Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board MR on April 2-3 snow storm

Conditions have changed quite a bit since people summited last weekend March 27-28. This weekend was a different North Fork of Lone Pine Creek. The road to the Portal is dry as of yesterday. We drove right to the trailhead. Our plan was to camp between Upper Boy Scout Lake and Iceberg Lake and then up the MR and summit on Saturday. On the way up, it started with flurries just below the Ebersbacher Ledges,then it switched to snow. On Friday (April 2nd), teams were getting up the Ebersbacher Ledges. It was a totally different story yesterday (April 3rd). No one descended the ledges as they were totally wet from the melting snow. The boot track has mostly disappeared now with the recent snow storm. Most teams decided to camp at Lower Boy Scout Lake (by the way, the snow level pretty much begins at 9000 feet), including a team from Fort Collins, Colorado that we met. Anyway, we decided to press on and only found 1 tent camped at Upper Boy Scout Lake on Friday afternoon. Visibility really got poor starting at 4:00pm Friday April 2nd. We hiked 'til 5:00pm and made camp at 11,700 feet betweeb UBSL and Iceberg Lake. The snow storm really started to come down after 6:00pm Friday. It did not let up all night. By morning, it has snowed over 1 foot in less than 12 hours!! And it continued snowing well into mid-morning (10:00am) Saturday, April 3rd. At about 10:15am, I noticed a team of 4 climbers coming down from higher above us. The leader in front asked us how we're doing, and I immediately recognized the voice: it was <a href="http://www.sierramountaineering.com">Kurt Wedberg</a> of Sierra Mountaineering International. He said they had camped just a few hundred feet higher from where we were. Kurt decided to turn around his clients as he witnessed fracture lines on the slope to Iceberg Lake. Avalanche activity had risen quickly over the night hours of Saturday morning (April 3rd): we had over 1 foot of new snow in less than 12 hours and more snow was still coming down, rapid warming temperatures from Friday to Saturday (I guess it was around 35 degrees F Saturday around 10:00am at our 11,700-foot camp). Kurt also had another large guided team (from IMG: International Mountain Guides) camped at Lower Boy Scout Lake. The IMG team packed up and headed back down to the trailhead. Without any further hesitation after talking to Kurt, we too abandon our summit bid and headed down. We noticed that the climbers camped at UBSL also went down. Then, the Colorado team too went down. BOTTOM LINE: Everyone on Saturday bailed out and headed back down to the Portal trailhead as avalanche risk was considerable. On our way down, close to the Ebersbacher Ledges, we witnessed a small avalanche on a north facing slope. This slope released as a result of the very rapid warming temperatures which lubricated the sandwiched layer between the harder snow below with the wetter snow on top. All in all, although our 3-day trip was cut short due to the *****y snow storm (which also caught the National Weather Service forecast off guard) and considerable avalanche danger, it taught us yet another lesson in mountaineering. Looks like the storm started to die down today and the weather looks favorable for next weekend. Safe climbing everyone!

Good info Miguel.
This should show everyone that the weather this time of the year is anything but predictable.
Do you have any pictures to share with us?

My partner and I headed up the North Fork toward Upper Boy Scout on Friday morning. We met a SMI group on the way down that "witnessed fracture lines on the slope to Iceberg Lake". We decided to push on toward Upper Boy Scout. We spent the evening at the lake with two guys from Toronto. When we emerged from the tent in the morning at 6:30am they were no where to be seen, but their tracks indicated they headed down. Around 10am my partner saw the SMI group of 4 coming down with snowshoes. I was unaware that there was a second party above us. We probably missed their descent because we were in the tent, which was hidden by rocks. About noon I headed out to explore the lake and then ascended toward the SMI high camp. The cloud layer never lifted to the west, but I could see into the Owens Valley where the sun was shining. I saw no tents at Lower Boy Scout Lake. I headed down before reaching their camp to prepare dinner and make final fortifications for the evening. Temperatures were at least 10 degrees cooler at Upper Boy Scout on Saturday evening. However, the morning light brought unsurpassed views of Mt. Russel and the Owens Valley. The extra night in the cold was worth it. We spent the morning drying "everything" and taking pictures. Finally left Upper Boy Scout at 9am. Things were pretty set up down to Lower Boy Scout. Once there we took off the snowshoes and followed the tracks of those the day before, which stayed to the south of the creek and avoided the ledges. There were foot prints coming across the creek from the north by two individuals that chose to negotiate the ledges. We noticed the slide Miduel talked about and got some good shots. That was the only slide we saw, but noted many more instabilities. Back to the trailhead at 11am thanks to the smooth trail conditions.

Here is illustration for Miguel's report. I was in Alabama Hills during the storm over the Mt. <a href=http://homepage.mac.com/artomis/.Pictures/1000%20views%20on%20Whitney/040304MtW.jpg>Whitney</a>. All the time they were only the clouds over the peaks. In the "Valley" was warm and windy. Here is Sunday <a href=http://homepage.mac.com/artomis/.Pictures/Lone%20Pine%20Peak/P4045557-LPP.jpg>morning</a> picture (040404).
For more images please click <a href=http://homepage.mac.com/artomis/Menu14.html>here</a>.

This poor guy was on the summit April 1 and then ran into some trouble. http://www.ovro.caltech.edu/~rick/html/SAR/Missions/2004April04.txt

I saw helicopter that they, while my family and I were at Alabama hills. I was worried that somebody is in trouble because you don't see helicopters just flying around, especially in bad weather.
It's good that he is OK.

Upper Boy Scout Lake as seen on April 2, 2004 during the storm.

<A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/miguel_forjan/UBSL_April2_2004.jpg"><IMG SRC="http://www.geocities.com/miguel_forjan/UBSL_April2_2004.jpg"></A>

Here's a picture looking up from Lower Boy Scout Lake on our way out, Saturday, April 3, 2004.

<A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/miguel_forjan/storm_from_LBSL_Apr3_2004.jpg"></A>

Miguel, we are headed up the MR route next week and was wondering if you could give me some more detail on the trail/snow conditions? Will we need snow shoes? Did the recent storm drop the snow line below 9,000 again? Is the trail above LBSL packed enough to hike without snowshoes? Thanks for any insight you can offer.

Hey John T. Would you do something for us. We are heading up to Thor Peak May 1st. It would be helpful to know how much snow is in the North Fork from the trail junction to Lower Boy Scout Lake. Specifically, is there enough snow you can bypass the Ebersbacher ledges and stay on the slabs going up the left side of the canyon, just below the lake.

Would you include that in your report? Thanks and enjoy!

Kashcraft - I would be happy to give you a full snow and trail report upon our return. May not get this posted until the 29th or 30th when I return to Denver.

I was at the portal on Sunday, April 11th. I spoke with someone who had successfully climbed Whitney via the MR the previous day.

He was able to avoid the ledges by bushwhacking along the S side of the N fork. Snow on the upper part of the slope below LBSL is very bad, especially in the afternoon. Snowshoes aren't much help.

Snow is better higher up, quite firm in the morning. They were able to kick steps up the section above the notch.

Watch for wet snow slides in the afternoon and don't forget sunsscreen.

crag - Thanks for the update. Sounds like it's getting too late in the season for snowshoes, I'm getting the impression that they won't be of much use on the route up to Iceberg Lake. Anybody have any suggestions as to whether I should drag my snowshoes all the way from CO or leave them home?

John T. Last year we were up on the Mountaineers route in late May. The weather pattern was very much like right now (If you follow the weather link to the graph on the main page) and the snow was melting fast. It had snowed earlier in the month but it had warmed up a lot. The soft fluffy snow made for snow shoes was gone.

Those with snow shoes said that they didn't help much. The snow was so warm and soft during the day that it would collect on the snow shoes making them hard to lift up. They said each step felt like they had an extra 5-10 pounds on their snow shoes.

Our group had crampons only. We had problems postholing in the afternoon..very irritating and slow going.

The real travel needed to be done early (before 10:00 am) If we followed the well worn path made by others we did fine without the snow shoes. On the 16th Bob R. said he stashed his snowshoes at Bighorn park (about 10000 feet) and went on to Trail Camp (about 12400 feet) without them.

As you know the next ten days it is warming up in town (highs about 85) with no real chance of heavy precipitation. That is just like the temperatures we had late last May...a little too warm that early for late Spring. So I would guess snow shoes to be of marginal help up to Iceberg Lake. Above that it is too steep to use them anyway....I would really question bringing them. Enjoy your trip

RicharC - I appreciate the input.Sounds like we'll have to make a go of it without snowshoes.

Thanks

We were the 2 guys from Toronto that weekend- glad to know that our fellow campers on UBS Lake made it back safe. Saturday morning, we woke up to 3 ft of snow and white-out conditions- it didn't look like a summit bid was feasible so we decided to bail. This was our first trip to Mt Whitney, and yes those were our tracks heading off and down the ledges- they were a bit exposed to say the least and snow packed- we roped up on the last traverse with no problems. Only after we completed the traverse did we see a party of 2 descending the middle of the gulley. We will know next time.
Having cut short our trip to Mt Whitney, we headed off to Joshua Tree and did some magnificent climbing, including a midnight bivvy on some very remote rocks, under a full moon, with the coyotes howling around us- very cool..

Larry, I'm glad you were able to find something a little safer to climb on your vacation. Was nice climbing with you. I hope you have better weather on your next trip up Mt. Whitney.

Our camp at UBSL sure was protected by the rocks. If you were at just the right angle you could see a hiking pole with a helmet on it from the trail.