Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Current conditions for the Mt. Whitney Mountaineers Route

Admin edit, since this thread pops up early on a Google Search:   Go to the General Discussion and look at the Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail thread. In winter and spring when most people are using the Mountaineers Route, you will find pictures and info there.


I have a good idea at what the conditions are on the lower part of the Mountaineers route, but does anyone have more info about the areas above Iceberg lake and the notch? Have done the main trail a bunch but want to challenge myself, i'll be up around July 23rd.
Thanks

Kurt Wedberg posted an update on wpsmb:

I am planning on the Mountaineers Route July 29th or 30th. Can I do it WITHOUT crampons and/or microspikes?

I plan to camp at Horseshoe Meadows on July 28th for acclimatization and then camp and UBSL or Iceberg Lake for 1-2 nights for more acclimatization?
Any suggestions?

If you go without crampons and ice axe, make SURE you go up the upper part of the chute in warmer temperatures, so the snow is soft. And get DOWN before it ices up, too!!!

Your acclimatization plan looks good.

Let us know how it goes. Good luck!

Steve C.,
We are camping at UBSL or Icberg most likely UBSL. We will take a crack at the summit in the morning. What time do you suggest heading up to hit the top of the chute to get to the top of the chute with good daytime temperatures?
Once I am at the top of the notch, how far to the summit? I am guessing not very far?
Additionally I have heard that it could be difficult to find the right notch for the down climb? I plan on just marking it with a shirt or something?
Any other advice is appreciated.
Is there any more snow on the notch? I hope that as I am climbing that last 400 feet there is not snow/ice to contend with?

okay I hiked the Whitney Trail a week ago and it sort of kicked my butt, and now have a Moutaineer's Route climb planned through ASI for September 24, 25th. It is a two day climb with the first day being from Whitney Portal to Iceberg and then the next day Summit to Portal. Whitney Trail was done by me and my son over a three day period (Portal to Trail Camp, Trail Camp to Summit and back to Trail Camp, and then Trail Camp back to Portal on Day 3).

My question is what type of condition do you need to be in to do the Mountaineer's Route in a two day period? If Whitney Trail was a challenge, what type of conditioning is recommended over the next two months to make Mountaineer's Route possible?
Thanks

Hike on some of the weekends. During the week, bike for an hour, or run for half. Or change it up. (or do some other aerobic workout.) Start out slowly so you don't burn out. Increase the amount of time you spend working out closer to the hike.

Do a strenuous hike in the week before your hike.

Plan to acclimate for (at least) 24-36 hours before you start your hike.

We are looking to do the notch early sept.. how was the climb? conditions?

any one has been up here lately? planningn to climb east buttress coming down on mountaineers route. any condition update would be sweet. thanks a bunch

It was perfect two weeks ago. Not sure what effect the rain and trace snow has had since then:

Looking up the main gully from Iceberg:


Yes, there's still a long way to go. It took my ankles a few days to recover from the hundreds (thousands?) of hard kick-steps needed to really wedge in the front-end of the crampons for every step:


Looking back towards Iceberg from the first tower - we came up the main gully:


Final 400:


Yours truly on the nice leisurely stroll back down the gully:


For those curious about snow travel, note crampons are off and we're plunge stepping the whole flippin' way down.

The entire trail was clear until the very edge of the gully @ Iceberg. I chose to carry my boots the entire way and walk in my trail runners (Altras). At the gully, we left our poles behind, put on crampons (I put on my boots first), took out our ice axes and harnessed up.

While carrying heavy boots is well, heavy, I think it has a certain advantage. That is, you can opt for a heavy, rigid sole rather than search for the right semi-rigid boot that can be both comfortable to hike in and also take crampons. If you opt for a full bore heavyweight boot, you don't have to worry about hiking in them. But where they really truly shine is the effect of swinging a battle axe for each kick step. I never missed burying practically half the boot in each step, which made for a very stable ride.

thanks for the info andn share

Does anyone have current conditions of the mountaineers route? I will be doing it on Monday June 22nd. Do you have any reports on the snow conditions of the chute and the final 400? Is a ice ax and crampons needed or will micro spikes be sufficient?

That snow will still be in the main chute, but if weather is hot like this coming week, it will be navigable with only hiking boots. Not sure about the Final 400 condition.

You could opt for the Easy Walk Off once you get there. If it's not cold/icy, it would be fine.

I just summited the MR on 6/22. Conditions on the chute were good. You can take a path up with no snow if wanted; the snow on the north facing side going all the way up is very slushy. Once you get to the notch you can walk right on to it -- plenty of snow.

The whole center of the final 400 is iced over and about half the way up to the top is snow. We only used micro spikes for about the first 20ft. Once we made it 1/3 of the way, we crossed over into the second gully from the notch there was no snow or ice along the left side. We took that till 3/4 of the way, then crossed back over to he first gully and took that the rest of the way to the summit. With the warm conditions we had, I would expect the Final 400 to be pretty clear in a week or two.

I tried to post this on the Whitney Portal message board but it wouldn't let me log on, so if you can, pass the info on. Also I gave Doug at the Portal Store a pretty detailed route description that we took and a condition report.

Thanks for the report, BW. Any tracks heading west from the Notch in the direction of the "Easy Walk Off"?

Yes there was one set of tracks going towards the "easy walk off" it didnt look like it was getting much use. Also we were up there around 11am and the snow along that ridge was very icy.

BWalker, if you're using IE as your browser to log on to WPSMB, try instead Chrome. I was having issues logging on also, let them know about it & they suggested Chrome & that works. Rather than try to fix whatever the problem is that's their answer....