Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Whitney via Mountaineers Route and Russell

Friday hiked into Upper Boy Scouts Lake. Saturday climbed Whitney via mountaineers route and Sunday climbed Mount Russell.

Used ice ax and crampons from Upper Boy Scouts. Conditions were great on Saturday but on Sunday it was windy.

I have placed pictures on summitpost of Whitney. Unfortunately I was too involved with the climbing on Russell to even take a picture and by the time I reached the summit was too tired to even care about photo ops.
Summit Post Whitney

Lori

Congrats on Whitney via MR and Russel... Nice! Focusing on climbing in precarious conditions more important than photos...

Did you guys hear some maniac yelling from the top of Thor Peak on Friday afternoon at about 4:30?

I had told John (SnowLoScrambler) that I might do a workout up to LBSL on Friday. When he said you'd be up at UBSL, I changed plans and ended up climbing up Thor. I yelled hello and good luck from the summit. It was fun listening to it echo thru the Whitney Zone.

Congratulations on a successful weekend.

Hey Richard

That is funny because we did. In fact I was trying to figure out where the voice was coming from and when I looked up I saw someone on top of Thor Peak. I wondered what all the yelling was about.

Nice job. On Sunday (Russell) did you go up one of the chutes on the South face or did you go up the East Arete? I was turned back by late spring snow on the arete on June 19th, and now we have it again as of roughly Oct 13th.... that means less than 4 months this year you could have gone up that incredible route without snow gear...

Hi Mark

We went up from the east following the ridge line. We were able to climb the snow line eliminating some of the boulders at first and then bouldered for the rest of the way.

I honestly thought I was never going to run out of boulders that needed to be climbed and then finally there I was!

Going up the snow chute from Upper Boy Scout lake was fun as the snow was frozen and in great condition. Coming back down was another story as it had melted enough to create a "posthole--slide frustration", if you get my drift.

Hi Lori,
My nephew and I chatted with you for a couple of minutes as we arrived at UBSL just before dark on Saturday. We had a successful Whitney climb on Sunday. I kept glancing over at Russell, but never did see you guys. Did see your tracks coming down into UBSL, so you got down and out before us. Congratulations on your "dual" climb!

Congrats Climbstrong. I was with Laura/Moosetracks coming down from the WPS hike when we crossed paths. Sounds like you had a good summit.

ditto, we crossed paths with you and Ryan... congratulations on Whitney summit..

Hello-

Planning for Mt. Russell via East Ridge next week...

can you guys share what the snow conditions were like from upper boy scout lake to the summit of Mt. Russell?

Need crampons/ax? any sections require rope?

Thanks!

Hey Chulho

We had our crampons on the whole time. First to climb the snow chute by Upper Boy Scouts Lake and while maneuvering up the boulders to the summit of Russell. There was scattered snow the entire time and in some cases the snow made travel a bit easier.

With that said, last weekend when I was on the Meysan trail it seemed like the snow coverage has diminished a bit since when I was there so not sure of current conditions.

We chose not to use rope and I did not find it necessary but I must emphasize that is always a personal decision.(and both John and I are also rock climbers)

Hey Climbstrong

I remember speaking to you and your nephew when you arrived. It was a long hard weekend for sure--but lots of fun!!!

We are leaving in 2 weeks to climb Orizaba in Mexico so it was great training.

Lori-
Best of luck in Mexico!
Bueno Suerte con Orizaba(or something like that).