Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Main Trail Report 12/13/2003

My girlfriend and I headed up to the Whitney Trail on Saturday. While the goal was to do Thor, a late start and deep snow prevented us from going beyond Mirror Lake. The trail up to Lone Pine Lake was nice with only a few inches of snow and little ice on the trial. However above Lone Pine Lake and especially above Outpost the snow was rather deep ( knee high in places ) which made for a great workout. Snowshoes would have been great...if we'd have brought them The weather was great ( ~35 at the Portal @ 7am ) and on the way down most of the snow was melting pretty fast below Lone Pine Lake. We didn't see another soul on the trail until we got back down to Lone Pine Lake where we saw a couple people packing in. Overall a great trip. Enjoy the pictures...

<a href="http://everythingoutdoors.org/gallery/Whitney-Trail?page=1">photos</a>

Hi Great sunrise shots, , very few racoons in the portal and surprised to see this time of year,also the Stallar Jay is too high and tooooo cold wonder what they are eating? Sounds like you had a great trip! Doug

Great Photo's, especially #10 and the sunrise shots.
What type of digital camera were you using, point and shoot, SLR, brand?
Thanks

Actually the coons were down at Diaz Lake where we camped. The Jay was simply amazing...he kept us company from Lone Pine Lake all the way to Mirror Lake...every time we'd stop for a breather we'd see him again. The camera I used is is point and click - Sony Cybershot S85. It's a little big by today's standards but it has pretty good manual mode control and has treated me great.

JCB. I was wondering where the ice in slide DSC01842 is in respects to the trail? Looks like it might be fun.

Hi Bob. I believe the ice was off to the left just as you get to Outpost Camp.

Great pics. How was the road up to the Portal? I'd like to try your same hike or go a bit further up in January, any thoughts on the road and trail conditions? Thanks, Rick

The road was clear up to the Meysan Lakes trailhead. At that point it's pretty much covered with snow and ice...4wd is recommended or chains. However, as I stated about the trail, it was melting like crazy when we came down in the afternoon and the road was clearing up as well...at least the places that got some sunlight. Overall the road wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be.