We are climbing in July and want to do the mountaineer's route. Our plan was to pre-hike the day before to help acclimatize and to get a feel for what we are in for. I thought the ledges would be a good warm up. Does anyone know how far the E Ledges are from the Portal. Should we go farther to Lower Boyscout lake? How far is that? Distance will be fine. I know it is steep.
If time permits, I'd make the first day warm-up worth the effort and go for LBSL. While I don't know the exact mileage from the ledges to LBSL, it's not all that much farther.
from the ledges to lower boy scout it is approx .75 miles. i don't recommend doing this as a warm up. save your energy for the climb. to the ledges and maybe up the ledges is a good enough warm up . trying to acclimate from the parking lot at 8000ft and lower boyscout at about 9000 or 9500 or whatever it is not going to make any difference in this amount of time. have a fun trip.