Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Avalanche Potential

"If you go down in the woods today...", or this weekend, "you're in for a big surprise..."

Heavy, wet snow expected during the weekend storms over the Sierras. Add that on top of a consolidating base, and you have serious avalanche conditions. Be careful!

A few years ago, several of us had to abort a January attempt on Whitney, in similar snow conditions. The slope we were standing on suddenly, with a loud crack sound, moved downhill about three feet. We were lucky. We retreated to Death Valley...

Very good advice. This upcoming storm is projected to have a lot of water content in it. It looks like we have two systems that will clear out on Sunday or so and give way to dry weather. When the sun comes out and works on all that new snow expect slides.


What route on Whitney were you attempting?

Hi Kurt,
We were heading up the trail, more or less, toward Trail Camp. Our objective was Trail Crest and then the summit. Snow depth on the slope in question was 3 - 4 feet. If my memory of it is accurate, we were about 3 miles uphill from the trailhead.
Cheers,
Bob

Hey Bob,

If you had 3-4 feet of snow down that low you would have seen a lot more higher up if you had continued. That would have been slow going besides the avalanche risk. The slope above Trail Camp doesn't seem to avalanche very often but it's steep enough to. If it did rip loose I think it would go big.

Does anybody know where to find out how much snow is currently on the mountain? Or more precisely how much snow was dumped during this last storm. I am planning on going up Whitney via MR next weekend (if anybody is interested?), and would like to find a place to check current snow levels.

Thanks

The only way to get that information is to get reports from people who have been up there. I haven't seen any recent reports. According to the Eastern Sierra Forecast we're in for a series of three storms that could dump several feet along the crest of the Sierra. That'll be a lot of deep snow. In addition to your avalanche transceiver, probe and shovels bring a good pair of snowshoes.

The California Water site has fairly recent snow depth measurements taken at a few sensor locations. For example, scroll down to the Owens River/Mono Lake section and look at the Bishop Pass data. Then, imagine the possibilities at 13,000+ feet.

cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/snow/PAGE6