Hi everyone,

I’ve been following this forum for a while to keep updated on mountain conditions, as my wife and I are planning a visit to Mt. Whitney around Jan 10-13th. We’re both experienced in the winter backcountry, having spent many winters trekking and climbing at home the mountains of New Zealand and – since our move to the US – in the wintery Northeastern US.

Our plan for Whitney is to camp at the Portal for a night (we’ll be arriving in Lone Pine around midday) and then head up either the North Fork or Main Trail with the eventual goal of topping out at the MR notch or Trail Crest. We’re not concerned with summiting, either via the “final 400” on the MR or by trudging through (probably) deep snow along the back-side of the crest. Our goal is to enjoy the winter solitude and scenery and hopefully climb to a high place. As such, we’ll be travelling with snowshoes, poles, crampons/axes/helmets and the necessary winter weather/exposure gear. So, with the usual caveats concerning little prior snowfall and favorable weather forecasts for Jan 10th-14th, I have a couple of specific questions:

1. Given the recent dump of snow, the route conditions that might be expected for early/mid Jan, and an early start from the Portal (~5 am), is it plausible to reach UBSL (on the MR) or Trail Camp (main trail) before nightfall? If not the latter, how far up the Main Trail would one need to camp in order to have a realistic chance of reaching Trail Crest the following day (assuming fairly consolidated snow, a pre-dawn start, returning to same camping site, and travelling “light” i.e. leaving the tents pitched)?

2. After the big dump of snow this week, is it likely that travel over the Eberbacher (sic.?) Ledges will be necessary to ascend to LBSL, or should there be sufficient snow accumulation to allow travel directly up the canyon?

Thanks in advance, and please feel free to chime in with useful tidbits of knowledge or ask questions. In my experience, one can never have enough local information/advice before heading out into the wilds.

“You’re more likely to be wrong than right, if only because there are many more ways of being wrong than there are of being right”