Hello! Looking for some advice on an early March attempt on Mt. Whitney (Mar 6-10) this year.
We will be a climbing party of 2. I'm a 31M with 3+ years of trad climbing experience, and 5+ years of scrambling in the Canadian rockies. My partner is quite inexperienced, but fit. I have some winter experience (~2 months in high Andes, several attempts on Mt Washington)
Here are some questions I have:
- What obstacles would we face on the Mt Whitney Main Trail? As my partner is not as technically experienced as me, I'm considering this approach. I've read it will be longer, with more snow, difficult trail breaking, but non-technical.
- Are the avalanche hazards higher for MWMT than MR?
- How technical is the Mountaineer's route? We are generally comfortable with snow travel but I would prefer to avoid any 5th class. The videos and photos I've seen show roped parties, as well as rappels. It seems the steepest is in the last 400ft.
- what kind of protection would be most useful? snow anchors? ice screws? rock pro? are there boulders to sling? I understand this depends on conditions, but I wanted to get a sense from other climbers' experiences before packing my ENTIRE rack.
- rope: I plan on bringing 20m twin ropes. I feel it's an appropriate balance between weight and length. I don't imagine there will be rappels/pitches than need longer rope?
- boots: I've done all my high altitude climbs in stiff-soled leathers (La Sportiva Makalus). In the videos I've seen, everyone is slogging around in cinder-block double plastics! I'm even considering using my hiking boots (Scarpa Kailash). Any advice on this? Am I going to lose my toes.
