Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mt. Whitney Meets the Smog Monster, 17 August

Taken from the ranger station in the morning:



I had planned to only climb the south face route of Wotan’s Throne, so didn’t get a particularly early start from the Portal (9:15 AM). But I managed Trail Camp in pretty good time, so decided on the spur-of-the-moment to shoot for Mt. Whitney.

I was a little concerned about having enough water for the summit and back, since I had brought only one canteen for Wotan’s Throne. However, I got a good drink at the 12,400’ spring on the switchbacks, filled my canteen, and even managed to arrive back there almost five hours later with a few tablespoons to spare. By the way, the spring was flowing like a banshee, and the snow source for it is still plentiful. So I predict it will be a nice place to get water well into September—except of course when it freezes from the lowering nighttime temperatures.

I was apparently the last one to summit yesterday, and almost made it back down before dark. Had to turn my headlamp on about 15 minutes from the Portal.

The lower elevations were pretty smoky from the Zaca fire, but above ~10,000’ it was reasonably clear. Later in the day, the smoke shifted more to the south, making it nice in the Whitney area.

Pictures here .

"Not bad for a septuagenarian with heart problems"
That's a respectable time for any kind of genarian! I think you've exceeded the point of diminishing returns and your times have begun to regress. Nice work.
Last weekend we noticed a lot of smoke in the valley looking from University Peak. Then the next day, clear as a bell from Thor. I guess the wind changed.

On August 11, I also noticed smoke over the Owens Valley while coming down the main trail. The Zaca fire has now been burning for six weeks. Everyday we see the smoke here in Bakersfield. Yesterday it was so bad it kind of resembled some weird nuclear winter scene. Some days are worse than others. A sad thing is that to those who enjoy hiking HPS peaks in the Los Padres National forest area such as myself and Rick Kent, this fire has now forced a closure of this area and has more than likely burned some of those HPS peaks. It's predicted that it will be fully contained by September 7. Although contained it will probably burn until it either rains or snow, not unlike last year's Day fire which was East of the present Zaca fire.

Rafael...

I was just looking at a map of the burn zone a couple days ago. It would appear that the HPS Big 3 (McKinley, San Rafael, Santa Cruz) and HPS Big 4 (Big Pine, West Big Pine, Madulce, Samon) peaks are well inside the zone. While I don't mind seeing brush infested peaks being cleaned off (noteably Santa Cruz Peak) there was an area of nice forest in the region of Big Pine Mountain. I sure hope some of that forest survives. It was a nice secluded place. I'm saddened to think of the devastation and what has been lost. This area has (or had) a significant bear population. This can't be good for them. I believe the burn zone also includes condor habitat/sanctuary.

-Rick

Rick,
I'm in agreement over the comment of the brush being cleared. I guess one has to look at the upside to any tragedy. I believe that last year's Day fire cleared San Rafael Peak. San Rafael mountain seems to be on the edge of the present Zaca fire from what I could gather. Both summits are on my future plans. No dates in mind yet. Caliente peak for sure in the Spring of 2008. Hopefully I'll catch it with wildflowers.

Rafael...

Smog Monster nearly spoiled my birthday (47 year old) roundtrip run on Whitney on Aug-17. Starting a little before 7am, the first few miles were not very enjoyable since I am very sensitive to smog. Effects seemed to abate after 4 miles or so. Coming back down the final few miles around noon were OK.--AdamR

Real bad air quality goes up the Owens Valley beyond Bishop.I spent the weekend on Bishop Creek and you climbed up out of it around 7000".On the way home this morning you couldn't see the White Mountains from downtown Bishop.Fishing sucked too.

Thor

Bob, your picture with the "interesting lighting" - looking back down the needles toward Discovery Pinnacle - is the new background image on my computer. I've taken the same shot numerous times, but it never came out so well.

Augh!!! This smoked up air reminds me of LA...and why I bailed out of there; the smog was like this daily. The Zaca fire has given us terrible air quality, from Big Pine to Chalfant Valley. In Chalfant, we could actually smell the smoke for several hours this morning. First time Owens Valley visitors, it usually ain't like this!!! Skies are usually crystal clear thanks to the wind.

I just got back from the Yellowstone backcountry and was amazed at the large number of significant fires burning all the way between California and Wyoming - much of the way it looked like Bob's picture in the first post. Unfortunately we are now paying the price for some well intended but wrong environmental protection of our forests. Over 25% of Yellowstone has burned to the ground in the last several years. The are several areas where you can hike in the backcountry for many hours and see only burned trees - it will be 25+ years before there are forests there again, and then only if we become smarter about managing our natural resources.

I took a friend who is a White Mtn newbie to the Whites on Aug. 15. She has severe allergies to the smoke of the fires. She was suffering until we hit the 11,000' level and then finally we were in clean air.

At dawn the smoke was so bad you couldn't tell the High Sierra range even existed. Smoke had also oozed into the eastern desert for a long, long ways. Some hikers came all the way from Texas and some others from way doen in San Diego. I felt sorry they were going to summit and not see a darn thing. Is the smoke still having an affect on visibility around Whitney?

Driving through Lone Pine at 10 am Sat 8/18, all I could see was Alabama Hills and not much of them. Whitney was nowhere.
Any better yet?

The Zaca fire started on July 4th. (metal grinder) and has been burning ever since. This morning it was reported to have burned nearly 200,000 acres and may be the largest California fire ever. Their containment figures of September have been in place for over a week and that was before some significant additional areas were burned. But I suppose having it bounded by the pacific ocean on one side helps them with their containment (cynicism).

The ash and smoke have been dropping here since it started, depending on the winds. Everyday at midmorning the 5-8 water tankers start taking off from the Santa Maria airport and fly continuously until dusk. I don't normally get air traffic over my house but the tankers cut fast and quick right over my house taking a direct line to the fire.

Air Quality here varies with the time of day as we get on/off shore air flows, but viewing the meteor showers was a non event and the local Coastal Range is barely visable with the same effect everyone sees East of us. Sorry about that.

There is some significant backcountry burning but very few buildings of any kind. They initially put significant efforts into protecting the West and South fire lines due to the encroachment towards the Santa Ynez communities. However, their attention was based on some assumptions that it would not burn East into the wilderness until they had time to finish containment. A lot of what has burned has been brush/grass like the Independence fire, but the recent explosion of size has come to the expense of more forested areas (pine/oak).

Joe

I drove to Bishop on Friday afternoon, returned to SoCal Sunday morning. Couldn't see the Sierras or the Whites from Inyokern until Olancha, and Whitney was in the haze at 4pm Friday. Cleared up later, and Saturday up near Sabrina was good. Sunday morning stopped in Independence about 0930 and the smoke smell was very strong, with smoke beginning to obscure the mountains.