Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board TR: Mountaineer's Route (8/31/03)

Hi All,

Here is a brief report and my comments on my trip (first time) up Mt. Whitney via the Mountaineer's Route.

Our group was composed of four people. Two are super fit, one is quite fit and one person (myself) is a thirty lbs overweight couch potato. I organized the outing since I’ve had a bee in my bonnet to do this for a while. I had planned to get into shape and drop the extra lbs, but, with the exception of one hike on Lone Pine Peak, I never did get around to do any training.

The four of us arrived the day before (8/30) and hiked up to LBSL just to familiarize ourselves with the route since we were planning an alpine start. This was a VERY good idea and I strongly recommend it to anyone that wants to do the route in a day and hasn’t been up it before. We descended, had dinner in Lone Pine and sacked out at Tuttle Creek.

The next morning we hit the trail at 4:45 am, marching by headlamp. We were able to retrace our steps to the EB ledges with no problem, thanks to our recon the day before. We ascended the ledges by twilight and turned off the headlamps before reaching LBSL. After a brief rest and some water-pumping we headed out to UBSL. At this point, we were on unfamiliar territory but the use trail was easy enough to follow.

We turned left at UBSL and headed toward Iceberg Lake. After going up over a few rises we approached the final slopes to Iceberg Lake. We stayed high and right and went up through a short easy notch with about 10-15 ft of class 3. We made Iceberg Lake at 8:30 am.

We stopped again for good long rest and to replenish our water. A large party that had spent the night at UBSL was starting up the right side of the main chute. It looked loose and nasty and I could see rocks coming down. We elected to go far left, directly toward the base of the first and second towers at the start of the East Face and Peewee routes. This turned out to be a nice choice. The rock was solid, clean, easy class 2/3. We rejoined the main chute about halfway up and continued up the left side. We caught up with the large party as we reached the notch.

From the notch, we took the first chute to the summit. For me, it was the highlight of the trip. It’s moderately steep class three on beautiful clean rock and you pop up very near the summit at the end. The very first move is the hardest (and it’s not hard), so if you can do the start, go for it.

We summited at 11 am and spent about 40 minutes on top. It was partly cloudy and we were briefly hit by some precipitation. On the way down, we elected to check out the N. face traverse. Big mistake. It’s long, ugly and extremely loose. There are parts of it that are really ready to slide. Down climbing the class three chute would have been faster and less scary.

I started having severe knee problems in the main chute. Due to an old ski injury, if I weight my right knee improperly it buckles and causes excruciating pain. This slowed me down tremendously. Fortunately, my friends were very patient. We went down the (climber’s) right side of the chute, which, in retrospect, I think was a mistake. It is very loose. We would have been better off down climbing the route we ascended at the base of the towers.

After reaching Iceberg Lake, we refilled our water bottles and headed down, this time taking the sandy class 2 route down from Iceberg. We headed down pretty continuously with a brief stop at UBSL. Two of my friend went on ahead while one stayed with me while I nursed the bad knee downhill. We made the car by 6:30 pm for about a 14 hour round trip. That breaks down to 6:20 up, 0:40 on the summit and 6:50 down. As long as we were down before dark, we were happy.

I really enjoyed the trip, in spite of my problems on the descent. I am living proof that you can be way out of shape and still do the MR in a day. Other than the day hike, the day before none of us took any time to acclimatize. We came up from sea level and spent the night at 5k. All of us had minor headaches by the end of the day but nobody had any serious AMS symptoms.

I say this to provide words of encouragement to those that want to try it but are not sure. Two weeks before we did a day hike up Lone Pine Peak via the Meysan Lake Trail. I recommend that a good reality check. If you can do that in a day and feel like you can do about 20% more, you’re good to go on the MR.

I would recommend that at you keep your party small and that at least one person have good experience with cross country travel and class 2/3 route finding. While you can certainly bumble along without those skills, there are many ways to go, some good and some not so good. If you find the best way the first time, your day will be faster, safer and more pleasant.

Thanks to everyone who for provided routefinding beta and photos. Without all the info I picked up here and elsewhere on the net, it would have been much harder.

Greg

This sounds like you are average guy and made it....I am 57, in pretty good shape...but had polio in left arm so I don't have two good arms...just my right arm....think I can make it up MR...I did the "MULE" trail last year...because of my condition I get concerned about be exposed at heights...and not being able to use both hands to pull myself up....what do you think??

John

Hikejohn,
not having two good arms will present an extra challenge. There are definately places on the route that require climbing with both arms. I found the most aesthetic and faster variations required two arms. However, many of these can be bypassed. Here are the places that you might have trouble.

1) Getting up to the EB ledges requires some scrambling but its not steep. A little help from a friend may be all that's required. You can also bushwack up the north side of the creek, but it's ugly.

2) Getting to Iceberg lake. After coming up a few rises from UBSL, you reach a cliff on the right to Iceberg Lake. Take the lower trail that drops down a bit and keep walking until almost the end of that little valley. You will find the no hands way up.

3) You won't be able to take the nice left side varation of the chute, as there is some real class 3. You can go right an slog up through the loosness.

4) You won't be able to do the final chute to the summit as it requires to arms and is a bit exposed. You need to treverse the loose scree on the North Face and then double back.

I recommend that you practice on some cross country routes that have a little bit of scrambling and boulder hopping. Take a buddy that is also interested in doing the MR. You two can then work out together how to get through the most challenging parts. You should not be disuaded but be aware that it will be harder for you as the route does involve scrambling, in some places with exposure.

Best of luck,

Greg