Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board First time up Route suggestions

I'd like some suggestions on route choice for summitting this Thursday/Friday. I have ice axe and crampons. I haven't done much ice climbing, but have been training otherwise. I've seen people talk about using the chute instead of the switchbacks, but are there any other adjustments to the main trail that need to be accounted for? Thanks for your time.

Eric

As still a "newby" to the mountain and coming back in August for my third trip I can only make suggestions on what I checked out prior to my first time that helped me.

A good person to review his posts: Doug Sr.

My only suggestion that you will hear and read a lot:

"Making it to the summit should not be your goal; making it off the mountain is your goal."

My Motto:

"Be smart, be safe, and know when to turnback. The mountain will be there in all it's glory to greet you when the time is right."

To help people provide you with some suggestions, it would be a good idea to have a general idea of your hiking/mountaineering/climbing experience and fitness level, such that any recommendations given would be more useful for you.

Experience wise... I'm on the lower end. I'm pretty set physically. I really wanna know what adjustments I have to make from the weather/snow standpoint. No switchbacks? etc.

Just went up this past June 4th on the main trail. The conditions were fine until Lone Pine Lake. That's where you need to start putting your crampons on. It was difficult to find the main trail and we went straight up from there. Needed crampons and ice axe for that. It was hard to find bearings but we beared left following tracks. However, tracks went in different directions so you have to be judicious. It started to get windy and snowing the higher we got. Finally made it to where we thought trail camp may be. Saw the area of the switchbacks and part of the chute; however, we couldn't see Mt. Whitney from where we were. Set up tents in at least 40-50 mph winds. Ran into some climbers coming down from the summit and they said they had whiteout conditions at top past trail crest and couldn't see anything. We met others that had turned back earlier. After we stopped moving, many in our party got altitude sickness or got cold. I highly recommend staying active. We decided that the white out conditions wouldn't improve for the next 24 hrs, so we wouldn't try to summit the next day. We decided that it was better to go back down after everyone felt healthy, so we packed up and started our trek back down around 6:20 pm. Had enough light to see the snowtracks even though fresh snow covered many of the tracks. You have to be careful to not step in fresh snow and only in ice with the crampons b/c it's easy to posthole and twist an ankle. Finally made it to LPL when it was pitch dark and used our headlamps and then made it down safely to the portal. It will really depend on the conditions at the top when you're there. If it's clear, you're in good shape. If it's whiteout conditions, you better know what you're doing if you're attempting to summit.

Everyone we ran into on the way down has been going up the snow chute. I don't know of anyone using the cables (switchbacks to trail crest). From previous reports, it's still impassable.

Perfect, exactly what I wanted to know. Thank you very much!

I think shenandoahboy has it right. The conditions will dictate much, so be prepared for the worst and be ready to turn around if you're not feeling it. Don't climb up anything you don't feel comfortable about getting back down.

If the weather on your day is nice and you can follow a good route up, you might have a fairly straightforward climb this week.

Also, manage your water situation - i.e. know where you can still refill, or bring a stove to melt snow.

shenandoahboy, perhaps I saw you on Saturday?? I was heading down pretty early around sunrise.

Probably, 3 asian guys and 1 caucasian guy in our group. We had a lot more energy early in the morning. Good to know we weren't the only ones that couldn't make it up.