Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports My failed attempt on the mountain

After months of planning and eager anticipation, I commenced my assault on the mountain on Sunday 10/4, sadly my timing could not have been worse but I had little choice having come all the way from The Land Down Under.

I believe the summit forecast indicated snow up to 6-8 inches for Sunday thru Tuesday, that forecast proved to be a gross underestimation.

I comfortably made Trail Camp by 11:00am with light snow falling and a great many hikers coming down.

By the time I had set up my tent the weather had really set in and the visibility was dropping rapidly as the snowfall intensity increased.

I retreated to my tent, believing that the storm would be short lived and that I would make my summit attempt on Monday.

How wrong I was. The snow storm continued for the next 30 hours, pounding my tent and dumping close to 3 feet of snow around trail camp and completely obliterating the trail. I was confined to my tent for close to 40 hours until the weather abated around 3:00am Tuesday. My Mt Whitney attempt was over and I freely admit to being seriously concerned for my safety as I lay huddled in my sleeping bag.

I had thought I was alone at Trail Camp, however upon leaving my tent on Tuesday morning, I noticed another tent some distance away so I waded over thru the thigh deep powder to find another hiker in the same predicament as me, having come down from the JMT on Sunday night. He advised that some SAR people were on the way up.

Around 11:00 a group of hikers came into camp using a GPS to trail find and I decided the time had come for me to get off the mountain. Luckily I could use their footprints to find my way down although it was heavy going in the deeper snow.

What I have learned from this exercise is that I was right to stay holed up in my tent for 48hrs, however stressful that was, rather than try and blunder down the trail in impossible conditions, that could have ended very badly.

So my Mt Whitney summit attempt remains unfulfilled but I have learned a great deal from the experience and can only speak highly of all the fellow hikers I met on the trail.

Perhaps I will get another shot someday but it is a long way from Sydney and I am not getting any younger!

Intrepid, so sorry you got snowed-in! Did you get any pictures? They would be fantastic to see. If you have any, email me a few good ones, and I'll post them.

Now, if you come from so far, come back in July. Even if you don't get a permit in the lottery, there are always no-shows and cancellations. If you are willing to risk it, you will get a permit either first day or second day of trying. We can show you how.

Glad you stayed inside the tent! Trips have indeed ended badly for a few, and it is usually the ones who are on their first trip.

Intrepid...

It was not a failure...you have no control over the weather. It appears you were well-prepared for your hike.

You did the right thing by staying put and trying to reassess what to do next. Others may have or would have panicked putting their lives at risk.

What you did on that trail saved your life.

So, you live for another day and another shot at a Whitney "walkabout." I agree with Steve, try July or August, NEXT YEAR!!!

G'day, mate!

Wow, what a great experience, you'll never forget that trip.
I'd love to see photos.

Hi all, I appreciate the comments. For the moment it is great to be back in sunny Sydney with summer coming on!
Here are a few photo's, I didn't get many by virtue of conditions. Judged snow fall by the fact that I moved my bear vault 3 times during the couple of days and each time it was totally buried in snow!

Oops! I can't work out how to attach photos, need the assistance of my 16 yo daughter! Will post some later.

Intrepid, if you click on the Picture Gallery forum, at the top is a link to instructions.
Here is the direct link: Instructions for storing pictures

Sorry it isn't as easy as Facebook, but this isn't billion-dollar software.

Finally managed to put a few pics on the gallery! And curdled my brain in the process!
I' ll take a hiking pole anyday before a computer.

Thanks! Here are some of your pics.

The rest are here.

The tent


Looking toward Mt Whitney


Intrepid

I saw you going up as I was coming down on Sunday. Sorry this happened to you.