Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board First timer questions for June 23 overnight trip

I've been following the board for a couple months now and learned a lot from the various trip reports and Q&A. Thanks for the help. I have a few questions of my own. My son and I are doing an overnight trip starting 6/23 (one week from today).

1) Is there a place in Lone Pine to rent crampons and ice axes?

2) From the latest reports, it sounds like crampons are definitely advised. Are ice axes needed, helpful or not needed at all?

3) Are there any places to get water past Trail Camp?

4) How does one get a weather forecast for the area?

5) What have the nighttime temps been like at Trail Camp recently?

6) Does anyone know what the trail condition is like for an acclimatization hike to Meysan Lake? Are there snow issues on that trail still?

7) With conditions like they are on the ascent out of Trail Camp, do you want to get as early a start as possible while everything is still frozen? Or do you want to wait until the sun starts to soften things up?

1. Rentals...Try Elevation in Lone Pine or Wilson's Eastside is Bishop.

2. Ice Axe...The axe is more important than the crampons because if you fall it provides you with with the opportunity to avoid injury or worse.

3. Water...If there is snow, there is water.

4. Forecast...NOAA

5. Temperatures....Go to http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?CWD and extrapolate

6. Meysan Lakes...DUG reported it clear to 10,300' last weekend, figure it to be clear to almost Grass Lake by this coming one.

7. Frozen or Soft...Frozen.

Thanks for responding. A few questions about your answers...

Thanks. Elevation looks like they only rent crampons. Wilsons Eastside Sports says they rent both. I will call them today.

I understand the principle of the two. I was asking for a practical recommendation based on today's conditions.

Obviously, one could stop, fire up a stove and melt snow (if you were carrying a stove to the summit). I was asking whether there is any accessible running water above Trail Camp right now like there would normally be if the switchbacks were exposed.

How does one use that site to get a forecast for the Whitney area?

I don't understand. That link is for one particular location. How do I use that to extrapolate?

Thanks.

OK, so I guess you start out from Trail Camp at first light?

For 4 & 5 try this link http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/whitney_weather.htm

It's linked on the front page of this website

Perfect. Thanks.

It looks like most of your questions have been pretty well answered.

I thought I would chime in with a little bit of advice from one recent first timer to another.

Most of my worries actually ended up being pretty minor obstacles. Route finding was fairly easy as I had done my research in advance and knew the trail pretty well. A little intuition went a long ways. We mostly just consulted the map to see how far we had to go, not so much to figure out which way to go.

The reports of post holing (avoid rocks, the snow around them is easy to break through) were vastly exaggerated, and the sloppy snow was not as difficult to cross as reported. Its not fun but easily managed with crampons.

I woke up at 3am to climb the chute and found the snow nice and hard, but there is no question an ice axe would be needed that early. I'm not sure a fall would have been deadly but it would have hurt A LOT.

The smartest decisions I made were: Drinking copious amounts of water, getting early starts to both days and taking it nice and slow (5am and 3am), keeping my wits about me and turning around when things got dicey.

Link to my trail report

Thanks. Great writeup in your trail report. It's great to read the detail about other first timer's experiences and see what worked and didn't work for you. I've confirmed that Wilson's Eastside in Bishop does rent both crampons and ice axes so we'll probably pick them up there on our way through if I don't find some place locally that's easier.

You can climb the chute without an axe, I would not do it but that's me. However, I would not go down it without one, especially if your plan is to glissade.

In May 2007, I needed 5L of water to complete the TC to Summit round trip. I took 4. I just keep filling a water bottle with snow. You don't necessarily need to fire up a stove.

NWS/NOAA will give a forecast to elevation. Put Lone Pine, CA in the location box, then play with the small map on the right side of the screen. Cottonwood Reporting Station is the nearest station to Mt. Whitney which runs consistently. Add or substrate 3.5* F for each 1,000' of elevation gained or lost from the stations location.

Generally, I like to be on the summit at first light; therefore, my start time about 4 to 5 hours earlier than that.

Made the decision to bring an ice axe, crampons and sturdier boots and found a local place to rent them. Not excited about how the weight keeps piling up in the overnight pack, but must have the right stuff for safety.

Thanks for the help on the other things.

Gram counting is a 3 season thingy. Winter/Spring is a safety thingy.

The cost of admission to play this time of year is ~10 extra pounds and the time spent learning to use the extra weight.

My pack weighed in at 40lbs which I feel was acceptable for a solo backpacker carrying a bulky SLR Camera and without the resources to buy expensive ounce shaving gear.

That didn't stop me from complaining about it the ENTIRE way up, and down. Even when I was by myself, I still complained about it! There is nothing easy about dragging a 40lb pack up 8 miles and 6000ft.

My Gear list: http://www.backcountrybliss.net/2010/06/mt-whitney-gear.html

Some items I used only once or twice. My fleece for example only ended up on me while making my way up the chute in the morning. It was a welcome piece of insulation though. It ended up being worth the ounces to carry it.

You'll notice chapstick is NOT on that list. HUGE mistake, my lips got deep fried.

Yeah, but when I applied for the permit, the calendar told me that June 23rd was summer .

It also didn't help that my first priority was any sequence of days in July and they didn't give me that.

I will assume you were using a sea level calendar. Here's a 4th of July picture on my High Sierra Calendar.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1386663023033719756LniRJd

See, it ain't summer.