burger and socialize with Doug a bit. Doug gave us some good info and was a lot of fun to talk to. That night, the wind changed, and there was pretty heavy smoke from the fires which made it very difficult to sleep. We planned to start the trail at 5am, ascend via the MR and descend via the MT.

Monday June 30 6am-we hit the trail. We tried to get a good feel for the route in advance, but of course got immediately off route. Right before the ledges, at the first stream crossing, there is a very well marked trail that leads to a gully that you DO NOT WANT TO GO UP. We made it up that gully far enough to have to use slings and ropes, and at some point before serious injury decided we were off route. An hour and a half later, we were back on the right track, and crossed the ledges without incident or fear (we had perspective...). We then proceeded past LBSL and walked across the scree/boulder field, but missed the transition to the slabs. We eventually figured out what went wrong, and were able to traverse to the slabs and get back on route. We were eating GU and Powerbars and drinking lots of water and Cytomax. I am trying to remember what happened next, as it's all kind of a daze still. I recall climbing a rather steep long section to a ridge, where we found water and ate a little. I think we did some more climbing and then got off route again headed to UBSL (even though we were aware that that was a common misstep) We discovered our mistake fairly quickly, and were able to traverse some loose stuff on the side of a hill without losing too much altitude, getting to the center of a moraine. We walked on the snow in the center of the moraine and the climbed a steep part to Iceberg lake. After taking a few pics and socializing with a few campers there, we donned helmets and warm gear (the wind was really blowing!) and made our way to the bottom of the chute. We could not spot the route up the chute to the left that avoids the snow that had been described to us so we ascended on the right on the rocks for about 3/4 of the way. This was very steep, exposed climbing on very loose rock and sometimes snow. My friend was in tennis shoes, and I had nice boots, and I was at various points forced into the snow in the center and had to carefully chop/dig footholds with my boots as we had no ax or crampons. 4-5 good hard kicks for a solid hold, nothing to hold onto and the rest of your weight on the other foot, ascending nearly vertically, with serious injury or death a near certainty if you should slip or fall. Exciting stuff. Extremely tiring. I'm a strong athlete, and I was in a full workout sweat kicking my way inch by inch up that couloir. We were able to traverse to the left and get back on the rock again near the top and eventually get to the top of the chute. I think it took 2-3 hours to climb that thing. I must say that climbing that chute is an experience in and of itself.

I'm out of time right now so I have to say to be continued... I'll finish the post tonight

Well you have me sitting on the edge of my seat. This is like the old time serials to-be-continued.Can't wait for the rest of the story.

Thanks for the TR. I'm heading up the same route on Tuesday 15 July. Looking for all TR's between now and then.

OK so the saga continues:

Let me preface the second half by saying that my friend and I are in our late forties, but are in very good shape. I was a little concerned because I have athsma and allergies so I had to take a bee-sting kit and an inhaler. we have both done some pretty epic stuff and I have always been interested in pushing myself to my limit-both mental and physical. My wife really wanted to go up with us, but is in nowhere near as good shape and has very minimal rock-climbing experience. I am very glad I stood my ground and did not let her come. It takes a certain kind of warped personality to enjoy the dangers, exertions, and adrenalin rushes that this route provides. You certainly can't waver in your determination to summit-unless it is impossible due to AMS or absolutely beyond your ability-which you must know in advance. Downclimbing is not a good option on many parts of the MR when you are tired (in my opinion).

So we are at the top of the couloir-I think it's called the notch and Nic enjoys looking down the (incredibly long) chute, but it gives me vertigo. We have to decide whether to traverse or climb. We both decide that the traverse is a slog and immediately mount an attack on the wall. I scramble up in the middle and then up the steps to the left. When i say steps, I mean giant ones that you have to climb each one before reaching a little plateau and then doing the next one. Very exposed. Climbing skills required. In what seems like no time at all I'm on the summit. Nic spotted some groups downclimbing to the right, and takes their route after wating for their rocks to fall. finally he pops up and we wander across the martianesque landscape to the hut and high five and scribble while being buffetted by a very strong and cold wind. It is after 4pm. More pics and a quick call on the cell phone (verizon) and we are off to the main trail to try to get down before dark. The main trail... Uh where is it? Since we have never been on it, it is a complete mystery where it begins (or ends) up there-just lots of flat slabs everywhere as far as you can see. We look at the topo map and start in the best guess direction-no cairns that we can see. We get a pretty good feeling that the trail is at the back on the left, but we had also been off route on many other well worn, false trails earlier in the day, and now we are tired and cold and hungry and worried about darkness. The clock is ticking, it is almost 5pm and it's light til about 830. We seem to be following a pretty good trail, and are happy to see a sign that points toward crabtree meadows one way, althought the sign that is supposed to direct you to Whitney portal points straight off the cliff in a completely opposite direction than the trail goes. By process of elimination, we follow towards the portal and have the pleasure of a few nice ups on the trail. We get to trail crest, our bodies rebelling and begin the switchbacks sometime soon after that. We stop and eat some cheese salami and crackers, drink more cytomax and pop vicodins (our neck and shoulders were hurting from constantly looking down and carrying packs) The food gives us a second wind and we pick up speed. We blast by all the campers at the various lakes, socializing in a semi delirious, rapidly passing, kind of way. There is plenty of water running down the trail, in fact the trail is like a stream in many places, and Nic is struggling to keep his tennis shoes dry. About halfway down we double time it, trying to squeeze out the last bits of daylight. Pretty soon, we are hiking in very minimal light, until we have to break out the headlamps. This is about the time you start to fully understand the meanin of the saying that when you are at the top, you are only halfway there. Our feet are screaming. Our quads are worked. We are giggling or cursing as we walk around what seems to be the same switchback over and over again-will it never end? We FINALLY pop out unexpectedly at the portal. Drink a cool glass of water and check the car-no bear break-in! We route find (seriously) out of the lot and back to our site-completly exhausted. Not a perfect ascent, but an epic adventure! And we made it!! One of the best experiences of our lives and thanks to all here who, through their experiences and posts, helped us prepare.

Some additional notes:

My clothes were convertible pants, tights (which I didn't use) and rain pants for cycling which I got at Performance bikes and I highly recommend for snow contact or rain. Upper layer was longsleeved Tshirt alternating with a polypropelene tshirt and a columbia waterproof breathable shell with a hood and a fleece patagonia pullover. I also had a headband (the kind that covers your ears) and a baseball cap, as well as good sunglasses. We climbed with gloves, for the cold and for the rocks. I really liked the lightweight long-fingered cycling gloves that I ride with in the winter. I hiked with gore tex boots and I'm glad i did-snow and water would have soaked any other shoes and I really needed good stiff toes and a nice grip for digging the steps in the chute. They were High ankle boots and kept my ankles from twisting on the many odd, loose rocks that we stepped on. Nic wore low topped shoes and taped his ankles as if for a football game and commented many times on how the tape job saved his ankle from getting twisted. We brought a few slings, carabiners, and a very cheap, lightweight, strong 100 ft rope-and we used it when we were off route and in a dangerous spot. We had plenty of cytomax and Gu and powerbars and brought some additional food to recharge with. We had a good firstaid kit and enough gear to be able to spend a night out if so required by injury or emergency. We brought one cell phone, as well as a camera and a couple of short range emergency radios that we used to keep in contact with when out of sight of each other (very useful). We used plenty of sunblock and sprayed our clothes with permythrin. The mosquitoes are intense-Doug was saying that they are the worst he has ever seen. I successfully used Lemon-Eucalyptus oil repellant and didn't get bitten once. Bears are out and inspecting cars thoroughly for goodies. You cannot leave your car with stuff in it while going into the store-if you are lucky you will get a ticket, if not, maybe a ripped door. We drank the water rather indiscriminately from the upper elevations straight from the source. Really pushing our luck-lol.

So now we've been back to 'reality' for a day, I got an email from Nic. The subject line said "What's the matter with me?"
I thought he might be suffering from Giardia or some other mysterious ailment. The body of his email just said "I want to do it again"

'Nuff said

Yup, that about sums it up.

Great TR! Thanks for sharing the adventure. Trust me, they just keep getting better!

-L

me and two others were camped in site 39 (which i must say was sweet and we did get to say hi to a nice healthy looking black bear cub he left us alone so we left hime alone to stroll through camp neat to watch, everything was in bear box of course) sunday and monday night we must of walked past you guys a couple of times and crossed paths. anyway the smoke on monday morning was wicked i know for a fact that it turned some people around and it burned our eyes and throat, i mean the ash was so thick it cut down visibility in the care at the portal and in our headlamp beams. my whole group 2 gents and 1 lady all made it up to the top it took us a bit of time but slow and steady worked out fine. it helps to have more than 12 hours of acclimation especially coming from the coast at sub 100ft elevations, lol.

later

Hey Nuke-

Sorry I didn't see your PM until after we returned. That's funny that you were in the site near us. Those are really nice sites. We didn't see the bear or cub unfortunately. Glad to hear you summited. It wasn't you that was stealing the toilet paper out of the bathroom was it?

Thanks for your detailed report. I have been the Mt. Whitney summit for 5 times through John Muir trail. I am looking for MR information for next year and wondering anyone would like to share his/her Magellan GPS track files? Thanks!

ylekiot,

Excellent TR! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it! Thanks for sharing.

CaT

According to Doug at the store, the GPS tracks are somewhat useless on the MR. They are not accurate and in certain situations can lead to big trouble. The signal also drops out quite a bit. YMMV but that was the word from Doug. Feel free to contact him at the store-he is a nice guy and loves the mountains and is very willing to share whatever info he can-and believe me, he is the hub.

That said, here is a link to what you are looking for I believe

http://www.gpsmountaineering.com/mountwhitney

I'd say the Vicodins gave you energy! LOL, they make me super hyper... Gr8 TR. I personally enjoy "getting off route" on the MR. It affords for more excitement than the "on route" version offers. One of my fav things to do is climb up the rocks above UBSL (way before you get to the waterfall/moss route). There are so many class 3/4/low 5 you can get into & when you get to the top of the ridge, the most amazing look down at UBSL (it's so vertical, just like looking down the East face of MT Whitney at the base of the East Face route). Good stuff.

When you mention you enyoy getting "off route above UBSL" on class 4-5 rock, I speculate that actually YOU MIGHT BE ONE OF THE FEW WHO ARE EN ROUTE in the historic sense. Is it not possible John Muir went the way you mention above UBSL on his first ascent of Whitney via the North Fork in 1873? The numerous easier later variations popular today have become known to us subsequently as the Mountaineers Route (apparently named as such by Norman Clyde about 1930). Just a thought to consider.

Have a exciting summer, Jim F

Enjoyed your prerequisites (I suppose having a 5 year old boy will help keep you in good shape)! Great TR. Do you have any pix?

MC

Thanks ylekiot !

Very enjoyable TR. Thanks for taking the time to post. Reading these trip reports makes me more and more anxious for my trip later in August.

no, it wasn't us that was stealing the TP, we actually thought it was you guys.

maybe it was the bears...