Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board TR : HSM to Whitney Portal July 8-13, 2007

Mt. Whitney - Mt. Langley: July 8-12, 2007

It took me over a week to get my thoughts and pictures together of a wonderful trip we took recently in the wilderness surrounding Mt. Whitney.



I couldn't have asked for a better scenario- great weather, great scenery and great hiking companions, especially my two sons who have been on every Whitney expedition I've been on since 1997. (this was my 3rd time on top of Mt. Whitney!) They still like to hike with the "old man" even though they are 24 & 19. I love those guys!

We started our trip from SoCal on Saturday, July 7th and were promptly greeted with the closure of 395 in Lone Pine because of the fire above Independence. Bummer! Lots of trucks, firefighters and equipment racing through the town that day!

We set off from HSM on Sunday, July 8th after camping overnight to gain some altitude adjustments. (I should note that we had ash from the fire blowing on us all night- the winds shifted and we woke up to a dusting of white ash and the smell of smoke...quite unfortunate and really sad). We reached Long Lake by afternoon and set up camp.

Monday, July 9th took us over NAP and down into the Rock Creek area. We camped at a meadow and small lake with a new Bear Box and didn't see a soul all day! I decided to attempt a solo climb of Mt. Langley along the way (since it was so close!) and summited in the late afternoon. I was able to get this shot of Mt. Whitney from the summit:



Tuesday, July 10th and Wednesday, July 11th took us to a camp at Guyot Creek and a Tarn above Guitar Lake respectively. The weather gave us a few sprinkles at night but nothing like in 2003 when we were greeted every day with rain and wind along the way! Guitar Lake was noteworthy in the respect that there was little to no wind and quite warm temps at night...quite unusual from the other two times I've been there.

Thursday, July 12th was summit day and it was nearly perfect...just a few wisps of clouds to make a perfect Kodak moment on each shot taken! Our group split up at Trail Camp- my sons and I decided at 6pm to hike to the Portal making it a very long day! (15 miles- got out at 9:40pm with a lamp!) Two others spent the night there and came out the next day. We met them at 2:30 for one of Doug's famous cheeseburgers which they devoured in minutes!


Reflections of the trip

• What Worked:
  
  1. Jet Boil Stove- This REALLY worked well at altitude and got us hot water quickly. My other MSR stove didn't perform as well.
  
  2. Pacific Outdoor Equipment ECO Thermo 6 Sleeping Pad- This was amazing for comfort and really lightened my load up the mountain!
  
  3. Osprey Aether 70 Mountaineering Light Backpack- I really loved the custom fit of the waist belt which I had custom molded at the A-16 in Torrance. The pack was smaller that my previous one from REI but that just forced me to carry less!

• What didn't:
  
  1. Steripen- Although it worked fine for the first 4 days of the trip (I really loved not having to pump water!), it stopped working at Guitar Lake and of course I didn't have any replacement batteries to make it work! (My friend had a pump to get us out of a jam!)
  
  2. Jet Boil fuel cannisters- I totally miscalculated the number I needed for the trip! We ended up hiking out a day early due to lack of fuel to boil water!
  
  3. Miscalculation of H2O- I totally underestimated my water requirements on my solo up Mt. Langley and my summit day up Mt. Whitney from Guitar Lake. The later was the worst and I was scrambling for water from the mountain spring on the switchbacks! (great water BTW!)
  
  4. Mt. Muir- I had originally planned on attempting to climb this peak on my way down from Whitney and had even received great advice from Bob R. and Kashcraft on this board but due to lack of water and the heat I decided to come back another day and try again!

Personal Rant-
We had shuttled our cars from the Portal to HSM and when I went to retrieve our ice chest from the Bear Box and it was GONE! I guess I was just a little too naive to think that anyone would do such a thing. I don't mind if someone wants to move my chest out to make more room for their stuff but to just steal someone's equipment is just totally unacceptable. Just beware that even in this community of hiker's there are thief's too!

I also had the chance to meet up with Sierra Snail (Richard) and Moose Tracks (Laura). You both were so nice to finally talk to and chat with! Good luck Laura on that 130 mile solo hike in August! WOW! I still can't believe you are going to carry all that food up over Trail Crest! Richard- I'll be watching for more of your TR's and pictures which are always fun to read and look at.
Pictures
(Yea, I know there are a lot of them to look at but Rick Kent takes that many in a DAY hike!)

Sitting at work on a Saturday watching the slide show of your trip and thoroughly enjoyed all of pictures (viewed every picture). Great shots!!! Loved the group shots....adds a nice touch to the slide show. It took me a while to figure who was who, and who was taking the shots. Your group looked like a fun group to be with.

Thanks again for sharing.

Quick question: I normally camp farther up in the tarns then you did above Guitar. Do you happen to remember seeing a small stream, maybe a foot wide still flowing (there would have been rock walls, and camp sites near by)? Just asking since I'll be there around August 4th (Onion to Whitney) and I always get my water there.

Paul

I have an Adventurer Steripen (which I love). It has a battery recharger you can purchase separately and it only requires 2 batteries unlike the original that requires 4.

Sounds like you had an awesome trip. It is great that your 2 sons enjoy hiking with you. Thanks for the TR and photos!

MC

Paul,

I do remember a very small stream further up. It was running pretty slow like a lot of the streams this year (lack of snow to feed them). If your lucky maybe it will still be there. I did get water from the mountain spring at the rock wall further up the trail but it was difficult because it wasn't running very well...Good luck on your trip! Thanks for the nice comments on my pics. I do like to take them even though I overdo it sometimes!

Your trip report and photos capture the essence of what we all love about a trip to Mt. Whitney. They were great. Thanks for sharing.

Great trip and great photos.
This is pretty much the trip I am doing in late September. Did you all do four nights and five days? Is it possible to do it in three nights and four days, or do you think that is pushing it too much? I fear I may have to cut Langley if time becomes an issue. (Thanks for your Langley photo to my earlier thread.)
Hans

Hans,

Thanks for the kind words. Four of us did 4 nights and 5 days while JR and Trey (father & son) needed to spend one extra night at Trail Camp and came out on day 6. You would need to move it along to do it in 3 nights (Long Lake, Guyot Creek and Tarn above Guitar Lake) and 4 days but it is possible- just long hiking days. If you throw in Langley it might not be possible. Just m2c! Have a great trip. Great time of the year to go although water supply might be an issue. (creeks were already low or non-existent in early July)

Paul,

I finished some panoramic photos and uploaded them tonight. Check out this one:



It may show the area your were interested in getting your water from. (There was some water flowing down the rocks to the right of our camp- you can go to my website and enlarge the picture and see your particular camp area) Hope this helps!

drhabes,

Outstanding photos. Thanks for sharing.

You have the only photo I've seen so far on the board that captures Mount Pinos (8,831 ft.) in the Las Padres National Forest, 131 miles away! It is in your panorama on the first page that you title: "View North from the top of Mt. Whitney--July 12, 2007." Mt. Pinos is in the left third of the picture (over Mt. Anna Mills). The mountains in the background thru a v-cut is where Mt. Pinos can be seen.

I have a database that shows all the moutains that can be theoretically seen from Mt. Whitney, but Mt. Pinos has been one of the few that has eluded me and my calculations. Thanks to you, drhabes, we now have proof that Mt. Pinos can indeed be viewed from Mt. Whitney, and vice versa, in the right conditions, of course. And you managed to take your photo at the right time! Congratulations and thank you very much.

By the way, you caption the photo as a view north, but the pano spans 220 degrees, from Langley in the southeast to White Mountain Peak in the far north. Well done!

So great to finally meet you and your sons at the WPS! Congrats on your loop: was your wife too upset about the cookware?? Great photos, too.

I can't wait to head out, although I am a bit concerned about my first day. Oh well, just my usualy attitude of "put your head down and move!" Hopefully an early start will motivate me!

The best part is, when I did the MMWT for the first time last year, my pack was just as heavy, but for only 2 nights! Now it's the same weight (well, maybe a shade heavier!) for 12! I think I'm getting better!

All the best, and see you out there!

-L

Laura- Thanks for the nice comments. Yea, I had to smooth things over with my wife about the lost pans. I need to replace them ASAP! Good luck again on that hike! Take LOTS of pics! It should be an adventure of a lifetime.

Wayne- WOW! I'm stunned that I actually took a picture from the top that captures a mountain 131 miles away! I'm still having trouble finding it however on my panorama. I took this slice out of it and posted it here:



Is this the right spot?? Just curious. Let me know. Thanks.

You're close. It's the highest one to the right of the arrow in the background. Tha't a nice photo!

Thanks Wayne,

I've adjusted per you recommendations to this photo arrow:



I think this is what you are looking at as Mt. Pinos. I still can't get over that it is 131 miles away! Thanks for your help. I would really like to mark all the peaks in my photo but am unsure how to go about doing it. Any advice??

First of all, you need to know the spot where the photo was taken. Once you know that, you can use a map program, such as National Geographics Topo! to draw lines onscreen to determine directions. Or, I could provide you computer-generated listings showing all the named mountains and their compass directions from any spot. This is a fun hobby of mine, and I would be happy to give you listings.

What you would need to do is measure the width of your photos and convert your measurements into degrees. I use Microsoft Photo which gives its own measurements vertically and horizontally, then, using proportions, I convert the measurements to degrees. You determine the proportions by measuring from known peaks to known peaks. (In your Mt. Whitney pano, I chose Mt. McAdie and Sawtooth Peak, as well as Thunder Mountain for measurements, which I converted to compass degrees.)

When you've converted your measurements to degrees, then it is a simple matter of matching the degrees to the mountains in the listing.

It can be time-consuming and painstaking, but the reward is identifying all the mountains you want to ID.

You can email me if you would like listings for any specific photo spots. I've posted a listing in the past on this board showing 100 peaks that can be seen from Mt. Whitney. I think you could do a search on "100 Peaks" and find the link.