Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Approximate Climbing Time?

Some friends and I are hiking Mt. Whitney in early June - our first time.

I know this is a hard topic, but does anyone have an approximation of the time it'll take to reach the summit?

We're camping at about 9000 Feet the night before our hike to acclimate. Then we're starting at the bottom of Whitney, hiking to the Trail Camp at about 10000 feet to camp for the night, and getting up in the early hours of the morning (2:00-ish AM) to make for the summit.

So, how long should it take: 1) To get to Trail Camp, and 2) To go from the Trail Camp to the Summit?

Thanks for any help!

My personal experience (results may vary) - When I did Whitney for the first time, we left the Portal at about 8:00 am, and arrived at Trail Camp (which is at 12,000', not 10,000') at about 4:00 pm. We were in no hurry at all, since we planned to stay one night at trail camp, summit, stay at trail camp another night, then hike out. We made lengthy stops at Lone Pine Lake, Mirror Lake, and Trailside Meadow, took our time, and really enjoyed it. Next morning, we left trail camp at 0615, were on the summit at 1045, then back at trail camp at about 2:15 or so. Personally, I would spend the night after the summit at Outpost Camp rather than trail camp. It's much nicer and I slept much better there. There's a couple of really nice campsites at the far end of Outpost Camp near a waterfall. Great background noise, and it drowns out the sound of the early dayhikers coming through.

The standard formula for trail hiking is two miles an hour or a thousand feet gain per hour. My last time, it took me about 5 hours to get to Trail Camp, and then nine hours to summit. Many people will do this faster.

Shoot for a total round trip of 15 hours. This includes breaks and rests. When I was younger, it'd take me about 12 hours round trip.

Test yourself on a local trail to determine how fast you hike. Whitney is 11 miles, and 6,200' gain to the top. And altitude will slow you down.

First off, Trail Camp is at 12,000'. If you're hiking to 10,000', that'll be Outpost Camp, and will make for a much longer summit day.

In general, 30 minutes per mile plus 30 minutes per 1,000' of gain is about right. The pitch up the Switchbacks from Trail Camp to Trail Crest will go a bit slower than that because of the altitude and steep grade.

My then-12-year-old son and I made it from Portal to Trail Camp with full packs in about 5 hours. (not counting 45 minutes spent waiting at Outpost for a t-storm to clear) The next a.m., we were on the trail at 05:30 and summitted about 10:30 or 10:45, just with day packs. (See the "highpointing" section of my <a href="http://www.mtritter.org">WWW site</a> for more details.)

Now that he's 15 and about 4" taller than I am, we could shave a fair amount off each of those times, but the 30/30 rule is still a good estimate. (For instance, we dayhiked Mt. Elbert, the CO highpoint, last summer. 4.5 miles, about 5,000' gain, took us just under 4 hours trailhead to summit.)

Figure 4 to 5 hours Portal to Trail Camp and another 4 to 5 hours Trail Camp to summit the next day, and you won't be too far off the mark.

Yes, Trail Camp is pretty high. And my times were for a day hike (I didn't read your query that well). With a backpack, it takes much longer, depending on you. I've seen parties underestimating the difficulty, and take all day to get to Trail Camp. It's really hard for beginners, and at 12,000', it's the first experience at altitude for many.

Same for camp to summit. The round trip can take all day, as well. It all depends on your readiness. I'll assume with your plans for an overnight, you want to take it easier. Lots of rests, enjoying the views, and sitting around. This all adds to the trail time.

And then, maybe you like to carry everything and the kitchen sink. I see backpackers with 50 pounds for a weekend. Bob R uses a 19 pound pack for summer overnights. I carry maybe 20 pounds in my day pack, with lots of water and emergency gear. Overnights, I will do about 45 pounds. Then, I don't use lightweight freeze dried foods, but instead simple grocery store food. Saves a lot of cash if you do this a lot.

Your time up and down depends on your physical condition and how you react to the high altitude.
Hiking over ten thousand feet is serious business. I have found plenty of people on the trail sick, dehydrated, headache etc. Above trail camp is not a casual effort, be careful!

As someone pointed out, you mention Trail Camp (12,000 feet) but note an elevation of 10,000 feet. 10,000 feet would be Outpost Camp. That would change both days depending on which you mean.

I did it the same way, too. Portal to Trail Camp (12,000). Summit on day 2. Out on day 3.

I left the Portal around 7:00am. Pretty much hiked through to Outpost Camp where I stopped for "lunch" at around 9:30am. It was brief. I then continued to Trail Camp but was queasy from Mirror Lake to Trail Camp so I either ate the wrong foods or the elevation got me just a bit. I reached Trail Camp around noon. Once there, the queasiness passed and did not bother me at all that day or on summit day.

I will say, that I did not sleep all that well at Trail Camp. I started up to the summit around 6:30am and reached the top around 9:30am - it was a steady but slow pace up that 2,500 feet but I felt fine. I used my Kelty external frame pack as my summit pack reasoning that I did not need to drag a separate day pack. As it was pretty empty, it was light and perfect.

(Warning, once you reach Trail Crest, you will cross back over into shade (depending, clearly on the time you start) and it was very cold again. I had not brought gloves but had been warned when at Trail Crest camp by another hiker, so I used a clean pair of socks as mittens)

I had a great 2+ hours on the summit and leisurely headed down. It did rain and hail later that afternoon and early evening.

Third day out with an early start I just made it for the famed breakfast at the Portal Store. I chose the ham and eggs over the pancakes. Excellent and reasonably priced.

(I just checked my times against the times found on my digital photos so that are pretty correct)

My general rule of thumb on a steep climb (like MR) is 1000 vertical feet per hour below 12,000 feet and 500 vertical feet per hour above 12,000 feet. coming down a route takes about half the time going up that same route. Obviously this varies based on conditioning, conditions, load, etc., but I've found it to be remarkably similar from climb to climb.

I have done Whitney Portal to Trail Camp (Yes, 12,000 feet) in 4 hours and Trail Camp to the Summit in 6 hours. It is really hard to predict how long it will take people to go up above Trail Camp because of the altitude effects and the endurance required. With a group, it can take longer if the members try to stay together (unless they have the same endurance level).

Coming down I have done the Summit to Trail Camp in about 3 hours (Note: there is a short uphill stretch on the way back) and Trail Camp to the Portal in about 3 hours.

Fred

Your backpacking, what difference does it make how long it takes to get to Trail Camp at ****12,000'***. You'll get there when you get there. Have a good time stop at Lone Pine Lake, soak your feet in Lone Pine Creek at Trailside Meadow and take a lot of pictures.

How heavy are your packs? If you are hauling the ice chest and a cast iron skillet I can guarantee you it's going to take a lot longer than the ultralight guy with 15 pounds in his pack. It really is an unanswerable question.

Trail Camp to the Summit...figure 3.5 to 5 hours since you will be going light.

Bill

I can't help but respond to a couple of posts regarding ultralight technique. First, packweights in the 15-20# range are not ultralight. Light, yes, but not ultralight.
I think in terms of 10# (for summer overnight)

Bob R's summer overnite packweight is 8.3 #, not 19 #
http://www.ridgenet.net/~rockwell/

Thanks a ton for the information! You are all very helpful, even though there isn't an "exact" answer to my question!

mcmillb1
My first attempt took me approximately 8 hours from trail head (~ 8000 feet) to Trail Camp
(~ 12000 feet) and approximately 4 hours from Trail Camp to the Summit (~ 14500), not included is about a hour or so recovering from altitude sickness at Trail Crest (~ 13500 feet)

Are there any thoughts on the time it'd take to get down the mountain from the summit? My buddy has miraculously pulled 3 hours out of "somewhere..." (heheheh)....this seems a VERY high estimate...

Over the years, with multiple groups, we seem to take 7-9 hours to get to the top from the trailhead. This is in the summer with a clean trail.

Coming down is easily 4-5 hours down the trail. Even though you can walk 3 miles per hour on the lower part of the trail (below Bighorn park) you can not average that fast up on the top sections. They are just to rocky and it wears you down slowly.

It actually is a long walk down the 11 mile trail.

You can usually take the total time for an "up and back" round trip such as Whitney and attribute roughly two-thirds of that total to going up and the other one-third to coming down, so long as you are coming down the same way you went up. This works fairly well for me in similar situations.