My son and I along with two of my colleagues are leaving the East Coast today for our planned 2014 Whitney adventure. I made the summit last year, so I have a pretty good feel for what we are getting into. However, we had absolutely perfect weather last year.
Well, based on latest indications, that may not be the case this year. So, I have a couple of questions for folks who are either relatively local to the area or otherwise have experience dealing with weather on the Whitney trail.
1. How much faith should we put in the forecasts for Sunday through Tuesday right now? I'm seeing some reports of up to 1.5 inches of rain during this time frame. If anyone is local and has a better local forecast than what we can easily find online, it would be great to hear.
2. If that forecast for 1.5 inches of rain is real, it seems it could be questionable going very far up the trail at all. I've read stories about flooding and other dangers that don't even take into account possible lightning at higher elevations. Is that an over reaction to the possible conditions? Granted, I've got dry sacks, rain gear, pack covers and everything else needed to stay relatively dry, but I don't have any context or experience around how much additional risk is involved once that trail gets really wet. With my teenage son on his first trip, gauging the additional risk is important.
3. Let's assume for a moment that it does rain a lot and we ultimately decide that this isn't the year for another Whitney attempt. While my son and I will be in the area for a couple of weeks and could take a shot at a walk-in permit once the weather clears, my other two friends must leave Wednesday night. I would hate to have them come all the way out for nothing. So, I would love to hear of ideas within a 2-4 hour drive from Whitney for memorable hiking that is less likely to be impacted by the rain.
Thanks for any information or advice.
