Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Whitney cable tram to the top

I'm sure they can get up there on their own power, just by different means, depending on the handicap. I doubt that was not the intended meaning of the other posts.

CaT

Dale... I have absolutely no idea what your talking about... just because someone has to grab my pack to throw my up half the "stairs" in the freakin' NP system... means absolutely NOTHING!!!!

I think a zip line would be nice.

I think if I rode a zipline from the summit, I would need two wag bags before I got back to the portal.

that is a straw man if I ever saw one.

Just pave all the wilderness while we are at it, make it all accessible by bus. "On your right is the area formerly known as trail camp, please keep your hands inside the tram"

Hey, there's always Pikes Peak or Mt. Evans for the meek-at-heart or physically-challenged who wanna see what 14K is all about. Take an afternoon and drive to the top on a nice road, bearing in mind that "road" is a very relative term in the Rockies. Seven or eight thousand feet of elevation gain in 45 minutes or less - cool!

Get out, take a deep breath of that clean mountain air, then wheeze and cough. Where'd the Os go?! Stumble around for a while photographing the pretty views, getting dizzier by the minute. Hold your head and moan after a half hour, then say "Screw this!". Climb back in the car and get down quick. Maybe puke too, just to add an exclamation mark to your grand, no-effort adventure to see the world from 14,000 feet.

That scene takes place hundereds of times a day on those two Fourteeners in Colorado. My wife was the poster child. Some things have to be earned to be worthwhile.

Maybe the next thread will champion a ski lift to the summit of Rainier . . .

If driving the Pikes Peak Highway ($10 per person $35 max for a carload) doesn't thrill you there is also the cog rail train that goes daily to the top of Pikes Peak from Manitou Springs. During the summer there are 8 trips (3 hrs 10 minutes round trip) a day with reduced # of trips prior to Memorial Day and after Labor Day. Cost =$33.50 July lst to August 23rd & $2 less the rest of the year. Kids 3-12 are $18.50 and $17.50 for same dates. Hiking is FREE unless you start at a trail using the Pikes Peak Highway which costs you same as above. You can not hike on the Highway itself = $100 fine and they enforce it.

I second this. These stairs would be a great improvement. I wouldn't have to jump down or hoist myself up. I have sort legs being a mouse and all.

Can't we just put the portal up there so when we got up there we could have a Moose burger!!!
Mouse

I'm sorry but I don't agree. Many great hikers have a bit of a problem with altitude. Doesn't mean that they shouldn't be able to enjoy all that Whitney has to over. When someone takes Diomox they are not hurting anyone else or the Moutian.
Sorry had to put my two cents in there.

And I wouldn't classify it as a performance enhancer. It's just helping people to avoid the nasty effects of going high too soon.

Granted, it would be nice if people had the time to acclimitize properly (Whitney sure is easier for everyone who does.) (As h_lankford likes to remind us, that takes 3 weeks.), but that's never going to happen.

Ideas like this seem absurd now - but I'm old enough to remember in the late 60's how close Disney came to transforming Mineral King into a ski resort.

And this being California, with its unsatiable demands for energy - and where bureaucrats and developers regularly screw with Mother Nature (only to be repaid later), I'm waiting for some bozo to propose a hydroelectric dam across the Kern somewhere near Kern Station.

Laura - there will be at least two of us lying there dead and cold.
Booger

If you think driving from CO Springs (7,000') up to the summit of Pikes Peak (14100') is hard on the anatomy, try Mauna Kea sometime. Been there, done that. You leave Hilo literally at sea level and drive up to one of the observatory parking lots at about 13,600' then huff and puff a quarter mile over and 200' up to the actual summit at 13,796'.

We did that a few years ago and by the time we had spent a couple of hours meadering around looking at all the nice telescope/observatory buildings up there, I started developing this nasty hacking cough that was probably the onset of high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). Of course, once we hopped in the car and drove back down, it cleared up quickly but it's definitely a lesson in what NOT to do to your body...

Right there with you Alan. but in my case, I kinda stayed out a little late (or should I say too early {morning that is}). got to the top, climbed the couple of hundred feet wearing Ski Boots and lugging skis.

After about 2 hours of this (made five runs) my head felt as big as the Keck Observatory.

I posed this exact question to my wife. Her answer:"Thats stupid, that's what Pikes Peak is for". She also went on about handicap access is very important (and rightly so) but you can only do so much. Some activists are trying to ruin the world by using thier cause as an excuse.

BTW, my wife's hiking ends when the pavement does. I can't push her wheelchair very far after that.

Hey booger,
No, you're not too old, and no, these ideas weren't so absurd back then. I recall the fight over Yosemite Valley in the late 60's. Curry Company was a quaint family-run business that was the concessionaire to Yosemite for decades (I went to college with one of the Curry daughters, in fact.) The YP&CC was sold to MCA, a huge entertainment conglomerate. With Yosemite, MCA envisioned lots of green - but not the environmental green. They wanted to replace the tent cabins of Camp Curry with a luxury resort. Their most outlandish proposal, though, was to install a tram from the valley floor to Glacier Point. As you can imagine, the public outcry was huge.

KentuckyTodd:

If you ever come out to the Golden IOU State, we have some rather good chair-accessible trails, not to mention the Yosemite Valley floor. Years ago the 4-mile trail & the Yosemite Falls trails were surfaced, but would require bravery & big brakes.

Alan, you're right. I forgot about Mauna Kea AND Haleakala, both of which you can drive to the summit. I guess I was thinking strictly Fourteeners, which seem to fascinate people. Never been to the big boy, but did sunrise on Haleakala in Maui 18 years ago. Sea level at Lahaina to 10K feet in about an hour. Don't recall feeling the elevation, but chances are I was still well-oiled from partying the night before. Very invigorating bike ride down, though!

Is that it? Four mountain peaks over 10K feet elevation accessible by car in the US? Pikes, Evans, Mauna Kea and Haleakala? Actual peaks, not passes - God knows, 10K passes in Colorado are a dime a dozen.

One to add for sure. Mt Bross, 14,172' in Colorado out of Alma and south of Hoosier Pass which is just south of Breckenridge, can be driven to the top on a rough road. Mainly 4 wheelers, but I have seen VWs and 2 wheel drive pick up trucks on the top. Right now it is posted as private property and vehicles and climbers are not welcome, but many ignore this.

Close, but not a 14er road to the top. Mt Antero, 14,269' has a rough road that goes to 13,700' almost to the summit, but does not make it to the top. Reached from Chalk Creek road south of Buena Vista, CO. Again 4 wheelers mostly with a few hardy souls driving 2 wheel drive vehicles with HIGH clearance can make it to the end of the road.

I'm all for a one way tram UP - with a water slide down...................................DUG

As in nearly all land-use debates there are no clear black and white answers. I think the logical way to do infrastructure planning is to start with a wilderness designation for selected areas - where no development will be allowed, then at the other end of the spectrum also designate selected areas (probably near existing developed areas) for commercial development. All the "stuff" in between could be evaluated - and no doubt intensely debated - by people having various interests. Then some unbiased Government official (ok - maybe I'm getting into oxymorons here) - with a logical, timely appeal process - should be given the responsibility to make the decision.

You will never please everyone - but sometimes you're ahead in the game when only 49% of 'em are pissed off at you.