Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Trip Report: Whitney Main Trail - Jan 1, 2012

A friend and I hiked the Whitney Main Trail from Dec 31, 2011 through Jan 2, 2012 with the summit day on New Years Day.
I appreciate your trip reports so I am including one of mine.
We decided to hike the Whitney because reports of the North Fork were poor conditions. We also heard the switchbacks on the Whitney trail were icy but we still saw many groups using them. We decided for an easy 3 day trip to avoid the early starts and late nights.

The road was clear up to the Portal parking lot and we spent the first night at the hikers walk in campsites to start acclimating to the altitude. We departed the Portal at 10am with our heavy packs and got to Trail Camp at 5pm where we spent the night. The trail was dry to the North Fork and then became a mix of packed snow and ice. Some areas between Mirror Lake and Trail Camp were icy and exposed to falls. Crampons were not used this day. The last flowing water source was the outlet of Mirror Lake.

On New Years Day we departed Trial Camp at 8am and got to Trail Crest at 11am. After ascending about 5 switchbacks we strapped on the crampons and headed to the right up the chute next to the switchbacks that leads directly to Trail Crest. This seemed a much better choice than the icy switchbacks. The chute was mostly good conditions while icy in areas and deep post-holes in others. I found staying in the middle with mixed snow and rocks was best for me.

The trail from Trail Crest was packed snow with some areas dry. I left most all my gear including my crampons and ice axe at Trail Crest. They were not needed although some might feel exposed in a few areas. We got to the summit at 1pm and hung out for almost an hour. The weather was sunny with calm winds.
The descent down the chute directly below Trail Crest was a good decision. Back to Trail Camp at 5pm for another night.

From Trail Camp to Portal took 3.5 hours. Half the time of going up. The trail was even icier than it was on the way up. No crampons were used on the way down but could be useful in some areas.

All photos are here: Whitney Jan 1 2012
For some reason those photos are in the reverse order.





















[img]http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww3/kernclimber/Whitney%20Trail%20Jan%201%202012/DSC01985.jpg[/img]

Those are some awesome photos that you guys took. In my opinion the most impressive photo is the one of the group hiking above the cables. It looks like you had a very rewarding trip! Good job.

Congratulations! And thanks for posting the TR. I wish more people who head up there would.

Anyone on the board recalling such "dry" conditions for a January ascent?

Hi Thanks for posting the report and the photos .This will help many heading up before we get a storm. Any chance you looked over the backside to see the conditions on the last 400'?

Dry years in the late 80's I think maybe 89-90 was this dry sometime in that period Mammoth didn't get much snow till March, we had 6-7 years when very little rain made it to the Valley floor in Lone Pine. Thanks Doug

No I did not look at the final 400 of the North Fork but talked to a guy that just climbed it. He said it was icy in most areas and dry in others. He is an active climber and he opted to go down the Whitney trail because he did not feel comfortable descending the final 400.

I'm over at McD's uploading 3 photos right now... Have them posted for RG in a few.