Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Current Conditions Mt Whitney Trail, 2018, Old

I’m a PCT hiker and was trying to hitch to Horseshoe Meadows and the car ended up at Portal. I decided to just go with it and attempted to get back to the PCT via Crabtree ranger station.

I was not prepared for portal side, had done zero research, had spikes and axe but since I was following the trail and got up to the cables before deciding that wasn't the right way to go about it I went back down to camp and set up.(noonish) I told myself I'd attempt again the following day once the snow hardened. While waiting out the day and just being bored I didn't feel right about skipping PCT miles so I hiked back down to portal and hitched into Lone Pine. I'll summit Whitney from the backside (Guitar Lake) in 2-3 days.