Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports Mt Whitney 5/16-5/17

Had a great couple days on the mountain with longtime friend B-Nut. Summit success came due to multiple factors both controllable and uncontrollable. The uncontrollable was the perfect span of weather we have had the past few days. The controllable included proper training, gear, pace and preparation.

Day 1: Drove up from San Diego, picked up permit, grabbed lunch in Lone Pine, set up camp at portal (very impressive and clean sites: hosts are very cool), easy portal day hike acclimating, burger and beers on portal deck, sorting and dividing of gear around camp (important come pack weigh-in time).

Day 2: Slept in until 7, took down camp, finalized backpacks, stored extra gear in bear lockers, etc.. Split a man-hole-cover sized pancake at the portal (also important as had little appetite up high). Started hike at 930. Both packs weighed in around 25Lbs and was a huge help in making the trek up to Trail Camp smooth and easy. Did great job of knowing, dividing/sharing and bringing only what we needed and still camped in relative comfort. I think our fresh legs and mind and general stoke for being in the mountains carried us up the hill at a great pace (looked more aggressive coming down). Approx 5 hours to trail camp including a small water filter and snack at Outpost Camp. Enjoyed dinner and sunset at camp and turned in for night after sunset. Did watch a team of four coming down the chute rather late in the evening, not sure where their camp was..

Day 3: Alarm buzzed at 5, but wind was howling and awoke around 6. Made small breakfast and coffee, prepared packs, filtered H20 (do not use lake right at camp (smells of human poo, not the pristine Sierra water you get elsewhere), found some clean run off toward the chute). 7am, again feeling fresh, made quick work of the slope (microspikes and axe)and made it to Trail Crest in about 2 hrs. Put away the spikes and axe and got the trekking poles back out, made it to summit around 11am. Hung out on summit for about 20min and then headed back down. Glissading the chute was fun and much quicker than trudging up. Not sure how people were making it down safely without axe? Got back to trail camp around 2 to take it down. Left camp around 3 and arrived back at Portal around 6. Doug was still open (one of our goals), but we decided to head back down for Lone Pine, grab a hotel, shower, and walk over for more pizza and beer on Pizza Factory patio (they even had SD favorite Sculpin IPA).

Overall a successful journey and a good bucket-list tick. Can't wait to get back out and summit some other Sierra classics!

Congrats on the summit, P-Nut. Thanks for the report.

You wrote that you removed the microspikes after Trail Crest. Is the trail that dry after that?

Thanks Steve.

I would estimate about 90% of trail from crest to summit is free of snow/ice. There were about 2 or 3 sections of about 10-15 yards each that could merit spikes. Probably depends on personal comfort level; we took these sections carefully both directions. Additional storms could certainly change things.

Did you get a good look at the switchbacks? Do you thinks there still too much snow/ice to do them safely with micros and trekking poles?

Hopefully if there is precipitation with storm system moving in, it will be mostly rain.

thanks for the report. I'm going first week of June. can you tell me if consultation and hitchcock lakes are still frozen?

A couple parties apparently took switchbacks but they were certainly minority. I have never done switchbacks, but chute seems like a much better direct route if snow cover allows ascent..

Consultation lake was frozen. Not sure which lakes were Hitchcock?