Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mt. Whitney in the April 1989 issue of National Geographics

I recently stumbled on this picture of Mt. Whitney in the April 1989 issue of National Geographics:

http://flickr.com/photos/43moon/278689691/

I'm glad I go in Spring and Fall. Otherwise if summer doing full moon or no moon hikes...mark

OMG, that's hysterical, yet somehow so sad!

I'm glad there weren't near that number of people when I was up there in August. I wouldn't have had enough champagne.

Oich!
-Laura

Yikes!

I've been on top a few times in August during the past several summers and, while there may have been 10-20 people there at any given time, it never resemebled the 'circus' atmosphere in that photo.

Was that taken when the gondola from Portal to summit hut was still in use?

For anyone wondering... <a href=http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=004168#000013>The gondola picture is here.</a>

So that picture was *before* the Starbucks was opened up there?

-Chris

The first time I went up to Whitney was back in the early 70s on a Labor Day weekend. Going up the switch backs was like being on the freeway!

It was still a really cool little independent coffee shop with soul back then.

I think it was called "Whitney Java (The) Hut"

(One of Doug's earlier busienss ventures.)

Guess 1989 WASN'T a lottery year!

That's a lot of determined people! I've witnessed about 30 or more people on the summit. I would speculate that this is somewhat typical on Saturdays in July and August between 12:00 noon and 1:00 p.m. Most people know that 1:00 p.m. is a reasonable time to head back down. In contrast, I've been on the summit at 3:00 p.m. on a Saturday in the summer when there were only 4 other people there. (It's not as crowded as Half Dome.)

I hiked Whitney back then and when camping at Trail Camp, I sat and counted over 90 people on the Switchbacks alone with my binoculars. When we summited the next day, I was #273 on the register at 1pm. I estimated over 600 people on the trail on a given day. It was amazing.