Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Trip report - Thor/Whitney/Russell 6-4 to 6-6

Just got back from a planned three-day hike to Thor, Whitney, Muir and Russell. The weather could not have been better. Almost too warm. Nighttime lows were 43 on Saturday and 41 on Sunday. We all know how quickly that can change though. I did Summit Thor, Whitney and Russell. After Whitney we decided to skip Muir for now to make sure we had the juice to do Russell. If I ever do this series of hikes again I would camp at Iceberg. Russell is a long slog from UBSL.

Encountered some snow just below the slabs. Almost no snow along the route to there. UBSL is completely void of snow as well. We did the Smiley Face route on Thor and only encountered one small patch of snow that could be avoided. No crampons needed for that hike. The hike into Iceberg is uneventful. If you stay on the high traverse you are out of snow all the way up or if you get an early start the snow was still firm enough for easy walking up the drainage. Waterfall shortcut was clear. Plenty of dry spaces to camp at Iceberg. Mosquitoes have shown up at UBSL but did not see any at Iceberg yet. There is still plenty of snow up to about 2-300 vertical feet from the notch. It was possible to walk up the chute without crampons at 8 AM. I did have an ice ax for self-arrest if needed. Would not advise taking the crampons off unless you are used to hiking uphill in snow. My partner felt more comfortable with them on. The climb above the notch was essentially free of snow for the routes on the right. Still a problem for the routes on the left. We did the route Bob Rockwell mentioned in an earlier post by crossing the Whitney/Russell divide, hiking up the scree to the Southeast headwall and summating from there. Very fun route. My partner stopped at the bottom of the headwall and I decided to solo from there. As reported earlier there a plenty of good hand and foot holds on this climb. The only snow encountered on this route was one small but exposed section of the north face traverse. It had been flattened out by plenty of boots before mine and solid. Below is a link to the pictures, which will probably do a better job of describing conditions than I have. I could not find a summit register on Russell. I assume there is one up there. It must be hidden pretty good.

Sarah – if you read this I picked up a hat and Nalgene at the notch. I think John left it there and Mike was sure you guys were not coming back down that way. If it is e-mail me spinefxr@aol.com. I am up in your area about every other week and could arrange to get them back to you.

http://members17.clubphoto.com/richard724261/2367667/owner-9fd5.phtml

Congratulations! Great hike.

The summit register on Russell's west peak is very hard to find. I thought it was under the snowfield or something. After about 10 minutes I finally located it. There are 2 large stones on the summit, which have a crack between them. You have to be looking straight down to see the canister. It has rocks around it so it won't roll off. Not easy to locate.

That picture looking toward Whitney, the one right next to the self portrait. On the left side of the photo there are two rocks on top of the large boulder. One square looking rock and one smaller rock on top. My son and friend put those there so they could stand on a higher peak. I wasn't about to stand up there myself.

I loved seeing that photo. I didn't have a picture of that so I missed the memory. Now I can just copy of the one you took.

What a great adventure...all those peaks in the same weekend.

Spinefxr, glad John and I hooked up with you. Thanks for showing us the route.

My group of 4 left the Portal at 2:15 am and arrived at the main chute of the Mountaineer's Route at 8am. John and myself were carring full packs, while the other two had day packs and running shoes up to the MR chute. Very little snow was encountered on the route. John and I had a difficult time keeping up with the other two and were pretty spent by the time we reached the notch at 11:30am. We took a long rest at the notch and summitted at 1pm. We had planned to do Russell the same day, but were too spent. Instead we spent the night on top and awoke to a beautiful sunrise. The next morning we summitted Muir at 8am, and headed back down the mail trail. We were lazy and plunge stepped the chute to avoid the switchbacks. Other than that it was just a long way back. Wish I had brought some tennis shoes.

Our 2 friends summitted Whitney at noon, did Muir and were back to the portal before 7pm (17 hours RT)!

How would you compare the exposure on Russell's south headwall with that of Mt. Muir? Recently someone said Muir would be a big stretch for someone coming up the trail, but not for someone who came up the Mountaineers route.

Andrew - I will let someone else answer that. Our intent was to do Muir after Whitney, we decided to rest the legs to help gaurantee our attempt on Russell the following day. Blueskigirl came up the MR and then did Muir the following day so she could probably give you a great comparison. There was one small section on Russell that involved more technical climbing than what we encountered on the MR however it was within a chimney which reduced the exposure. I would rate the overall exposure on the south side traverse to Russell's peak as more exposed but easier climbing than the MR route.

I'm heading up to Whitney with a group of hikers next weekend.

Just wanting to know if we can leave the crampons at home?

From your reports it sounds like there isn't much snow left.

Gusk - It probably depends on which route you are taking, MR or Main Trail. If you are taking the MR, I would bring the crampons. To much chance of the weather being cold enough to solidify the snow and I am guessing there will still be enough to warrent them by next weekend. I am headed up there again myself with another group June 17-19 and will be bringing the crampons and ice ax. The only reason I got by without using my crampons last weekend is because the snow was perfect for making easy kick steps or follow in the steps of others before me. Can't ever gaurantee the snow will be that way though.

Thanks Spinefxr. Due to our group size, we'll be doing the main trail. I think we'll leave them at home.