Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Looking for a very recent (3 days) Crampon Report

Hello All,

First time poster, long time hiker with crampons, axe, etc. June 24th day hike to the top. I'll bring them, but hoping to leave them in the car. Looking for up to date info.

Thanks,
Matt

Don't even think about no crampons or ice axe, we did the mountainers route, on Monday, and it snowed like crazy Tuesday night, plenty of snow at 12,500ft.

Duncan

Yes, we were up there with Duncan on Sunday - Tuesday. We would not have summited with out them, nor would we make it back down with out them.

However, I was talking to people on the summit who did the main trail and they said they barely used them.

do you have any pictures of the final 400 chute - I have not seen any pictures from within the last couple of weeks.

These were taken on Monday....we got to the notch at about 10 am, then summited, and returned to the notch about 2 or 3pm. It was snowing when we were down climbing. Visibility was poor. We took 1st chute on the way up and the 4th (I believe) on the way down. I would recommend staying away from the 4th. The only reason why we did it is because we saw more footprints that way. The cornice was even larger than the 1st chute and there was what I believe to be a break from an avalanche which you had to climb over. Scariest point in my life....

From the notch


First Chute


Coming back down

Thanks - that is what I was looking for

Those are unbelievable pictures for late June. We're taking the main trail. But the consensus is, we'll only need them for a very short stint or for some unforeseen change on the mountain.

Thanks,
Matt

We were the only 2 people on the summit who took the MR Route. Most of the Main trail people were surprised we walked up with the crampons on. I talked to one person in particular who said he only used them for short sections on the main trail.

Keep in mind Whitney did get fresh snow on Tuesday morning. It was snowing as low as 9500ft. I don't know how much the switchbacks got, but conditions may be even worse then they were. Bring them for sure. It will not hurt you to carry the extra lb.

When we got up from the Mountaineers Route it was 4pm, there was no one on the top, as we started to decend down the first chute we saw a solo hiker from the main trail. We glissaded down the first chute 30ft at a time roped up, then we glissaded all the way down to Iceberg Lake, stopping regularly to control speed as the snow was pretty hard that late in the day. To free glissade without attempting to slow down would have been suicidal.

Thanks for everyone's help. We started at 5am, finished at 7pm. 30 minutes at the top. We carried ice axe and crampons (June 23). Used the axes, not the crampons, although one easily could have.

Happy climbing,
Matt