Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion mountaineers' route rock fall

There was black ice on the 'easy walk off' detour, but I did not witness it because I never continued on due to the dark clouds that were suddenly descending. A returning climber warned me about it. He said he would never take that detour even with crampons and an ice axe. He used the final 400 climb to summit.

Snow was evident in the shadow area of the chute, but was easily avoidable.

There was also snow/ice in the rock basin along the trail above Upper Boy Scout Lake, but that is normally not crossed -- unless you are climbing Keeler Needle like some climbers I met had planned to do that day.