Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Cellular Coverage

Anyone have a run down on which providers work out there and where? The portal? The trail? Trailcamp? The summit?

Please use the search function at the top of the page. Just enter "cell phone," and you'll see lots of posts.

You need direct line of sight and sometimes that doesn't even work. I was on the summit once, and on New Army Pass, where the phone said AT&T then Roam, back and forth within a couple of steps. It never connected.

I stopped carrying the damn things a couple of years are ago. I found they weren't worth the extra weight in the pack.

If you do take it make sure it is fully charged and it goes into your sleeping bag at night. The cold will drain the batteries.

Bill

I read some of the previous threads, but can't seem to find a definative list of which carriers and services work. Ho hum.

I was hoping to know before I left. I have a program running on my PC that will accept emails and post them to my web site, so we can update our family on our trip. Geeky, but cool. It will only be worthwhile if we have a cell that can send email from the zone.

I got verizon to work from the Portal. I did not try anywhere on the route.

I believe it was only ANALOG - meaning you probably will not be able to send email which data services require.

Hmm. I was hoping to have at least minimal coverage.

I put together a small program to check my email box for messages. This way I can email back from the phone, and the program would put them on the web site for me. Then I can be updating the web site from on the trail. I am geek. I know.

If anyone is interested in trying it out, and has email access via their phone on the trail, check out http://www.darofamily.com/jeff/emailrelay.asp.

Just send an email to whitney@daroconsulting.com (a box I sent up on my corp. mail server), and the program on my PC will post it to the site.

BV aka Jeff.

I have VERIZON...I turned on my phone at Trail Camp and got on and off signals, not long enough to make a call. But when I got to the summit, I was able to make calls, my phone would keep switching back and forth between Digital and Analog. I got 3-4 bars of signal on my Motorola T720.

I made 4 calls while I was at the summit, called my mom and a few friends.

I don't carry a cell phone usually but you can connect at the summit. After having done so last year I can't think of a reason to do it again so I leave it in the car 100 percent of the time, knowing the only time I might need it is when I'm driving 395. Don't need it up the hill or anything adjacent.

We have been successful on two summiting occasions (2002 and 2003) in placing calls from the top at Whitney using AT&T (Nokia 8260) and Verizon (Motorola V60). Both had a digital signal with a line sight to Lone Pine (on a clear day). We were also lucky in placing an analog call on Verizon from Forrester Pass. The signal is inexistent on the west side and highly erratic on the east side.

I was on the summit July 10th, and my phone worked great. I have Sprint. People were borrowing my phone because theirs didn't work. I have issues with the coverage I receive in Wisconsin, but I was very happy that day!

OK, I have to admit it, it still bothers me to see and HEAR people yacking on their cell phones in the wilderness. I have a cell phone, but I don't carry it on backpacking trips,I didn't even carry one on my last solo trip. I backpack to get away from those very things.
Sure the whitney trail isn't the most pristine of wilderness experiences, heck it's probably the least wild trail I've ever been on, but that doesn't mean that cell phones belong.
There is the argument that it will and has saved peoples lives, but I don't think that's much of an issue on this trail with the amounts of people around and the class of the trail.

I guess you can bring whatever you want up Whitney, just remember that there are people around you who, when soaking up the intense Mountain top might not want to hear you yelling into a cell phone to your spouse 300 miles away,(a vivid memory on my last summit) have some courtesy and find an area where there aren't other people around and talk to your hearts content. Happy hiking amd talking