Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board New extreme route up Whitney

For the extreme hikers in the group, here is a fascinating new route: L2H

The Lowest-to-Highest Trail (L2H) is a backcountry hiking route between Badwater and Mt. Whitney. Unlike the traditional "race route," the L2H avoids pavement and vehicle traffic as much as possible, in favor of a scenic, silent journey across the wilderness, as it seeks the soul of a rugged, often harsh, and ultimately beautiful land.

But the more distinguishing difference between the two routes is elevational: by seeking out an adventurous line of travel away from major roads the L2H features a total elevation gain more than double that of the highway route.

http://simblissity.net/L2H.shtml

Damn you, Ken! :-)

I don't know what the chances are that I'll ever get around to doing it, but I did mark the page, download the tpo file, and generally get sucked in to the concept.

If Eric finds out about this, I'm dead.

My sentiments exactly. All I needed was another challenging hike on my to do list.

Somebody get me a DOCTOR! I think a shuttle from Badwater to Whitney Portal counts as L2H! Anyhow, this looks brutal! Hmmm...

Hey, Bob R, just go out to them thar places and hike them and then you can say "Been there, done that and I did it my way!" It will probably take me 3 to 4 years to do portions of it.

Let the WPS message board family not forget that today ( August 16, 2006 ) marks the 75th anniversary of the first ascent of another ( truly historic ) extreme route up Mt Whitney. ( Well, at least it was considered extreme on August 16, 1931.) Clyde, Dawson, Eichorn, and Underhill deserve remembrance by us today for their achievement on the East Face.

Best to you all, Jim

Oh man, a new goal! I've done many portions of this trail, but not all in one go. What a beautiful route. I think I need to do the JMT first, though...

Yeah, great. Like Alan I downloaded the .tpo file and now my "must do" list weighs more than my pack.
(Thanks a lot...)

"Let the WPS message board family not forget that today ( August 16, 2006 ) marks the 75th anniversary of the first ascent of another ( truly historic ) extreme route up Mt Whitney. ( Well, at least it was considered extreme on August 16, 1931.) Clyde, Dawson, Eichorn, and Underhill deserve remembrance by us today for their achievement on the East Face."

Well actually, it only took them two hours and forty-five minutes to climb the route. Their disappointment with it's lack of extremeness was summed up by the nickname that Underhill gave the route: "The Big Bluff".

Wow, I didn't expect this response. But happy, as I think this sort of route is the epitome of a mountaineering route, somewhat like Ropers' Sierra High Route, the alternative to the JMT:

"The most spectacular long-distance mountain walk in North America is so little known that only a few hikers have made the trek in its entirety. During nearly 200 miles the backpacker will cross only one road, see only a few buildings, and walk on established trails less than half the time."

http://gorp.away.com/gorp/location/ca/roper_highsierra.htm

Last summer, I mentioned the SHR to chief rangers whose forests the SHR traverses, and they'd never heard of it.

It is nice to think that another such remarkable trail joins the High Route.

I had the great pleasure, 1-1/2 years ago, to hear Glen Dawson (91 then), the only survivor of the East Face climb, give a slide show, which was very memorable. One thing that emerged, was that he was one of the original members of the famed 10th Mountain Division, of WWII....who originated yet ANOTHER remarkable route, the "Trooper Traverse", a 40 mile winter route in Colorado:

"the troopers skied the 40-mile journey across three high passes in three days in mid-February with 60-pound packs"

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_3876687