Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Map of the Switchbacks

This is old hat now to many on the Board, but we have had many newbies this past year.

Until two years ago, there was a lot of confusion about the number of switchbacks between Trail Camp and Trail Crest. I saw counts ranging from 95 to 100. Why was the count not known? Anyway, I was a bit bugged by the confusion, so I set out to count the switchbacks myself, but to do it differently than anyone had done before.

I stopped at each switchback, pressed the "mark" button on my Garmin GPS 12, and then input the altitude shown on my Suunto altimeter. It took me several hours to go the 2.2 miles from Trail Camp to Trail Crest, but when I got to the top of the trail, my GPS showed 97 switchbacks.

When I got back home, I set out to map the trail, using, of all things, an Excel spreadsheet. I used the column and row lines as latitude-longitude lines. For contour lines, I used Topo software from National Geographic. I treated each contour line as if it were a separate trail, and recorded latitude-longitude data which I manually transferred to my Excel spreadsheet. After I connected all the dots, I used many photos to more closely match the switchbacks to the terrain. I also gave Bob R. a copy and asked him for his help in making corrections. Being the man he is, he was a great help!

Well, after dozens of painstaking hours, the map finally materialized, which you can see at<a href=http://www.ridgenet.net/~rockwell/Climbing/WaynePyle97Switchbacks.xls> Map of the 97 Switchbacks</a>. Special thanks to Bob R. for generously posting it on his personal Website.

The map is by no means perfect, but it gives a fair rendition of the Mt. Whitney Trail from Trail Camp to Trail Crest. I’ve also included trail mileages, based on the book, Mount Whitney Guide for Hikers and Climbers, by Paul Hellweg and Scott McDonald. They show 6.3 miles to Trail Camp from the trailhead. I allow one-tenth of a mile from Trail Camp to the start of the switchbacks. Doug Thompson's Mount Whitney Mountain Lore From the Whitney Store, shows 2.2 miles from Trail Camp to Trail Crest, but only 6.0 miles from the Trailhead to Trail Camp. I don't know which book is right, but both books agree that the 97 switchbacks are 2.2 miles.

The map was designed to be printed on legal-size paper, 8 1/2 x 14 inches. However, it can be printed on 8 x 11 paper.

All my GPS data is shown on a second spreadsheet in the Excel workbook, in case you would like to see it.

Happy switchbacking!

Many thanks for this otherwise thankless task! I am impressed at your industry.

That's fantastic - how about doing the MR next?

wow, that's very impressive. i'm tired just looking at it! they're not what i imagined-a little more spread out.

Thanks, kkeating and kim. Sierra Sam, since I was on the lower part of the MR a few weeks ago with Bob R and Richard Piotrowski when we did Thor, I captured the route in my GPS. However, the MR would require a lot of terrain mapping to make it useful, which I am not prepared to do. Superimposing the route on a good topo might be helpful, with lots of annotations. We'll see.

Kim, we look forward to your trip report!

I don't see it on my browser. What is the underlying data format?

The switchback layout is an Excel file.

Wayne,

This is great! I just printed it out on our color printer here at work (8.5 x 11). I plan to put this into my California's Fourteeners book so I have it the next time I climb Mt. Whitney.

wayner

really cool. appreciate the effort.

When I first read this report I thought it was an incredibly obsessive thing to do. Then I took a look at it. This is really useful as it's great having this detailed a map of the switchbacks. It shows where the cables are located, and where that spring is.

Ellen

what is the secret to viewing this?
I didn't think I was this lame, but I can't figure it out. all I get is code when I click the link, and a big blank graph when I open the link in Excel.
help me into the 21st century please.

I have to add my words of appreciation to the chorus. I kept count on my way up in 2001, and it was oddly motivating to know that I only had X amount more to go - and it made for great conversation with the folks you play leap frog with on them ("Hey no worries, only 35 more to go - we're over half way there!") I will be printing this out and carrying it with me in September.

Side note, is it only me and my admittedly odd imagination, or when you're standing above the switchbacks and heading back down, watching all of the people descending and ascending infront of you, does it look like one of those old fashioned wooden marble toys where you roll the marbles down and watch them all bang into each other as the go down the wooden chute and curves?

elbin -- follow the link. For me, the map is visible using Internet Explorer but the linked page looks like gibberish using Netscape. However, in either case, saving it to your disk gives you the Excel workbook, which you can open directly with Excel.

The way I viewed the file was to right-click on the link and save the file to my hard disk, then start Excel and open the saved file.

hooray!
the 21st century... everything is so shiny and beautiful!

Excellent map, very interesting. Although I believe if I was counting switchbacks when I was up there last week I would have gone crazy. As it was, having long since lost count, I slipped into an altered state of conciousness... my breathing was timed to my pulse and my steps were timed to my breathing, sweat dripped off my skin in tempos synchronized to ageless circadian rhythms... the moment crystallized and suddenly the world made sense... the popularity of pickles, why women's buttons are on the other side of their shirts, paper versus plastic, George W... it all became clear.
Great map, great hike.

Womens buttons are on the other side of their shirts?Where have I been?Oh yea,the map is great too!Seems to me when I went up a few weeks ago I counted 400 switchbacks.Maybe it just felt that way

Sierra Sam, I just finished transferring the way-points from my GPS to TOPO! from my recent trek up the MR. I discovered that I was not able to map the Ebersbacher Ledges, because, being so close to the walls of the ledges, I was only able to acquire one or two satellites. Therefore, no GPS map! You need at least three satellites to make a horizontal map. Maybe someone else can find the time to be at the Ledges or up in the Couloir, Notch, or top chutes when at least three satellites can be acquired. Easier said than done!

Wayne,

Wonderful job,it's very impressive.

What exactly is "cables" between SB 45 and SB 46 mean? How wide is the trail on this part the Whitney Trail?

That is an amazing job with the map of the switchbacks! It makes me even more pumped up for my trip this August.

For those who were having difficulty with the excel file I posted the same map as a jpeg here:

http://wiggin.rice.edu/~jeff/whitney

-end

ah wilderness