Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board White Mt.

Anyone out there climbed White Mt. from the Owens Valley floor? Any information regarding the directions and route would be appreciated.

I'm planning on doing the climb probably over Memorial Day weekend this year.

Thanks!

Copied from my trip report at SummitPost.org:

The usual road to White Mountain Peak is closed about thirty miles from the peak in the winter, so I had to find a totally different route. In October 1994, my partner, Jerry, and I scouted a possible winter route from Chalfant Valley. We drove north from Bishop on highway 6 and then followed a dirt road as far up Millner Creek as we could, parking at about 6,700 feet.

We hiked up an abandoned mining road past a mine and then headed up and south until we were on the first ridge south of Millner Creek. We followed this ridge east, traversing around the north of Mt. Barcroft. We eventually found the road that leads to White Mountain Peak and followed it north to the summit. This seemed to be a good potential winter route. We descended on the ridge between Jeffrey Mine Canyon and Millner Creek, which turned out to be a much harder route.

When the time came to try the winter ascent, Jerry couldn't go. I ended up going with Peter, an Australian climber I had recently met. Friday night, we drove to the same point where Jerry and I had started up in October. Saturday morning, we skied and climbed up the route. A short section of class three rock was especially difficult with heavy packs and skis on our backs. We set up our bivy camp at about 11,500 and ate dinner while enjoying the view of Bishop over 7,000 feet below.

Sunday morning we climbed, mostly on skis, to the summit. It was so warm that I reached the summit wearing just long johns and a turtleneck. Peter had never been higher than Mt. Cook in New Zealand, and had a little trouble with the altitude. After a long break, we skied back to camp. We had to take off our skis and hike across several sections where there wasn't any snow. By the time we took another break and packed our gear, it was getting late. We skied and hiked down the ridge until it was too dark to ski safely. We took off our skis, plunge-stepped down the north side of the ridge to the mining road, and hiked back to the truck in the dark.

Here's what it looked like January 6, 2007. At memorial day it is likely, but not promised, to have somewhat less snow.



If you take the red line, stay to the left of the false summit at the top.

Millner Canyon is the one right of the redline ridge route. Bancroft is the next major peak right of White Mountain on the skyline on the picture referenced below.

To see the whole range look at:
http://www.dbdimages.com/Inyo-White-Mountains/Inyo-White-Panoramas/1782681_Vct5m#122027177_shaBq
and follow any directions there for viewing to max resolution.

Dale B. Dalrymple
http://dbdimages.com

I was going through my logbooks for something else, and found an entry that reminded me of your query. This may jive with your planned Memorial weekend climb.

"White Mtn Peak from Chalfant Valley via Millner Creek, 29 - 31 May, 1982. Watch out for nettles in canyon!

"200 yards short of road switchbacks to mine (6800', south of canyon) take faint ducked trail on north side for 1/2 mile to bypass steep waterfalls. Enter canyon about 7100'. We took right fork at 8700', got stymied by waterfalls and steep cliffs; climbed over ridge with Peak 11810 on it and descended to camp in left fork ~10,400'. Sunday, continued in this canyon all the way to the top. Nice snow began around 11,500'.

"Descended SW ridge to saddle ~13,000', thence to our canyon; picked up our camp, and continued out. Bivouacked ~7500' on the way out.

"Climb can be done in a long (16 hour) day. Climb is class 3+ in a few places.

"Left fork at 8700' is definitely the way to go."

I repeated the climb mid-May 1986. This time we went up the left fork and dropped gear at a nice campsite by water at 9500' and continued to the top, arriving at 6:45 PM. Began descent at 7:30 PM and arrived at camp at 9:45--the last 1.5 hours in the dark (no problems). Next morning we were out in 4.5 hours.

I remember this latter climb in particular. We stopped for a lunch break, drinking plenty of water from the stream (unfiltered, of course). Barely five minutes after starting up again, we found a dead bighorn sheep in the middle of the stream. He had been dead long enough to be crawling with maggots. But we had no ill effects.

This time of year, the stream didn't peter out until around 12,000'.

Did it as a dayhike in June: http://outdoorsclub.org/event.php?event_id=14737

Then again as a "winter" climb in January:
http://outdoorsclub.org/event.php?event_id=17678

some pics from the January trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/bcompani/WhiteMtPeakViaWestRidgeWinterAscent#slideshow



beautiful and remote place. have fun!

Thanks a lot guys, this gives me an idea of what to expect. If anyone out there is interested in doing this climb let me know.

Cheers,

Phil

I've got this climb on my to do list for late this month - if the weather is good, I should be up there around the 26th