Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board There's new snow up there!

Three friends and I had in mind Telescope Peak yesterday (Feb. 22), but rain/snow everywhere caused us to rethink things. We ended up going to Whitney Portal. Our vehicle wasn't the best so we parked at the road closed sign and hiked up the road. It snowed lightly all day, but there was little or no wind.

Once we got up a ways, the new snow depth on the road was up to 1.5 feet in places. At the Portal it was about 2 feet. We turned around at 9700' when we were breaking new trail in about 3' of fresh snow. Bummer - a week ago there were fine trails up both the North Fork and main trail; now we have to start all over again! (Seriously, the new snow is great news for the Sierra. And it was pretty, as the picture below suggests.) We reached the Portal in 2.5 hours, our high point in 5 hours, and back down to our car at the 7 hour point.

When we got down to the Meysan parking spot, we saw that some vehicle (maybe two) with BIG tires had come up and gone back down. My assessment is that a full sized 4WD truck, maybe without chains, can get that far. However, with new storms coming, all that can change.

Also later today, I'll provide links to two video clips I took glissading down from Trail Crest January 2003. I grasped my digital camera in the hand holding the head of my ice ax as best I could, and shot one looking down and the other looking up. You might get a sense as to the feeling of the process, but the composition leaves a lot to be desired! Each clip is 3.8 MB, which means two things: (1) You probably don't want to look at them unless you have a fast connection, and (2) When I upload them to my website I will be way over limit, so my provider won't let me leave them there long - maybe a day or two, maybe less.

<img src="http://a1.cpimg.com/image/33/B7/30146611-130e-020000A1-.jpg"width=840>

Interesting update on the snow issue. While you were getting snow down there, up in the Tahoe area we were getting rain up to 8500' last week and rain up to 6000' this past weekend. Looks like winter isn't loosening its grip just yet in the Whitney area though.

That's a lotta snow Bob!

Mammoth Mountain got 6" new snow Saturday and 10" on Sunday. Little or no breeze til Sunday afternoon. Another storm like New Years is expected this week.

Snowboarding photos are on my website.

Do you think that the new snow, plus what's coming down the pipe, will fill in the approach to LBSL so we don't have to bushwhack any more? That's an awful lot of snow that's going to be sloughing off of the cliffs above the North Fork.

The video is pretty cool. I think that next time we'll outfit you with "helmetcam."

Ha! The video's are great.A lot of fresh snow to keep you from shooting out of control. Very neat.

Some Guy -

The videos worked fine for me. Incredible!

The "snowy" pictures are just breathtaking! Whitney and the Sierra are so vastly different in the winter, especially with so much snow everywhere. Looks like a truly magical wonderland! Thanks so much for sharing these. Wish I could be out there in it. Actually I *am* leaving for CA this Wednesday evening and will be there until March 7; but it is due to a death in the family, so not sure if hiking is in the cards this time around -- we'll see (my family is in the Lancaster area, a few miles south of Mojave). Even just a drive up to Lone Pine and up the Portal Road as far we could get in order to Whitney dressed in all her winter glory would be well worth it. Such beauty is not to be passed up when even the smallest opportunity presents itself.

CaT

Bob, That looks like a lot of fun! Thanks!

Bob,
thank you for posting videos. They are so cool. I did same things but never recorded. The pictures of the trail under the snow are beautiful. Like california-trailwalker said "magical wonderland". Just gorgeous.
Thanks again for best reports.
tomi

thanks Bob. that was so so cool. lots of effort to get to a place where that is possible, yes?

Now is mutch better. The rocks on TC in the background are looking great. If you going to use helmet camera, put one for front view and one for back view.?
Nice self portrait. :•)

Good job Bob! You're quite handy with that camera! I think if I were to try that with my camera my foot would hit a rock or something and I would end up launching my camera a hundred yards out into the snow never to be seen again. Of course that might not be as bad as dropping it on a hard rock like I usually do.

Great video, Bob R. Glad to see you added video to your entertainment menu for us.

In 1991 a couple of buddies and I did the same thing. Since this website wasn't around we hadn't learned how to do things correctly, and I ended up rolling head over heels down that chute--all the way down. Somehow I missed the rocks that are to the left in your video. The lesson for those who might try this in the future is REMOVE CRAMPONS BEFORE GLISSADING!

Cool second video clip, but "some guy's" head was in the way. I thought it was just me that got the first video twice.

Bob R. had to remove the videos from his web site, but he graciously allowed me to re-publish them <a href="http://waistmanagement.info/BobR/">here.</a>

Hopefully, they'll persist there long enough for lots more people to enjoy them. Make sure you turn up the volume. Now I realize that Howard Dean must have been glissading down from Trail Crest when he let out his infamous yell.

Bob also sent me some bonus footage, coming down from higher up the chute. Listen for his axe digging into the ice in that one.

Bill Law

thanks for the videos, it looked like you were having way to much fun

Thanks, Bob. These are great. I am struck by just how far it is from the crest to the bottom. Don't know if this is considered a long glissade, but I imagine it takes a couple minutes.

Bill, I thought of Howard Dean, too! Bob's whooping is a little more inspiring for me, though.

Hey, powergui, thank you very much for posting Bob's video. And Bob...I love your video. The best glissade I've been on is Mt. Shasta, but the Trail Crest slide looks great! Thanks for sharing.

Off topic, but:

Hello Wayne! I've been wondering about you lately, hoping that it's just your schedule that prevented you from posting.

Have you seen that Viesturs is going to try an Everest/Annapurna double this spring? It appears that he is becoming obsessed with finally getting to the summit of Annapurna, so that the 8000m peaks will be complete.

Well, the CSAC Eastern Sierra Bulletin says about 5 feet of new snow from this last storm. I think that's in the Mammoth area though.

Anyone have info on new snowfall in the Southern part of the range?

We are planning on heading up there next Friday to attempt Whitney, probably via the MR.