Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board First Timers on MR 3/30 thru 4/1

One SoCal and 3 SoConn climbers headed up the MR on Monday 3/30. Trail conditions were ideal with a herd path clearly visible all the way, in the snow. The ledges could be avoided, but with the meltout happening you should expect to use the ledges to exit up to LBSL. Water was flowing out of LBSL and should be available higher up by this coming weekend. Spent Monday night at UBSL with nighttime temps in the teens with winds into the 20+mph range. The NWS weather link off the Portal Board was spot on for the 3 days we were there! SoCal and this writer came down with mild AMS and Upper Respiratory infection respectively, so only 2 SoConn's made it up to summit on Tuesday. Round trip from UBSL was 10 hours for the 40 something climbers. Snow conditions were ideal with no protection or rope necessary; a comfort on exposed snow routes and good mountaineering axe skills were required. Learned that Mt W. is nothing more than a rock and sand pile that sends down lots of projectiles and doesn't make for comfortable handholds. WEAR A HELMET! Quick exit down on Wednesday morning with the next goal being the lowest points in the US - Badwater, Death Valley (-282') and Las Vegas ;-)
All our thanks to Doug Sr at the Hostel for letting us store our excess gear and the after climb showers.

PS: wear & bring sunscreen!!

If there's still snow on the south side route, I'd take it instead of the ledges. Whoever put that route up is a genius. It leads up to the plateau (nice camping spots) above LBSL that has some of the most fantastic views of Whitney and the surrounding crest. Breathtaking this morning!

Richard:

I've been up the North Fork trail many times, but never early enough for snow below LBSL. What can you tell me about the "south side route" you mentioned? Where does it start? When is it a better choice than the ledges? Thanks!

Bob

Have a look at my photo album from last weekend. When I sent David the link to my photos, his reply was that "you take a photo about every 50'.

About all I can say is that the route stays on the south side where past where you would normally head across to the E-ledges. Farther up, generally, you would tend toward the north side, but whoever put up the current route kept it well to the south side and it ends up on the plateau above, and south, of LBSL.

Again, it's easy to see what I'm talking about if you look at the photo album.