A member brought my attention to the fact that the term, "Lower Trail Crest" is used here regularly, and wanted to point out that except for regulars, that term is unfamiliar to most people.
I understand the location to be at the junction where the Main Mt Whitney Trail joins the John Muir Trail (or the MMWT/JMT intersection
). The junction is about 1/8 mile down the trail, and ~150' lower, on the west side of the crest.
Trail Crest is shown at elevation 13,600' (4150 m) in this picture from Wikipedia (
Mount Whitney Trail) It is the high point where the main trail crosses the Sierra crest.
Here is a picture at the junction, elevation 13,450' (4100 m) with the JMT (from
this web site)
So I am posting this with the idea that if someone does a search for "Lower Trail Crest", maybe they will find this thread.
If you use the term "Lower Trail Crest", try to also qualify it with a little explanation.
Used by itself, it is a bit of an oxymoron.
Here is a map, with the junction in the crosshairs:
______________________________(click
this for the map in a new window)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
This location is also the point where disoriented hikers sometimes miss the junction, or fail to realize that, to return to Whitney Portal from the summit, they must turn left and climb up. Over the years, we see repeated stories where day hikers proceed down and to the west, hiking into potential disaster. At some point they realize their error and turn around, or else a search and rescue is initiated.
