Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mountaineer's Route Conditions

Some more photos

View of the Switchbacks from the top of Mt Muir

Top of the Cables

Helio at Trail Camp

Another great scramble up the MR and down the Main trail with Lee & Kevin on Sat Aug 9, 2025.
We also tagged Mt Muir on the way down.
We had perfect weather conditions.
We got started at 4am and got back at 5pm, for a total of 13 hours.
Almost no snow/ice on the Final 400, except for a little bit on the right-side entrance move.
I thought it was interest to see how much to snow has melted on the Final-400 over the last ~3 weeks (see below)
The whole left side (climbers left or east side of the F-400) is dry and provides really fun class 3-4 scrambling

The day before, we had some nice chats with Doug Sr & Portal crew and Crazy Jack.....Good Times!!





More photos @
https://grahamcracker.smugmug.com/2025/Whitney-MR-with-Lee-Kevin-Aug-9-2025

Rick,

Thanks for the Conditions Update and Great Photos.

Hope to be coming up to Mt Whitney from the west side on Aug 14.

What great weather we are having this summer!

Enjoy.

Jim

Great photos.

The MR looks pretty clear of snow; did you need to use spikes at any time?

kimosabby,

Two days ago (August 14), I looked down the Final 400 of the MR from the top. Unlike Rick's photo from August 9, scattered patches of new snow densely packed the Final 400 (center and both left and right rock bands).

If you head up the MR soon, a conditions update would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jim

Will do

FYI... The Final 400 on October 6. It doesn't look like the stormy weather from yesterday (Oct 12) left any significant amount of snow so chances are it's not too much different than this. Keep in mind though that during the fall months as temperatures drop and the route stays in the shade for a longer time during the day the rocks will get a thin coating of moisture making them slightly more slick than normal. The whole photo gallery is here.