Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Can we rent crampons and ice axes

Hi there,

We have a permit for dayhike June 26 starting from the Portal. All of us are first timers. I have two questions for the experts here:

1. Do you think we need to have crampons and ice axes for this end of June hike?

2. Can we rent them at nearby place or somewhere in the Bay Area? We're coming from Bay Area.

Thanks!

I spoke to the folks at whitney portal store about this the other day and they said two things.
1 They don't rent them but think that Lone Pine Sporting Goods might
2 The reason they don't rent them is because they say they are only any good/ safe if you have experience using them

Somebody just asked the same question on May 13 in <A href="http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002992">Gear rental in Lone Pine area</A>. Here is the link that I gave to a previous post on <A href="http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002897">LPSG</A>. You may also want to read the recent post related to taking a snow skills class embedded in <A href="http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=003020">Crampons in Early June</A>

Thanks VersatileFred! This is helpful.

I tried the Long Pine number but it didn't work. (Message saying this phone number is out of service) Will send an email.

I looked up the number on switchboard.com and the phone exchange appears to be transposed (accidental dyslexia?). The number given online is (760) 876-5365. That should work since according to fonefinder.net the other exchange is for the El Centro area east of San Diego. Yes, 876 is a Lone Pine exchange. Even the original post in 2003 said that the original number did not work back then.

Rather than renting them in Lone Pine; rent them in Bishop at Wilson's Eastside Sporting Goods since you are coming from the Bay Area. They are geared to mountaineering much more than either of the store in Lone Pine.