Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Time from Whitney to Sky Blue Lake via Crabtree Pass

I'm planning a backpacking trip in a couple weeks heading up the main whitney trail to the summit. On the way down, I'm thinking of heading down the sand hill from discovery pinnacle to upper crabtree lake. Then going up over crabtree pass into miter basin and spending a night at sky blue lake. Has anybody done this route this way before? If so, what kind of time estimate can you give me, from Trail Crest to Sky blue lake?

Since time is biased on many factors, just assume I'm in shape and that I average 2 mph with a full pack up the main trail, and there are no adverse weather conditions.

I've searched previous threads, and most only talk about going up the sand hill. I'm only planning on going down the sand hill.

1/4 mile boulder field from upper crabtree lake to crabtree pass. I came down it--real mother. How are you going up crossing boulders with a pack? Maybe a bit less than 2mph I wager.
keep truckin....

Since you will need a car shuttle, there are a couple of factors. Most people go North up the sand hill since it saves about 2000 vertical feet. Certainly going down the sand hill will be no problem, even with a backpack. From the lake up to Crabtree pass will be a challenge, but it is only about 400-500 feet. Figure a few hours. From the pass to Sky blue lake you will stay on the right side...easily a few more hours.

From Sky blue lake you can backpack up over the Irvine Mallory pass which will give you access to the portal. That certainly is not going to be that easy.

We backpacked out from Sky blue lake over Cottonwood pass to Horseshoe meadows in about 6+ hours. It wasn't bad and had a trail the whole way. Nice scenic views.

I think gone hiking is suggesting the whole hike is 2000 feet more vertical going south, since the portal (8360) is lower then Horseshoe meadows (10000 feet)

He also mentioned you can backpack back over Arc's pass to consultation lake, or go past Irvine/ Mallory down through Meysan lake. Either of these would go back to the portal and save the car shuttle. It would seem quite a ways out of the way though. Neither of these seems as straight forward as just going down the rock creek canyon from sky blue lake and up over New Army pass or Cottonwood lake.

From the lake at the bottom of the sand hill up over the pass to Sky blue lake, isn't far on the map, but could easily take half a day.

If I were doing the hike like you suggest, I would plan 4-5 days. The first day to Trail camp. The second day summit, leaving backpack while summiting near Discovery Pinnacle, and finishing up down at the lake below the sand hill. Since it is down hill and sandy/loose, going down would go quick. Third day I would go up over Crabtree pass and down to sky blue lake. That would be enough for one day with a backpack, since it is the most cross country/ climbing over boulders. Fourth/ Fifth day I would finish out the Miter basin with maybe a break (layover) at Soldier lake (Below the Major General). You would need a car at each trailhead.

Thanks everybody for the productive comments.

Just to clarify, my tentative plan has been to take a full 3 days to go from portal to horseshoe meadows. I do have the permits & I don't mind arranging the shuttle at the end. The part that has me the most concerned is the cross-country from discovery pinnacle to sky blue lake since I haven't been on that part before. I'd really like to make it from trail camp to sky blue lake in 1 day, touching the summmit of whitney. That will probably be my toughest day then.

I'm fairly quick at boulder hopping, but the comments make it sound like the part from upper crabtree lake to crabtree pass is a bear, despite being a short distance.

Might be possible, if you get an early start: Leave Trail camp before light at 4:00 am. A rigorous 2 1/2 hours to trail crest with backpack...gets light at 6:21 am on October 1. Drop off backpack. About 1 1/2 hour to summit...8:00 am....1/2 hour on top 8:30 am. Back to trail crest by 9:45 am. Take a little break and retrieve backpack...Up over Discovery Pinnacle and down the sand hill to Upper Crabtree lakes 1 1/2 hours 11:15 - 11:30. Take a nice rest here and eat a good lunch....1 hour. Start up the most difficult section to Crabtree Pass 12:30 - 2:30 p.m. From there it is cross country weaving in and out of boulders etc...but still downhill.....be at Sky Blue Lake by 4:30 - 5:00 pm. A long hard day but it doesn't get dark until 6:36 pm on October 1st. Also as you come up over Crabtree pass there are some flat areas with smaller lakes where you could set up camp. That could give you an alternative if you are not going as fast as planned. Big question is if you can keep up the pace the whole day...followed by a twelve mile exit through Miter basin and up over Cottonwood pass the next day. Would be a nicer experience if you could squeeze out another day to do it.

Localhikern8,
We just did a three-day Horseshoe Meadows to Portal route starting on Friday, 9-13-03. We included Langley, Muir and Whitney. The "sand hill" from upper Crabtree Lake to Discovery Pinnacle took us about 3 hours to go up carrying packs that were far heavier than I want to admit(over 40 lbs). Going down, the opposite of our direction of travel would have been much easier. I recommend going directly down from discovery pinnacle until it starts getting steep, then traversing west below the big boulders until you intercept footprints and lightly traveled trail. this route extends west of Upper Crabtree Lake and then turns back east and follows a shelf that slopes back toward Upper Crabtree Lake. Please post to share your experience.