Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Whitney, Muir, and Russell in one trip over New Years

My friends and I want to do Whitney, Muir and Russel in one trip over the long New Years weekend. We are trying to determine the best route to take.

Has anyone done this?

My idea is to camp at upper trail camp on the main Whitney trail. In the morning pack my stuff and hike toward Whitney. Leave my backpack at the Whitney trail/Muir Trail split off and take my daypack to bag Whitney and Muir. Pick my backpack up on the way back and hike down the Muir trail toward Guitar lake and then turn up toward Arctic Lake. Not sure where to camp in this area(depends on how far I get). Then rest a day after setting up camp around one of the arctic lake lakelets. Then hike/climb the West Couloir(class 4) on the West side of Russell. Then descend down the South Face(class 3) and head back to Whitney Portal.

We have also thought about going up the Whitney MR route. Then heading to Muir, then down to Arctic lake and then up Russell. Once summiting Russel, then descend the south face back toward Whitney Portal.

I need some suggestions. I have done Whitney in Spring snow conditions via the main trail. We have winter camping experience and are all novice climbers(rock, not ice).

Any and all ideas are greatly appreciated.

Brian

I think the route you take all depends on what part of Russell you intend on climbing.Whitney and Muir will be easy no matter which way you go, Russell is one of the hardest mountains to climb in that area with all routes being challenging.

If you were to do a route on the west side of Russell you would probably want to do Muir and Whitney first via the main trail, descend either the MR or the north slopes and then do a west side climb of Russell. If you are going to do something like the east ridge of Russell I would do that first, then continue on to the MR, bag Whitney and Muir and descend the main trail. Or you could go up the east ridge of Russell, descend the west ridge, ascend either the MR or north slopes of Whitney, bag Whitney and Muir then descend via the main trail.

Whatever route you choose I would suggest that you are very comfortable with winter travel in avalanche conditions, winter climbing with ice axe, crampons and rope and are in tip-top condition. That traverse is difficult to do in the summer, during the dead of winter I would guess it to be five times harder.

Brian, think about it, novice climber, Mt.Russell, ice, exposure, can you say INYO SAR.

Dave,

I have been thinking about what you said in your post. But, we want to do something hard, just not too far over our head. How else do you build experience?

Do you have any suggestions on routes around Whitney, Muir and Russell that we could do in a four or five day trip. We want it to be a serious adventure, just not too death defying.

Thanks,
Brian

This is what you want to do, 1) Go up the Mountaineer's Route to Upper Boyscout lake. 2) Continue North and then West from Upper Boyscout lake and ascend the East Ridge of Mt Russell to the summit. 3) From the summit continue heading West and then South and down the South couloir to the Whitney-Russell Saddle. 4) Follow the saddle to the North face of Whitney and up to the Summit. 5) Then proceed down the main Whitney trail and hit Mt Muir. 6) Continue down the Whitney trail and stop at Trail camp or head all the way out...

In the winter there is no need to camp at a lake. The snow will provide all the water you need. Don't double back on your route or go out of your way just to pitch your tent near a frozen lake. It's much more efficient to just follow the shortest path from summit to summit and camp where it's convenient (and safe).

This is not an easy trip in the winter! Everyone in your party should have some significant experience with winter mountaineering, avalanche safety, and ice climbing. Mt Russell is very exposed and probably covered with snow in the very worst places.

P.S. I just reread your post and followed your planned route on the topo. Your totally going way out of your way to hit these peaks. You don't need to be going anywhere near Guitar or Arctic lake. There isn't any reason to be all the way out there. These peaks make a nice cirque that can be followed without doubling back on your route anywhere.

Fishbait has a well thought out excellent approach. I agree, there is no reason to drop all the way down the back side to Guitar Lake. However I have one real big concern, due to the winter conditions. I found the east approach to Mt. Russell from the Russell Corillon saddle one scary mother (very exposed) in the summer. In the winter it could be very dangerous. You walk along a crack in the rock next to a 5-8 foot wall on the left side, with the right side rolling off to a 1000 - 1500 foot cliff. If you sliped there you would be dead.

If you go up the trail and do Mt. Muir and then stay on the trail to Mt. Whitney, you could drop down either the North (Northwest) face or come down to Iceberg lake down the Mountaineers Route. From either you would have access to the South face of Russell. It has a 100 foot headwall near the top, class three. That would be my pick.

You could also do Whitney up the Mountaineers route one day from Iceberg lake. Then the South face of Russell the next over the Russell Whitney pass. That sounds very attractive so that you don't have to carry your backpack over 12600 feet.

Both Muir and the headwall up Russell's south face involve some class three. Could be tricky if icy.

There are many other peaks which are more straight forward in the Winter....Meysan lake canyon to Irvine, Mallory or Lone Pine peak.

And what about Thor peak on any of the routes mentioned recently.

Hi Brian,
I did this traverse three winters ago and I can tell you that it was very difficult. The weather played a major factor as it was stormy one minute and hot the other. I had three other very strong climbers with me and without them the climb would of been nearly impossible. If you do go ahead with your plan make it as easy as possible.Fishbait gave a very good route to follow and this was the route that we pretty much followed ourselves.

If the route looks like it would be too much for you look at doing something from North Lake just outside of Bishop. It offers a very direct route to Piute Pass with moderate to difficult ascents up many different routes. I almost prefer winter climbing in Humphrey's Basin than any other place.

Thank you all for the great ideas. I will post the pictures when we get back.

Brian, please take pictures of the areas on the trails where there are shear dropoffs and the like. Are the flat boulder areas on Whitney summit the highest point, or is there a higher jagged spire of some sort? If there is a jagged higher area which is the highest point, will you climb it and take a picture? Anyone here know if the main Whitney trail is near summer-like in early May? One other curious question, has anyone ever hang-glided off of Whitney summit?

Where are the pictures?

And, how about a trip report whether you were successful or not.

tsunami: The only drops off you could be referring to would be discussed in the old thread "Exposure & Vertical drops on Whitney back on June 18, 2003. Use the search feature under Post a reply above and put in "windows" It will be there.

Brian is my climbing partner and unfortunatly we were not able to climb Whitney over New Years. We are however going up on Thur 12 to Mon 16. We will post many pics of Whitney's MR route, Russells southwest class 3 and the traverse to Muir.
WWRD