Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Conditions to summit Whitney tomorrow 1st timer

Hi folks, I'm in search for advice for a friend and her fiancee. They are spending the night at the portal tonight, planing to hike to Lone Pine Lake tomorrow, spend the night and summit Mr. Whitney. Neither of them are major hikers much less have any experience with crampons and snow axe. We tried to convince them to try another time but they are firm on the idea to do so.
What are your thoughts? Her mother is extremely concern for more than one reason. And of course us too as we summit it in one day on a beautiful September weather and it was already brutal.
Thank you so much for any input

i'm pretty sure Mother Nature will slap them both with a dose of reality,with a storm upon us now and especially tomorrow, conditions will not let them get to far without experience, Possibly to lone pine lake but not much further. People have to realize it is winter conditions which is a far different hiking experience then when the trail is free of ice and snow.And so far this year it might be a while till that happens. Best of luck to them

Drive up to the Portal campground, kidnap them, and drive them back to Lone Pine. Then take your time and slap the crap out of each one.

If they aren't pre-teens, let them experience the mountain---or in actuality: let them experience the first two miles of the trail to the mountain. For novices planning on only getting to Lone Pine Lake (with all the gear weight, lack of acclimation, route-finding issues with the snow sections, etc.) just reaching that point will be a huge adventure. The cold, the wind, pitching camp, making food, figuring out the bathroom situation, getting probably zero sleep after two nights, realizing they forgot something critical (which is going to happen), etc., etc., etc., will, as Scott says "slap them with a dose of reality." If they're hearty & hardy souls, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they reach Mirror Lake on day 2 if everything goes perfectly. Odds are pretty good that LP Lake will be their highpoint.

I would reassure Mom that they're going to be fine---I would be more worried about if the wedding is still going to happen after their "adventure"...

Thank you for the replies.
They are on their earlier 30s and I can only imagine how miserable it’s up there inow for two people that are not very found of snow nor cold weather.
Mother Nature is in charge. Let’s see the outcome.

Alright Mother Nature did wake them up. Just a night at the portal campground was sufficient to make them change their minds. I’m relieved. Thank you for the replies.

Glad they had a simple wake-up call at the Portal---especially with no breakfast yet at the Store. But good on ya' for trying to talk sense into them, but sometimes it can't be done. I have a friend who won't listen to reason about wanting to do Williamson as a two-night trip this year with her daughter---as her first-ever backpack trip. She doesn't even have any gear yet, and hasn't even ever car-camped. She's convinced she'll just "power through" and all will work out. I keep trying to offer some advice, but it's not getting through. Now I just smile and nod...

I’ll just believe whatever I want to believe. People with experience and knowledge obviously don’t know what they are talking about.

Exactly.

If you take all the accumulated knowledge and experience of the Dougs and the Bobs and others on here, you've basically got a mountaineering master class. But, if Joe or Joanie Schmoe did Baldy once in tennis shoes in the summer and feel that they're now experts in winter mountain climbing, then sometimes all you can do is wave from a distance, and then later post a sad emoji on their final Instagram selfie...

I was caught at the peak of Baldy during CA's winter freeze I believe in 2007 the 1st week of January. If we did not have the skills and knowledge we would not have survived the night.

I believe a gal died up their on some icy and very steep terrain that week. We even had rangers come up to check on us when the storm partially broke the next day. We suffered from frozen boogers stuck to our beards and face, my father in law was miserable but I enjoyed the experience.

I do need some guidance from Master Doug or anyone with current conditions for the Whitney/Bishop area.

We have 2 different permits for June 20th 2019. Kearsarge, visiting Whitney Peak to Horseshoe Meadow and Piute Pass to Mammoth. My concern is the amount of snow but more so the sloppy conditions come late June. We want to avoid the 3am start times to avoid post holing, not sure is this will happen. Crabtree Meadow is reporting 30" of approx. snow accumulation as of now... Any advice on other 10 days excursions or do you believe we will have success with the permits we have. Last year Bishop Ranger Station advised us not to proceed with the permits we had last June 5th so we changed up to climb the Minarets for a week.

Any advice and wisdom anyone would like to share is greatly welcomed. I will check back from time to time before we make our final decision as what direction or adventure we take.

Funny, we were on Baldy yesterday in similar conditions, haha.