Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Difficulty following the trail in June because of

My wife and I are considering climbing Whitney the first week of June. This will be our first time on the mountain. Someone in a previous thread rightfully mentioned the trail can be difficult to follow because of snow cover. I would like opinions from those experienced climbers on this subject. We are trying to be prepared climbers by taking mountaineering courses to learn the proper use of crampons and ice axe, but I would hate to think we did all of our homework and then had a difficult time because we could not navigate. Thanks for your help. Rob

Unless your heading up in a snow storm, you should have no problems, plenty of hikers hit that trail everyday, just follow the footprints. Snow coverage in June, depends on what that seasons winter brought us, I hear talks of El Nino this year!
I would stick to your mountaineering classes, they can only help!

Ditto, you can hardly get lost on the MW main trail (unfortunately). A bit of "real" practice with crampons, ice axe, and self-arrest techniques, and you will be fine! You should not need to self-arrest, but having that under your belt will make you feel much better as you do the route.
Have fun.

The trail is used all winter long by June there will be at a defined route approximating the trail to Trail Camp. In some places it will be preferable to use a route rather than the trail, Trailside Meadow to the Consultation Lake would be one of those areas.

It could be mostly a climb rather than trail above Trail Camp to Trail Crest. Everything depends on what happened the previous winter and spring weather.

Once you reach Trail Crest, the trail most likely will be mostly clear but chances are it will be on with the crampons, off with the crampons for 2.2 miles to the summit.

The following link is to pictures from a mid-May trip after a mild winter...

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/559049009idbmct?start=0

Hi Check June of this year 3 weeks of snow and very few making it to the summit, several years ago 10" of snow in the Portal 19 JUNE. Very few people use the main trail in the winter as the mountaineers route is so much shorter and if they have the skills would tend not to use the main trail, only as a ski route down. Just above Mirror Lake is where many have trouble following the trail, this is about tree line and on slabs the trail is not marked and snow stays in the shaded areas, still following tracks has a very long history of not working that well. A story a couple come to the area ex military officer very nice man they get to just about Lone Pine Lake he has his wife wait until he can make several circles to find the trail , he can not find the trail and they come back to the store tell Doug and I what they did and which circle would the next 50 hikers take that then turn into very well established use trails. Until about 5 years ago I would go up block off the wrong trails but one day as I was so proud of my work coming down I see this guy removing the branches I had placed to block a trail to nowhere, I said I was kind of lost and was he sure that trail went to the summit he said yes, I ask if he had followed it up he said no but could see tracks that headed to the summit area , I said thanks and understood I had cheated folks of the joy of trail finding.Watch the board for trip reports starting in mid May, see if people are making it to the summit, check this years trips where people had some photos of a few slips at trail crest and the snow pack. Thanks Doug

I just did a quick check on the June reports of this year they start on about page 35 , but one stood out that may be of interest post # 62971 , Thanks