Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Langley to Whitney direct

Hello fellow hikers, Im looking for some information on either Langley to Whitney (or Whitney to Langley) via the direct route, not the indirect route thru Guyot or Crabtree. It would seem to me that you would have to leave the peaks and head down to Sky Blue Lake. I dont believe there is any sort of trail, but it looks pretty doable on my maps. Does anyone have any experience with this route? Any info would be appreciated. thanks

bump....Has anyone tried this route? It doesnt look that difficult when I check it out on my topo maps...bueller?

My son and another did this trip last week. Do-able but steep and there was plenty of white stuff higher up that caused some postholeing problems. They had to pass their packs up some ledges that added to the fun. They had a long day from Sky Blue Lake to Portal and were pretty exhausted but loved the off trail adventure. We're waiting on some pictures and I will try to get him to post a TR when they show up.
PS. They carried 45 lb packs and are in good to very good shape.

This post provides some very detailed information and great pictures for the route you are considering.

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=1&Number=49311

Very good, thanks.
Old Alpiner, would love to see the pics. We did try the more formal route (thru Guyot, etc) last week and I will agree that it was tough and we had to turnback. We did get over New Army but wasnt able to summit Langley. We also had to leave our packs down below which is the other reason we werent able to go very far.