Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Three-Six-Nine Was Mighty Fine - Thor Peak

It was COLD! And a little breezy, but there's still so little snow that it wasn't too much of a challenge.

The NF is deteriorating rapidly, but was a straight-forward climb with only a little bushwhacking.

For those with an interest in skiing: Trail Crest looks like a go. A couloir "north" of Mt. Marsh that I've had an eye on for a few years looks like a go. The slopes above LBSL on the Secret Route had some nice wind-blown powder, but I couldn't see carrying skis for only a few hundred feet of skiing. The summit slopes of Thor seemed to be way too thin to ski. I didn't have a look at the "east" couloirs. Mirror Lake access (they way I had been planning on going down) seemed too thin, so I backtracked home. The northeast couloir of Langley looks to have enough snow to ski.

Steve: can I get access to the webcam photos from yesterday? I was climbing for eight minutes and then striking a pose for two minutes as I was heading for the summit.

Lots of photos: http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/gallery/7531987_vxw8d

I only keep the 320x240 pictures around, and then only for a day. You can check this webpage.

Joel Baldwin is storing the 640x480 pics on his site.

Next time you head out on a weekday, let me know and I will personally save the full-size shots.

Richard, I think I know the "north of Marsh" couloir that you are talking about, but I believe that I've read of people descending that, only to have it turn into an epic, due to cliffs not visble from above or below, only when you are in it.

Here are two reports of descent this way:

http://climber.org/TripReports/2003/1164.html
http://www.snwburd.com/bob/trip_reports/hitchcock_1.html

Great Shots! Love that one of Owens Valley at sunrise!

Andy

Thanks.

Ken, I wouldn't ski it if I couldn't climb it (easily). Interesting reading the TRs. One of these days, I'll wander over Consultation Lake and have a closer look.

Richard,

Great photos! It is one thing to read trip reports but another to see the conditions in pictorial format.

How was the snowpack up there? Any chance you dug a pit to assess the stability of the snowpack?

We are planning a trip this weekend up the MR and are considering skinning up and skiing down (at least to Iceberg Lake if not the notch above it). Would you recommend skis given the current conditions?

There's a paper by Bob R that discusses the areas in the Whitney Zone that have a tendency to slide. I watch what's happening when travelling thru these areas. Never dug a pit there.

When I was heading up the Secret Route, I did have some concern because of the variable nature of the snow, but it really wasn't deep enough for me to worry about a slide on the slope.

Concerning skiing: I don't think there's enough snow below LBSL to ski. I couldn't tell you about higher up on the NF because I wasn't looking at it in those terms. I can tell you that the three people I saw heading up towards Iceburg were not moving very fast and appeared to be breaking trail. (My guess is that the wind covered any tracks that existed previous to their arrival.) GigaMike sent me a link to a photo album from a climb up the MR about 10 days ago. The Final 400 looked very thin in the few photos that I've had a chance to look at. I'm guessing that the couloir above Iceburg probably is wind-blown crust.

If I were going up, I don't think I'd bother with skis on the NF side, because I want the skiing to be fun.

The Main Trail side of the mountain did look interesting to me and I'm going to have a closer look at that side of the mountain this weekend. (No intention of heading for the summit.)

Talked to my friend Deb who was guiding a trip up the MR last weekend, who was probably the group of 3 that Richard saw. She said her pits showed a few strong layers over top of a very weak layer, dug around 12K I think. No major loading at that point, and she said up around Iceberg it turned into a really deep slog, hence the slow movement. They were all taking turns and getting worked. They turned above Iceberg due to the sloggy conditions (OK, she said chest deep on her, and she's petite, maybe 5'4"?, and NOT prone to exaggeration), and they knew they weren't going to make the summit anyway, despite their strength.

Perhaps she gave Kurt a bit more detailed description: maybe try calling SMI to get deets.

-L

The three people that I saw above UBSL were the same three guys I passed (they were taking a break) near the first stream crossing at about 9200'.

Now that I've read your post, I do remember hearing a woman's voice in the vicinity of LBSL. I spent a few minutes looking for the body that went with the voice, but never saw her. Perhaps they made it up to Iceberg while I was climbing to the summit of Thor, but from the look of the terrain, there didn't seem to be any tracks in front of the three guys.

Every time I read these reports about how deep the snow is, I start thinking that I must be lighter than my scale is showing. I've yet to find anything deeper than waist deep this season.

Ken, I climbed up to the base of the couloir:





The second photo from a few feet up into the couloir makes it look like it isn't that steep, but it's an optical illusion. The top is unbelievably steep, so I ain't going up there with skis. About a third of the way down, there appears to be a dip that can be avoided by staying to skiers left. It empties out right onto Consultation Lake.

Maybe Bullett or Andy?

On another note: the exposure to sun makes me think that this thing could slide all at once sometime in Spring as it turns to slush.

On another note 2: first time I've walked across Consultation Lake. Cool!!!!!

On another note 3: there is another couloir slightly right of this that I climbed this morning. Super fun stuff (Steep!). Led right up to within a few feet of Trail Camp. Nice safe runout right onto the lake if I had lost it on the way up. (Bob Burd's description: "I was happy to find that the route through the cliff was not a dead end, and though it was a bit spicy in places, it felt pretty safe and was even a good deal of fun. Once above the cliff, it was an easy matter of a few ups and downs across the broken plateau heading north until I reached the Whitney Trail just below Trail Camp.")

Wow, I would have thought from the photo that the chute was a perfect and great climb. Shows how photos can deceive (but we've learned that on another thread!)

Thanks!

Ken, I do think it would be a fun climb, but the conditions would have to be right. It was way too hot to think about heading up yesterday.

An alpine start and a long hard look at the map to find out whether you could exit to the west and cross back over to Trail Crest is what I have in mind.

We need to get Doug, Bob, Wayne, or any other Whitney expert in on this conversation.

I looked at the map, remembering that Mike had mentioned that he thought we were looking at Whitney Pass, and sure enough, it is Whitney Pass at the top of that couloir.

Secor says it's Class 1-2 (LOL) and that the Main Trail used to cross it. I don't ever recall seeing remnants of trail up in that area, but if so, it should make the crossing to the west side "fairly easy."

Actually, I think that is not Whitney Pass, which is located a short distance to the west, on the ridge. I believe that is the route that BobR took to climb Mt. Marsh, and there are remnants of the trail up to the ridge by that route. Don't know about the other side, in terms of trail. That must be in the vicinity of the dreaded sand hill.

I do recall reading someone's traverse of the ridge from the top of Whitney Pass to Trail Crest, and that it was pretty easy.

In your post 2029 above, the first photo, I think the pass is to the right of the jagged peaklet on the right side of the chute.
In your photo #48, magified to "original", it shows this slope on the upper left side of the photo, and I think I see some trail remnants. I believe that Bob had a very nice photo of this slope, clearly showing pieces of trail, post some time back.

So would Whitney Pass be the low point on the crest below the cloud?

So, I guess it's still a question mark in my mind.

The map that I looked at (based on Google Earth images) has me believing that what you have arrows pointing to is Whitney Pass. It is also the couloir that I climbed to the base of. My photo above is definitely not the same point on the crest.

I find it hard to believe that that terrain would be Class 1/2. I guess I have another reason to head up there and climb it.

Looking at your photo of the couloir shows that there was quite a bit less snow at the time it was taken.

It just seems like a odd place for the pass, but again this was before the hoards of people starting climbing Whitney. It would be cool if someone who knows the old trail going over Whitney Pass could draw it on a topo map. It would be interesting to see it.

btw, the picture was taken on our hike last November. I think that was the first time it really caught my attention with the snow on it.

Richard, I think the pass is actually to the west of all the spots marked in your photos, to the west of the couloir. In this photo,



It shows the couloir on the left, the slope Im talking about under the cliffs, and on top of the cliffs, the current Main Trail. In a further photo:
http://www.rickkent.net/ViewerPlus/viewphoto.aspx?ID=40630

Rick documented the old trail, closer than the current trail, that heads up directly from Trail Camp to the ridge, if I understand what I've seen correctly. On the Topo map, it would actually be where the "Forest Nat" is located, and the old trail went up next to the "Morraine" on that map.

I was thinking the topo map label of Whitney Pass might be slightly off. Thanks Ken!

Thanks, Steve!