I've made it to the peak 7 times via every route (except east buttress), every direction, and every weather/trail condition.
Even though I know where I'm going and what I'm doing (sort of), I've still had moments of being slightly disoriented, and others where I've had to self-arrest.
When my buddy and I summitted last year on 5/5 (the day the prior north-west face fatality occurred), I distinctly recall having a conversation about noting where to turn back to the main trail.
It was days later when I found out a fellow hiker who had climbed the Chute next to us (ending up in a lot of photos) was the one who had taken a wrong turn and slipped & fell.
Whitney is no joke - the problem is it's easy to get to, moderately challenging to actually climb, but it's still @ 14.5k and still has areas with cliffs. If you are at all unprepared, or treat the risk lightly, things can go south in a hurry.
It took the parks/FS years to fix the 3-way sign @ the JMT/MMWT junction. Before, many people had turned right (downhill) since the old 2-way sign was fairly generic as to trail & peak directions.
I don't think it would take much to place a simple sign on the hut calling attention to the fact that the main trail was to the left (as you descend) and the dangerous NW side and MR are to the right.
Last edited by Hobbes; 06/19/19 12:16 PM.
