Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Sky Blue to summit and back - expectations?

A group of six of us (30's and in decent, but not great shape) are planning a 4-day trip from Horseshoe Meadow, through Miter Basin, to the summit and back on the same route. I wanted to get advice on our itinerary and what to expect.

Arriving a day ahead and camping at the trailhead overnight.

Day 1 - Hike to Long Lake.

Day 2 - At least to Sky Blue Lake; probably to the unnamed lake above it. Q: are there decent camping spots at the higher lake? Also, some of the group is planning on summitting Langley on the way and dropping into the basin by the Major General - is that feasible?

Day 3 - Day packs only. Over Crabtree Pass, up the infamous sand hill to Discovery Pinnacle, summit and return the same way back to camp.

Day 4 - Back through Miter Basin and out.

Summit day seems tough because of the sand hill and the return trip over Crabtree Pass as does the 13-15 mi trip out (depending on where we camp) on the last day. Any comments/advice?

Day 3: get an early start, because you will need most of the day. Do a search for "rock creek" and you will find the post "Whitney via New Army Pass route" 10/4 - 10/7 by dfresh.

He has some good info: especially the time needed on day three. Sounds like you need a very early start from sky blue lake to Crabtree pass to have time to get back to sky blue lake before it gets dark.

Pediwent,
A group of 6 of us, in our 30's and 40's, did a similar trip last September. However, we exited via the Main Whitney trail. Day one we left Cottonwood Lakes Trail Head, went through New Army Pass, summitted Langley and descended to camp at Soldier Lake. Day two we went passed Sky Blue, through Crabtree Pass and camped at the north side of Upper Crabtree Lake. there are some level tent sites there right at the base of the "Sand Hill". Day three, we carried our full packs up the sand hill to Discovery Pinnacle and intercepted the Main Whitney Trail. We dropped our packs, summitted Muir and Whitney, returned to our packs and hiked to Whitney Portal. We crowded into one vehicle and drove back to Cottonwood lakes trailhead to get the rest of the cars. Your itinerary sounds do-able. As you have anticipted and are prepared for a very long day 3 and 4.

I travelled part of this route back in my youth (I was only 43 then); Oct 2002. I'd say I'm in decent shape (I do 6-8 mi 2000' climbs in the Bay Area all the time). My initial reaction is: if you have to ask, you are going to get your butt kicked.

Which isn't to say you won't make it. $10 says you won't (just in case you need more incentive :-).

You might consider pushing further on day 1. Long Lk is only 6 mi or so. Rixco99's plan sounds like a better one, especially if you want to push beyond Sky Blue Lake the next day.

One other bit of advice not mentioned here: you can save considerable distance and elevation loss by going over the ridge from Lower Soldier Lake to Rock Creek canyon.

Some specific answers to your specific questions:

1. Miter Basin directly from Mt. Langley (or by way of the Major General): I've read of routes up to the Major General from Lower Solder Lake so it doesn't sound out of the question to traverse over to the ridge I mentioned above. But I can't say for sure. Here is a picture of this slope from the upper end of Miter Basin:
   <a href="http://www.waistmanagement.info/pics/details.php?image_id=63"><img src="http://www.waistmanagement.info/pics/data/media/8/langley-from-miter-basin.jpg" width="400"/></a>
2. Campsites at Lk3697. I dunno. The campsites at Sky Blue Lk aren't all that great and flat ground without lots of rocks is hard to come by beyond there. It is difficult to get to the edge of that lake:
   <a href="http://www.waistmanagement.info/pics/details.php?image_id=65"><img src="http://www.waistmanagement.info/pics/data/media/8/lake-below-crabtree-pass.jpg" width="400"/></a>
   I have other pictures of the surrounding terrain (click to go to the album). There maybe are spots above this lake, but I wouldn't count on a good night's sleep (and you'll be there 2 nights).
3. There's a picture of the sand hill from Crabtree Pass in that photo album. Last year I posted a panorama showing more of the slope around towards McAdie. That, plus the boulder-maze above Sky Blue Lk (there really isn't a trail) means that it will probably take you longer than you plan.

Good luck, and post a report when you get back. It is worth the trip, even if you don't make Mt. Whitney.

OK, this trip is only a week away! First of all, a belated thanks and "you guys rock!" to all who responded. After reading Richins' book, this route sounded like a cakewalk - obviously, that isn't the case and I feel a ton more prepared for the trip. Powergui, the pics were great! Always nice to visualize these things. Oh, and I just might have to take you up on that bet!

Just a couple more questions:
- When you hear "sand hill" it conjures up all kinds of possibilities. Can anyone shed some light on the fineness and depth of the sand (e.g. how far do you sink into it)? And would gaiters be a welcome addition to my pack? I've been climbing sand hills (fully laden w/pack) along the coast here in San Francisco and wanted to see if the granite sand of Whitney will be anything like what I've been experiencing here. Any boy, has it been fun ;-)
- I've read several posts about summitting via this route, but not much on returning. I hear the descent down Crabtree Pass to Upper Crabtree lake is a royal pain in the way to the summit. Any insight on how it would be to climb up it on the return?

The Sand Hill is a royal pain, especially the lower section where it's the steepest. After descending Crabtree Pass, follow one of the several trails that traverses the north side of upper crabtree lake. Keep going west past the west end of the lake on this trail for at least 100 yards. Then start going up the Sand Hill heading north-east-ish where it's not so steep. It will be a little easier if you make up your own little switchbacks to get up this hill. On the lower half of the hill, you may find that when you take a step up, you may actually slide back down to where you were. You will normally sink in up to your ankles. Sometime more and sometimes less. It's not fine sand like on the beach. The grains are much larger than that. It's crushed granite. When you go down the sand hill, go down the same way you came up. Aim for a spot west of the west end of upper-crabtree lake. This helps you avoid the cliffs just north of upper-crabtree lake. You will see them when at upper-crabtree lake on the way up.

Crabtree pass - I don't know where you got the idea that going down crabtree pass is a royal pain. It'll seem pretty pleasant compared to going up and down that Sand Hill. Going up crabtree pass isn't bad either. Just follow one of the trails. I would plan on 20 minutes to get down crabtree pass and about 30 minutes to go up the pass from upper crabtree lake (I'm in-shape 26 yrs old). And I highly recommend avoiding any snow you may encounter when ascending or descending the pass.

BTW, there is a trail between Sky blue lake and Huge Blue Lake(what I've called the un-named lake north of Sky Blue Lake). It follows the stream that comes into Sky-Blue Lake from the north-west for a while. Then it goes north-east over and around all of those boulders until you get to the stream that flows south from Huge Blue Lake to Sky Blue Lake. Follow that up to Huge Blue Lake. Then there is a trail that goes around Huge Blue Lake on the west side. On the south-west side corner of the lake, the trail goes on top of the huge rock formation there. Somewhere I saw on the internet a map with plotted waypoints using a GPS following this trail between Sky Blue Lake and Crabtree Pass. Try finding that if you can. I'll post a link to it if I can find it again.

Hope this info helps.

Pediwent: I just posted a report of the trip you are taking.

A couple of notes.

From Sky Blue lake, follow the advice in Richens book about the gap and small tairn lake. It puts you high enough on the shelf you don't have to drop down much. Going down to the opening of rock creek is longer for sure. My first trip we climbed the hill straight North. This is not as good as the gap because you end up dropping down on the other side.

There is liquid water to about 200 feet below Crabtree pass. There are actually multiple lakes above Sky blue lake. This was important to us, since we did not run into liquid water again until the next day at Iceberg lake.

You don't need to drop all the way down to Upper crabtree lake from Crabtree pass when you are heading across the canyon to Discovery Pinnacle. In my report I explained how to skirt the eastern shelf just below the cliffs and stay about the same elevation as crabtree pass. This is a huge advantage since it minimizes much of the loose sand. We had some loose sand but we could see much looser sand everywhere below us and we were way above the upper crabtree lake.

Once you get close to Discovery Pinnacle you need to aim for the high point and then drop down to the trail about 20 feet east of the high point. From there the trail is not far down and you are close to trail crest. Any of the other places along the ridge would lead you to drop 100's of feet down to the trail at the top of the 97 switchbacks.

If you can do this hike as a one way hike, it is much easier then the round trip. One day from Sky Blue lake to Whitney and back is a long day indeed.

Any other questions email me.

We did a similar trip last year but didn't summit and didn't climb Langley. Try to get as close to Crabtree Pass as you can. Camping at the lake above Sky Blue would be difficult, but there are water sources above it that I've seen folks camp at and we actually camped at the also unnamed lake just to the "left" of it (on the map).

While I like the Richen's book very much he does make this route sound easier than it really is. Even though Sky Blue Lake is pretty, the climb from it to the next set of lakes is not trivial, so it's probably best to get past that before camping.

I got as far as part way up the sand hill before I hit my turn around time. Crab Tree pass while quite doable was unnerving. It was ok going down while I was fresh, but coming back and tired it was for me a bit hair raising (I was by myself for that day) as when I was on it the ground was very loose in the couple of steep sections.

I'll be going up the main trail at the very beginning of July so we may see you on the summit.

Good luck and I'll look at the pictures I took to see if they will help.

Ellen

Ok, pediwent, you're on. It's a win-win for me. I'd gladly pay $10 to see you succeed, and now if you don't, at least I get some compensation (but a double loss for you :-).

Here's a map showing the route we took:

The red line is the route up, the dashed blue line the way down (which is the way I'd go back). I think this jives with kashcraft's advice.

We took the route we did because of the erroneous map in Richins book (going on the East side of the lake). The trail was pretty obvious up from Sky Blue Lk until we got to the tarns. Maybe it was obvious beyond, but we were following Richins advice and looking to head to the other side of the lake. When we came around the rise and saw the steep loose lakeshore, we pretty much decided to try the other side. But we came to a pretty good rock wall that runs right into the lake and angles all the way up the ridge on the west shore. You can see this wall pretty clearly in this picture (looking SW from N shore of the lake):
<img width="400" src="http://www.waistmanagement.info/pics/data/media/8/wall.jpg">
Maybe a more adept climber could drop down off this wall to the lake shore, but all in all, it is much better to stay to the west and come past the other lake (IMHO).

Kashcraft, I can't wait to read about your trip. I didn't like the looks of traversing across from crabtree pass but maybe it wasn't as steep and loose as it looked to me at the time. Did you bag McAdie on the way? (I guess I'll find out when I read your trip report).

Powergui: We actually followed the Richins advice and climbed the right (east) side around the larger lake above Sky Blue lake. 5 years ago we stayed on the west side the whole way from Sky Blue lake to Crabtee pass.

So Richins advice turns out to work but maybe involves a little more climbing. However I don't think it was easier and we had to pick out a line through the cliffs to climb up. I think I could only see one way. On the left west side it was easier.

We climbed Mt. McAdie from Crabtree pass. There is a large obvious loose sandhill chute going up to the notch from Crabtree pass , but we stayed in the larger rocks in the ridge going up to avoid most of the loose sand. About 50-100 feet from the notch you connect onto the route recommended coming up from the Arc's pass side. (which you read about in Secor's book) There is a large horizontal ledge going across northward and from there an easy scramble to the top.

Awesome! Thanks for your input, guys! It looks like we'll probably alter our plans slightly based on the great feedback. I think Day 1 we'll push on to Soldier Lake and Day 2 we'll take it all the way to Upper Crabtree to give us a better chance at the summit (thanks Adrian!). Of course, this means we won't be able to try Kashcraft's route to avoid the worst of the sand hill, but since we're not hiking out the Portal, I think Upper Crabtree Lake will make a better base camp than Sky Blue. If we can push back to Sky Blue after summitting, we can still keep the trip to 4 days, but we just might extend it a day a get Langley on the way back. Some in the group wanted to get Langley on the way out, but I'm not sure how tough this would be if we're trying to get to Upper Crabtree Lake in two days. Thoughts?

Oh, and powergui, you can just make the check out now! ;-)

When you get to Crabtree pass, make the choice then which route is easier. You can easily see the route down to the lake and then straight up the sand hill from there to Discovery Pinnacle.

If you want to try to skirt higher look at the picture posted by Powergui on my report and the explanation just below it.

I would still go that way again on the way to Whitney...but coming back to sky blue lake I would go straight down the sandhill to the lake and then climb the 307 feet back to the pass. Going down the sand hill would not be bad.

The other small point was about crossing the lake above Sky Blue lake on the west or east side. That doesn't really matter. Richens diagram shows a path on the right East side. I think it is more straight forward to stay on the west left side all the way to crabtree pass.

My partner and I took the way that powergui put in the blue dashed line, and we wound up camping at the lake right beside the dashed line. i then took a day hike the next day over Crabtree Pass. You could camp at WL3697 on the left side, but campsites are tough to find. I even saw someone camping at that little tiny pond just above WL3697.

I would leave the backpacks on this side of Crabtree (the side that WL3697 is on) personally.

Oh and that area that's inbetween the red line and the blue dashed line where there's an elevation number is a cliff that we had to go around.

ellen - were there decent campsites at that lake next to WL3697? We've got 7 people in 4 tents so we'll need a decent amount of space. The advantage of camping there is that we could climb Crabtree with just summit packs and could try Kashcraft's route staying above the worst of the sand hill. My tendency is still to play it safe and camp at Upper Crabtree Lake, but it's nice to know what options we'll have.

Well keep in mind that Upper Crabtree doesn't have a lot of level ground for 4 tents (there is an over look but I don't remember how large it was). Sites for 4 tents would be tough to find at the lake (I call it Terri's lake to the left of WL3697 - at least 4 together. You might have better luck finding places for 4 tents at the base of Crabtree pass (on the WL3697 side)

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that Crabtree pass is quite easy on the WL3697 side (as opposed to the E ticket side that Upper Crabtree lake is on) so it's feasible to drop packs and run up and have a look over to decide which side you want to be on.

Ellen

In your original question you asked if you could summit Langley and then drop down the Major General to Soldier lake or the Miter Basin.

The west side of the Major General, as seen from Soldier lake is a steep nice looking piece of rock. There is also an upper Soldier lake. You could possibly work down the class three rock into upper Soldier lake and from there drop down to the gap going to the small tairn lake northeast of lower soldier lake.

It doesn't seem to be harder then the section from Crabtree pass to Upper Crabtree lake with a backpack. But it might be easier to just take the NAP trail down and swing over to lower soldier lake. From Lower Soldier lake over the gap is only a few hundred feet.

ellen: thanks for the description. I think we'll play it by ear whether we camp on the Miter Basin side of Crabtree Pass and try Kashcraft's route to avoid the worst of the sand hill or whether we drop down and camp at the base of the sand hill. With our intended schedule, we should have plenty of time for either.

TomC: part of our group will definitely just drop from NAP to Soldier Lakes on the trail, but a couple people wanted to summit Langley, which is why I asked. Is it really class 3 from Langley down to Soldier Lakes? Richins makes it sound like a cake walk in his book.

I don't know about the route you plan to use from Crabtree Pass to Whitney, since I went down to Crabtree Meadow and hiked up from Guitar Lake, but I will say this: do not camp at lake 12,125. We saw a few campsites on the way to this lake but we could only assume that whoever camped there must have done so out of desperation.

We met an old couple who were camping at Sky Blue Lake and they had a really good spot a couple hundred feet south of the lake. There are also some good places to camp a little further south of Sky Blue.

If you want, you can check out my pictures and descriptions of my hike from Horseshoe Meadow to Mt. Whitney via the Miter Basin and Crabtree Pass.

Description:
<a href="http://www.abovecalifornia.com/routes/index1.php3?id=3">http://www.abovecalifornia.com/routes/index1.php3?id=3</a>

Pictures:
<a href="http://www.abovecalifornia.com/pictures?mode=1&tripID=2">http://www.abovecalifornia.com/pictures?mode=1&tripID=2</a>

You can also look at our maps which links to pictures:
<a href="http://www.abovecalifornia.com/maps/map.jsp?cols=3&rows=3&scale=100&x=394999.0&y=4034106.0&z=11">http://www.abovecalifornia.com/maps/map.jsp?cols=3&rows=3&scale=100&x=394999. 0&y=4034106.0&z=11</a>

Hope you find this useful.

I'll agree with what Sparky said. I think I too recall seeing a couple sad looking camping spots near "Huge Blue Lake" (what I've called it, or 3697 or whatever you want to call that lake). I also recall some sad camping spots to the north of huge blue lake as well.

I've camped on the north side of Sky Blue Lake. Nice spot there for plenty of tents. The campsite at the bottom of crabtree pass right by upper crabtree lake looks fine. Not real big spot, but you could probably get several tents squished in there.

I like powergui's route for avoiding the worst of the sand hill. I'll have to try that next time. However, I would camp either at Sky Blue Lake or at Upper Crabtree Lake, and not somewhere in between.