Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board knowledge of the New Army Pass Route to Whitney?

Reading Paul Richens 2nd edition book and his Route 10 new army pass route looks very interesting w/ a lot of lakes - but a fair amount of "cross country" hiking. Anyone familiar w/ this route? Thoughts? I'm putting together a group of three or four to try and hike Whitney this coming August and we will all be first time Whitney hikers with rusty multi-day hiking skills. The route is:
Horshoe Meadow to High Lake 6mi
High lake to New Army Pass - Red Saddle - Rock Creek - Sky-blue lake 11.8mi (mainly cross country)
ski-blue lake - crabtree pass - uppger crabtree lake - crabtree meadow/JMT - Guitar lake 5.8mi (lot of cross country)
Guitar lake - Whitney trail - Summit - Trail Camp 10.1mi
Trail camp - whitney portal 6.3mi

Its 36.9mi total over four to six days (five in his example) and looks very interesting but the x-c mileage makes me a bit nervous. Sounds like it is reasonably traveled, but I'm looking for some feedback on this route and appreciate your comments.

-cjd

See these threads:
http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=1&Number=60992

http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=1&Number=51781

Also try searching for "miter basin" and "crabtree pass"... in quotes. IMHO the area is stunning and the cross country is easy going with a couple rock hopping sections near crabtree pass and a bit of route finding on the south side while climbing the pass. The other sections are dead obvious if you are at least partly competent with a map. This is especially true since you are planning on going down the crabtree drainage to the trail rather than crossing over discovery pinnacle. August is an ideal time.

It's a great trip! Did this one when I was 13 with my scout trip except we didn't do Whitney. We continued north through the Wright Lakes Basin, over a small pass and out Shepard Pass. The x-c through Mire Basin is easy - just rambles on. It's beautiful and reasonably remote (I know it's gotten busier over the years). The sand hill is a pain - everything you've heard about it is true.
I found what looked like a shell fossil in a rock at the top of Crabtree Pass (rocks 10' south of the actual pass). I left it, so it might still be there.
Happy hunting, and have a great trip!

Stick to this plan... It's much more spectacular scenery heading down the Crabtree Lakes drainage and the walk around to the west side of Whitney doesn't add too much walking time. The Dreaded Sand Hill sucks (been there, done that twice) and the views aren't much different from what you could see by doing just a little extra walking from Trail Crest.

Here are a few more photo albums you can look through:

Mt. Whitney From Meysan Lakes Trailhead - August 7, 2009

Meysan Lakes Trailhead To Mt. Whitney - August 21, 2009

Langley->Discovery Pinnacle->Muir->Whitney - September 12, 2009

Although I've never done the described route the conventional way, I've seen most of the terrain you'll be heading through.

I did a similar route in early September of this year. I was planning on going cross country up through the crabtree lakes but decided to go through Rock Creek and Guyot pass instead since it was my first long backpacking trip. It's beautiful out there. I can't comment on the cross country part of the trip, but you'll sure enjoy the rest of it. If you get too nervous about it just take the Guyot pass. I plan on going back again via sky blue lake and the crabtree lakes once I can convince my wife to let me go again.

I tried this same trip in August but the snow up NAP was unpassable with packs. We then tried to go on the other side of the bowl where there was less snow, but it was more scree and rock. Im hoping to try again next year

I was thru that pass in late September - still had a short section of snow, although it was now quite passable.

Even in low-snow years, like last year, it retains snow for a long time. It had a rather large cornice by last spring.