Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Whitney Main Trail Conditions 2015 (Out-of-Date)

Here's a recent picture from Instagram, posted by gentravels

Beautiful! And, for the woefully unprepared, sketchy! Thanks for sharing the winter side of this magnificent hike.

From Instagram, posted by codykucich "Spontaneous trip up mt Whitney"

Campsite at Trail Camp

From Instagram, posted yesterday by brinley_chan

These are great, Steve. Thanks. Still looks manageable, but with the proper precautions and know-how.

Nice Pic and congrats on the successful climb!

I'm thinking of driving down to climb on Saturday. Any groups heading up that I could tag with?

Just a heads-up, this photo was taken Saturday the 17th

Posted on Instagram by malissa_mo



click to enlarge:

More from Melissa M:

Anyone recently on the mountain:

Will micro-spikes cut it, or will I need to bring the 'pons?

I'm bringing a helmet, t-poles, and ice axe JIC.

Any flowing water anywhere on the mountain?

Never gone this late in the season.

Just finished a successful summit this morning 10/25. All of this information is with the caveat that there is more snow supposedly coming in midweek.

We started from trail camp just before 4 a.m. with microspikes and trek poles. For 98% of the switchbacks this was plenty for us. There are a number of drifts built up though that require some careful moves. Kicking steps helped here where the spikes didn't. Fairly good exposure throughout the switchbacks.

Beyond trail crest, the exposure went up but we had little trouble negotiating this terrain. You'll need to be comfortable moving over a one foot wide trail of packed frozen snow, with a steep drop off. I don't recall needing to kick steps.

My biggest recommendation is to start early. We had little trouble with the terrain because it was all very compacted from freezing overnight. On our descent from the summit however it had become very soft (somewhere around 10am) and microspikes helped little in this stuff (the poles did tremendously though). Most of the people we talked to who didn't get to the switchbacks until after dawn ended up turning around just above the cables, whether they had spikes or not.

All of this may change with any new snow. I will say that the person we saw who seemed to have the easiest time was the one with full cramps and an axe so I say bring 'em. I don't see where a helmet would be necessary though.

Plenty of running water all over up until trail camp. After that, just snow.

I'll look through my photos and see if any provide a good idea of the conditions.

More than anything, it was cold, especially after post holing on the way down. Bring plenty of socks!

Gaiters would be especially helpful for any postholing.

I'm curious about people turning around. Was the packed snow on the trail getting too soft, so people were punching through it too much? Seems like well-packed snow like the pictures above show would stay firm all day!

Thanks Ejector_Crab!!

I'll likely bring full cramps. The helmet is a fall precaution.

Thanks Steve, I'm planning on bringing gaiters.

Gaiters will help. I was wearing full-length gaiters, but I was also wearing approach shoes. No mesh on them, but still lightweight so they were soaked by the time we returned to Trail Camp. If you have gaiters and your shoes are moderately insulated or treated, then you should be able to stay dry.

Steve, the really packed parts were still packed and solid later in the day, but the corners on most of the switchbacks and the switchbacks higher up were getting really soft. Still manageable with good use of the poles, but I was sliding around a little bit. I wonder if it's drifts coming in overnight and covering up the packed snow.

As far as why people were turning around, I don't mean to question or minimize people's caution, because it's certainly needed on this mountain, but the trail reports we were getting on the way up Saturday didn't always mesh with our trail experience. Reports consisted of one of three things mostly:
1) Summitted with microspikes with no problem, but the exposure is high.
2) Turned around on the switchbacks due to lack of traction.
3) Turned around after Trail Crest due to ice/sliding around.

Our report would be #1, but I certainly understand #2 if you start late in the day or just don't feel comfortable. #3 didn't make sense to me though. I personally found that if you can make it up the switchbacks, the rest of the trail should be manageable. Granted, I don't know what the back side is like late in the day now, and the exposure is very high in some spots, but it was the most solid snow we encountered all day, and that should be the case if you start early.

So in my opinion, microspikes, trek poles, an early start, and a little caution should be sufficient in current conditions as of 10/25. Obligatory CYA: don't hike beyond your experience and comfort. FWIW though, two in my group are snow travel beginners, and intermediate would probably be generous for me, and we never felt in over our heads.

Bottom line, your experience will really dictate how it goes. We saw a guy in nothing but mesh Aasics going over Trail Crest no problem, but we also saw plenty of people with microspikes turning around.

Ejector-crab: I've found there people's risk/danger level of caution is all over the scale. What seems easy-as-pie to you or me is deadly scary to others. Then there are some other sports that I wouldn't even consider. It all depends on the specific hiker.

Now here's your picture you wanted to post. If you have more, just post the links, and I can fix up the post:
...Hey! Are you OFF the switchbacks in that picture??? It sure looks that way.

Nope, but it sure looks that way, doesn't it? This is obviously on the way down after the sun came up. You can see that fresh snow has been drifted over the slope. This isn't the best example of the soft snow I mention, but you can see that the trail isn't always a packed path at this point.

Thanks for posting for me Steve.

I love me some treacherous trekking!

I'll admit to being an acrophile and claustrophile. If I had the money would do this in a heartbeat.

Posted Oct 29 on Instagram, by theluckyyogi
Caption: "Walking on top of 3-4 ft of snow on the side of a mountain. #mtwhitney ∆ Shot from @dehray_416 #gopro"


Much more of this and people need to consider using crampons and carrying (and knowing how to use) an ice axe.




From the Reference forum, first post (Links to important Whitney information):
Ice Axe use: Watching this video by the British Mountaineering Council is mandatory:
  Mt Whitney hiking and climbing videos   Another good one:  Ice Axe Technique
Related: Glissading from Trail Crest and hazards
Trip report with glissading video on Whitney: 6/1/2014 Dayhike Summit by beginner hikers

Using my crampons really helped and climbing was a breeze. Props to those I met coming down from the summit in micro spikes.