Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Who's the last person who made it to the summit, either by MR or Trail?

I've actually got an ambitious plan for another trip similar to the one we just did with a couple of variations. Rather than camping down at UBSL, I'd like to go up the valley and camp below the couloir you see in (my pictures from the trip) 29, 39 & 40. (It would probably mean that a dump at Iceberg, or the other side of the Whitney/Russell Pass, would have to be made.) The next day would be either the North Face of Whitney (I've been up the MR more times than I can remember.) or the South Face of Russell. The next would be the other route. The following day out. Sounds like it would be a 5-6 day trip at this time of year.

I spent quite a bit of time looking up a the couloir, watching for rockfall, and it seemed to be fairly stable.

What time of the year are you thinking about?

Almost a month later, I'm back to my original question: Who was the last person this winter to
visit the hut - and has anybody been there since. I'm wondering why this year seems harsher than most, when a lot of people on this board have summited in both January and February in the past. A lot of attempts this year, but no reported summits.

Trust me, I'm not pushing anyone to try something I couldn't do, because I know I couldn't make it to the top in these conditions, but many people have in previous years. That's why I'm so curious

Hikin bob,

The reason that I haven't made it is that I haven't tried this winter :-) Main reason that I haven't tried is that I'm way in the worst shape that I've been in for a number of years. (Main reason that I also voted to turn back on Russell when we encountered the softer snow on steeper terrain.)

Seriously, though, I think that there have been at least a few successful summit attempts in the past few weeks. A lot of climbers don't participate on this board. And, there were a number of parites still up there when we came down from Russell.

WWRD,

I the question is directed to me, I'm available to climb until I'm gainfully employed again. Who knows when that's going to be!

Richard P - I've been following your posts for about 4 years now. You were one of the people I was wondering about, because you had a goal of summiting in every month of the year, and I thought I remembered that you completed that goal last year.
I guess your accomplishments are a lot tougher than even you thought they are, because I've been trying to find someone who even summited last month January, or this month February.
So far, no reports...

Hiking Bob,
When I was up at Whitney last weekend I ran into two fully capable climbers who had made it up to iceberg lake and had planned on summiting in the morning. They would have had all day, had plenty of protection, and had been up the route before. I am assuming that they were successful, but I guess we will never know. I don't think getting to the summit is out of the question seeing as how I was 100 ft short but decided to stop because my partner was ill. When I went up the MR chute there were faint tracks that led all the way to the notch. They were no longer traceable on the north face because of the weekends wind, snow, etc... So one can assume with so many close parties of climbers at least a few have made it.

Hikin Bob,

For a number of years, I was short a February and October ascent.

In 2002, I finally got in a February ascent in. I would rate this month as the most difficult, because even in low snow years, there seem to be a number of storms that hit the mountain. I probably had 20-30 "wasted" days on Whitney in February before I finally made it.

I finally finshed the cycle in 2003. October just seems to be a busy month for me. The couple of times that I went up in October, I was hit by early season storms and didn't make it.

I'm hoping for a late start to winter this year. I still need a one-day in December to claim the one-day cycle.

Still sitting in the back of my mind is the sub-four ascent of the Main Trail. I won't run, and although I've had a number of people tell me that you can make it at a fast walking pace, I've never been able to.

Hikin Bob,

I was thinking about you while I was up in the Lone Pine area over the weekend. I had a fantasy about reaching the summit and taking a photo of the register for you. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation was that there was way too much fresh snow and too few people heading up to make a one-day ascent possible (not to mention that I'm still not in good enough shape).

Here's my guesstimate of what it would have taken to get to the summit based on 3 hours from the North Fork junction to LBSL:

LBSL - UBSL: 2 1/2 hours
UBSL - Iceberg Lake: 3 hours
Iceberg Lake - Summit: 5 1/2 hours

And, that's assuming that I would have been able to maintain the same level of effort for over 14 hours. (Yea, right! At 10,000 feet, you were hallucinating that you were almost to the summit of Everest.)

Anyway, it was fun to put first tracks up at LBSL. But, I forgot to create the snow angel.

Awesome attempt Richard - what would you say the biggest difference is between this year and the year you made your Feb summit. Just bad timing with weather? Or is there something especially vicious about this year? You mentioned you might not have been in peak hiking condition this year, if you had attempted with current weather conditions, in previous years while in better hiking condition, would you have been able get further, or even to the summit? Or in your opinion is this a harder winter on Whitney - maybe nobody's name on the register for a couple of months?

Hikin Bob,

It "feels" like a heavier snow year to me, but Sierra Stryder, Bob R, or any of the others who have a better handle on where to find the snow stats could comment on this.

In the winter, timing is almost everything when it comes to climbing. When I was up on February 12th, the snow conditions were much better than they were on the 13th, 14th, or 15th. If I had been in better shape, a summit attempt on that day probably would have been successful. The winds that blew overnight on the 13th and 14th made our Russell attempt on the 15th much more difficult.

Going up this past weekend, I knew that success was unlikely. (No, it's not a negative attltude that doomed me; more like a realistic assessment.) It was too early after the storm for the snow to consolidate. My feeling was that a party of four that was willing to put up with long-term trail breaking might have had a chance.

Like I said in another thread, I very interested in hearing what the members of Michael Dong's group have to say. They're supposed to be down on Wednesday. Hopefully, we'll see a report.

The state snow pack survey people just completed a snow survey today in the Lake Tahoe area. The numbers are impressive: 135% of normal for this time of year.

I looked at the water survey website today and Donner Summit, which is at about 7000', had about 73 inches of snow on it.This is a lot of snow when compared to years past. Last February was super dry. While at the water survey website I also checked out some of the monitoring stations in the Lone Pine area. Crabtree Meadow at about 10,500' had about 32 inches whereas Bighorn Park at about 11,300' had around 42 inches.
As far as snow goes, I don't know what the storm that passed through California over the weekend left in the Southern Sierra but the Northern Sierra is a blanket of white.

One more big storm and my training hikes are going to be getting pushed back or I maybe I'll break down and buy some new snowshoes. Got my REI dividend yesterday, maybe I'll go blow some money and get an additional 20% off.

Here is a link to the live web cams at Sugar Bowl ski area near Donner Summit:
http://www.sugarbowl.com/tahoe/SITE/top/listing.cfm/activity/4579/0/direct?c=1

If I knew how to create a clickable link I would but I don't, so you have to copy and paste the address if you want to see the web cams.

See the "Portal to Iceberg Lake" thread for a report from one of Michael Dong's party.

<quote><table width="100%" bgcolor="lightgray"><tr><td><em>
Here is a link to the live web cams at Sugar Bowl ski area near Donner Summit:
http://www.sugarbowl.com/tahoe/SITE/top/listing.cfm/activity/4579/0/direct?c=1

If I knew how to create a clickable link I would but I don't, so you have to copy and paste the address if you want to see the web cams.
</em></td></tr></table></quote>
<nobr><a href="http://www.sugarbowl.com/tahoe/SITE/top/listing.cfm/activity/4579/0/direct?c=1"></nobr>
<a href="http://www.sugarbowl.com/tahoe/SITE/top/listing.cfm/activity/4579/0/direct?c=1">clickable link</a>
</a>

So no excuses next time!

To answer the original question:

According to the summit register, 2 guys made it up the north face in February, and then 6 more via the MR on March 7th.

Thanks Crag - that's what I was hoping to find out, I guess the register was lonely for a while.