Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Winter Access Forum Winter camping at the portal....

A friend and I are trying to plan a winter camping trip. We are thinking about Whitney Portal campsites. Are they open all year? We've never really done any winter camping/climbing, so were looking for a fun place to do both. We wouldnt go any higher than Lone Pine Lake with our lack of experience. But we would like to find places to practice snowshoes and crampons. Thanks for your input!!

If you are flexible, wait for a big dump that buries the road all the way down to the desert floor. The road up is a fun XC/AT-Tele/Snowshoe trip. You can then continue on past the Portal as far as you want.

Several of the bathrooms up at the Portal are left open. You will need to bring your own TP. (You'll be lucky if there's any left in the dispensers.)

A common place to camp is the Patio area outside of the WPS. Make sure you bring a shovel to clear an area for your tent. The stream right next to it is a good source for water (in most cases).

In a light snow year, like last, you can drive up to the Portal almost all winter long. If so, none of the above applies.

I have a 4wd. How far up can one expect to go most of the time?? Wed like to Drive up as high as we can and snowshoe up to Lone Pine Lake to camp. Coming from the desert floor would add quite a distance to the climb. Im assuming we can self issue permits at the Interagency center in Lone Pine.

The Meysan Lake Trailhead parking area is the spot that you can usually drive to during the winter (assuming it hasn't snowed heavily recently). With 4WD, you can usually push a little higher. You'll often see tracks from the "monster" trucks that drive all the way up to the Portal.

The Visitor's Center is open year-round now, so you'll need to go there for an overnight permit.

In winter you can basically camp anywhere you want (as long as the area is safe and you would not destroy environment). Practicing snowshoes and crampons depends on the snow amount and its quality; therefore, it may or may not be a good exercise. Due to the same factors (and also depending on the car you would take) you may or may not get as far as Whitney Portal.

Practicing snowshoes is the best in fresh, soft, powdered and deep snow which you may hopefully get in the incoming winter. Practicing crampons requires the opposite conditions--firmed to icy snow and preferably steeper slopes. Of course, you can use them in not very suitable environment, but then again the exercise would not provide much benefits.

However, the most important factor in winter adventures is weather. Make sure you not only know the current forecast but also the exact meaning to you and your experience.

There are many pictures and links on this forum that you can explore the conditions of this route and plan your trip accordingly. Come back just a few weeks before your trip and ask the same question to incorporate current snow conditions. For now check out a few pictures of this route I took over my previous winter trips to get the idea what to expect and where to camp.
01/13-15/2006
01/24-28/2004
01/10-13/2004
02/13-17/2003
A frozen creek at Whitney Portal


I am planning to do Whitney this winter as well (in January). I will be shooting video which I will post at YouTube for a public access. So far I've posted several videos from Mt Shasta. http://www.worldofadventures.com/marcus/videos.htm Climbers in the videos are usually inexperienced or with limited mountaineering experience. Hopefully prospective mountaineers would learn something about the specific route and various conditions as well as the mountaineering environment in general before undertaking the challenge.

If you feel like you would like to climb MT or MR with us (from BA) this winter, send me an email. The time spent in the mountains may be 3 to 5 days, depending on the conditions. Summit is not guaranteed, however. To be clear, I am not a commercial guide, I am just a passionate mountaineer.