Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Second Open-Gate Day White Mountain

The second open-gate day, where you can drive all the way to Barcroft Research Station, is scheduled for Sunday, 31 August 2008. This cuts 2 miles and about 800 vertical feet off the walk up White Mountain. If you haven't done it, I highly recommend the jaunt up at altitude.

-L

Sheesh, this could be possible depending on things!


But what shape is the road in between Bristlecone Pine and the gate? As I recall from a few years back, the shards of rock were all trying to bite my low-profile tires in my Outback (why design an ahem, all wheel drive OUTBACK (name) with such tires??). I was quite concerned about flats.

The drive back down through the slush was even more fun as you could not see the shardie-rocks!!!!

Another Outback I saw carried an extra full size spare on his roof rack.

When I drove up there a few weekends ago it was pretty much the same as you describe: dirt with lots and lots of sharp rocks. Just go slowly and carefully and I would think you'll be ok.

I was there on Sunday, 3rd, and made it fine with my 19" 255/50R19 all-season tires. However, I drove extremely s-l-o-w-l-y and drove around anything sharp I saw. Took a long time to go those 17 miles.

At the top I saw two people changing their tires: A Jeep Compass and a Volvo SUV. Didn't see anyone else with flats, or stuck on the side of the road, but then, wasn't there all day or anything.

Two Mercedes sedans passed us heading out while we were heading in, and a number of other non-4x4 cars were present in the parking lot. All the vehicles with true offroad tires were, of course, flying.

Interesting: We left around 5:30 (gate was to close @ 6:00), and awhile later 2/3 of the way down the road, an emergency vehicle (think it was fire) and an ambulance passed us heading inbound.