Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Weather at Trail Camp

Hello all... going to try for the summit August 5, but will camp at trail camp August 4. There are alot of different report regarding the temps we can expect there at night. Any thoughts/ advice? Thanks!

There are lots of reports because the weather varies widely from day to day. It could rain, snow or be clear and it could be in the 30's or 40's or 50's or even (rarely) 60's at night. What I would expect on an 'average' summer night (and be prepared for it to be different) is high 70's to low 80's in the day with late afternoon/early evening rain or thunderstorms going down to 40's at night.

... the good folks at REI sold me a 20 degree sack and I'm a little shaky hauling that up there and sweating to death - if it's even in the high 30's I think I'll go back for a 30 degree bag. That would save me about 14 oz. and 75 bucks...

A 20 degree sack isn't a bad idea. Even if the temp is 40 degrees, there is often wind at Trail camp that can lower the perceived temp considerably. I find that if I'm too hot in my 20 deg bag, I upzip it (filet style) and use it as a blanket. I've found that Trail Camp is a guessing game. It's hard enough to sleep well at 12,000 ft. You don't want to make it worse by freezing your *** off.

Have a great hike,
...tg...

I own a 15º F bag and there are some nights during August where you will be glad you had the extra 5ºs, one night last August near Trail Crest it was closer to 20 than 30 where I was camped.

BTW, the 20º F you not keep you warm even at 30º F. A lot depends on how warm you sleep and how much fiction is built into the bag's rating.

Bill

dude , there is no way to get warmer with a 30 degree bag, however you can always cool off with a warmer one

I was at Trail Camp both July 15th and 16th. It was very windy but clear on the 15th and that appeared to chill things down. But it hailed and rained on the evening of the 16th. So anything goes.

As someone else said, you can cool off if the bag is too warm but will have trouble adding warmth if you are chilled. And another was right - I don't think that I slept at all that first night - wind noise and elevation insomnia. Might was well be comfortable.

I slept reasonably well on the 16th after some tylenol caps.

I lightened my load by skipping the filter and using iodine tabs for water treatment, using a foam pad instead of thermarest (I'm comfortable on less padding generally) and paring food items to calorie laden.

Have a great trip.