Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board TR - Mountaineer's Route. April 3-5

Just the basics...

April 3rd
Parked car within a ½ mile of the trailhead and began at 9:00 am. Three of us started up the south side of North Fork creek which was probably a bad idea—posthole city. Crossed over to the north side as soon as the trees thinned out. Sunny skies left the big slog hill up to LBSL very soft. Snowshoes with heel elevators were handy. Arrived at LBSL at about 2:00 pm and set up our Black Diamond MegaLight and REI Half Dome tent. Two guys returned from the summit at 6:00 pm. Said they left at 6:00 am. They packed up their Bibler and headed home.

April 4th
Woke at 6:00 am. Cached snowshoes and started up to UBSL at 8:15am. Water was available just under UBSL. More sunny skies and camped below Iceberg Lake at about 12k feet near a large guided group (IMG I believe).

April 5th
Woke at 2am. Left at 3:15am in slightly windy but warm weather. Cramponing was good. Reached the notch at about 6:30am and the summit at about 7:00 am. Descended in very sunny skies and sloppy snow. Several other people were ascending with skis and it made us jealous. Reached camp at 10:00 am. Packed up and left at 11:15 am. The snow bridges covering the North Fork Creek below LBSL seemed to be melting and collapsing FAST. Reached car at 1:00pm. Showered at Whitney Portal Hostel (thanks, Doug!).

Darn good basics. Nice work, SteveO. Congrats on your summit. Do you have any 'basic pix'?

Sorry, I don't have pics. I lost my camera rock climbing in the Alabama Hills on Wednesday. Somewhere near the Tall Wall area.

Hope you recover your camera (and it's in one piece). You may try starting a new topic 'lost camera' with beta. Quite a few cameras have been retrieved via this web-site.

SteveO, you sure made good time and picked a great window of opportunity to go up there. I hope you find your camera.

My buddy's Pictures. He stopped at the notch so no summit phots. Me in red hat and red helmet.

https://picasaweb.google.com/11842015401...feat=directlink

SteveO,

You or your buddy took a rare photo...of Mount Baldy, 162 miles away! Mt. Baldy is the bump in the far background of photo #173.

Thanks for posting!

Excellent pix by your buddy, Thad. What great weather you had! Hope the post regarding your lost camera brings it back to you...