Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mount Whitney Trail Hike Pictures 9-22-07

My wife and I hiked up to trail camp last Saturday morning. The conditions were challenging to say the least as there was rain at the lower elevations, snow on the trail below Lone Pine Lake, heavy snowfall near Outpost Camp, and 6-12 inches of fresh snow on the trail above Mirror Lake.

We left at 1:00 A.M. in hopes of making it to the summit and back in one day, but had trouble finding the trail in the snow at times. 2 hours into the hike (3:00 A.M.), we ran into a couple who were descending! down the trail and repeatedly advised "Don't Go!". They indicated that they had to sleep in the open for some time that night and that the conditons up higher on the trail were "terrible". This was very concerning for us but we forged on.

The snowfall was very heavy at times and we had to sit under a rock outcropping for about 30 minutes at one point until the weather cleared somewhat. Beyond Outpost Camp, a lone hiker ascending the trail, who told us he had hiked to the summit 4 times this year, passed us and advised that he would lead us through the snow. About 15 minutes later he had turned it around and indicated that the conditions were a little too dangerous to proceed. He was concerned about the possibility of white out conditions occurring.

We slowly continued on and then stopped to contemplate going any further. The gentlemen who had turned it around then reappeared with 2 friends and the group of 3 advised that we should follow their path and so we did. We followed them to Trail Camp and did not proceed any further. The group of 3 made it to the cables on the switchbacks and then turned around for good. We met them later down at the trailhead and they indicated that the snow at the cables was waist high and that there was ice under all of that snow so they did not go any further.

The experience overall was great considering the adverse conditions and we felt that we had gone about as far as we could safely go. We met a lot of nice people along the trail and will defintely be back next year when the weather and trail conditions are more favorable. Pictures are below.

http://www.flickr.com/gp/14182982@N03/at57Sf

sunrise pictures were awesome - what a difference a day can make in the mountains - thanks for the report

UN-believably gorgeous! Talk about being in the right place at the right time!

Thanks for posting those! That's my favorite tree in the first one!

-L

Great pics....sorry you did not make it but you sure gave it a go

Were you wearing Crampons?

Spectacular shots!!! A few look surreal almost like paintings.Natures paintbrush can't be equaled.

Hi anacapabandit,

We did not have crampons and did not need them that night/day as there was not much ice on the way up to trail camp, just lots of fresh snow. As the other hikers ahead of us reported though, there was deep snow and ice at the cables.