Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Hiking and Skiing on the North Fork on March 12th

I'm planning a long day hike and skiing adventure on March 12th. I would like to get as high as possible on the North Fork route and then ski down as much as I can. I'm hoping to at least get to LBSL; anything more would be a bonus. To accomplish this goal I plan to drive up as high as possible on the Portal Rd. and start hiking at approximately 5:00 AM so that I can get to the Portal at a little after dawn.

I have a number of questions:
1) Has anyone been up the MR route lately? What are current conditions like?
2) Is the valley below LBSL skiiable like after the storms in January? I expect the snow to be crusty, but I assume it will soften up later in the day. Are any bush tops showing?
3) What is the avalanche potential at this time of year? I've seen some of Bob R's data but I cannot recall under what conditions the avalanches occurred.
4) Will snowshoes suffice or should I carry crampons and an ice axe?
5) How far can I reasonably expect to make it given that I will be carrying downhill skis and boots along with a day pack?

I've read on another thread that Matthew Du Puy expects to hike up the MR on March 12th. Are any others also going on that day? Any day skiers?

Hi WhitWalker,
I was up there on 2/18 - 2/19 and took some pictures:
<a href="http://community.webshots.com/album/281085329xsWbxU">http://community.webshots.com/album/281085329xsWbxU</a>

I think the valley below LBSL is very skiiable, in fact the powder was so deep when I was there that heading uphill was a very slow process. Crampons would be more helpful in the area next to the EB ledges than snowshoes imho. That creek gully was just steep enough to make my MSR snowshoes flounder around in the powder and I had to start breaking trail in a switchback pattern to make upward progress. I would imagine it has consolidated at least a little since then. Sounds like a great trip idea, have a blast.

Aardvark just posted a message about MR conditions on Mar 5. We were ascending that day and saw several people who had camped at Iceberg Lake but just came straight down due to whiteout conditions. Our group went from the road closure at 6:30am to Iceberg at around 4, with overnight packs, so even with skis you should be able to get quite far in a day. We used snowshoes the whole way above the portal (until right below Iceberg, where there's a short steeper section). A total of 10 folks were camped there Sat night, and we all headed up the MR the next morning (beautiful sunny day). Nine of us turned around at the notch (at various times) due to high winds in the chute. One brave guy made it up and down (the hard part!) the chute. The snow was generally soft rather than crusty along the whole trail, and should be good for skiing -- though I'm pretty ignorant along those lines. Good luck, stay safe, and have fun!

We are too...I'll be the one on tele skis and my buddy will be on a splitboard.

We're hoping to summit, so we'll be making a good alpine start to start the adventure...if you have a walkie talkie we'll be on channel 7-27...

My group of 2 or 3 will be heading up to UBSL on the 12th too and summiting Sunday. I made LBSL solo back in January and the snow was deep enough to ski then, I'm sure it is plenty deep now. Check out <a href="http://client.webshots.com/album/290536282LUaaxP">these guy</a>. They summited in Feb with splitboards and have great photos! See ya'll up there. I'll be carrying the orange Gregory pack.