Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Whitney Main Trail Conditions 2016 (Out-of-Date)

Shane,

We start from Whitney Portal at 12:00 am on Sunday.

This posted on June 10 by andre:

Mt Whitney on June 6th 2016

BLUF: Did a solo climb yesterday 10 June. Total time 15:54 minutes. Left portal at 2:45 where there was plenty of parking. Needed crampons and an axe, ultimately glissading wasn't too bad.

Got my pass at around 1130 the night before from the overnight box at the visitor center. Spoke to the woman on the phone the day before and she said there would be street parking along portal road for 1 more week. Slept in my car until 230 and hit the trail.

The hike all the way up to trail camp was a breeze, no issues there. The only questionable point was about a half mile into the hike where there was a bit of a sketch creek crossing that I would have preferred not to do alone or in the dark, but I had no one to blame for that but me.

I found following the trail in the dark very easy. Two or three times I would take a step and realize, wait a minute, I must have missed a switchback, and then right behind me would be the switchback.

The chute was where the fun started. I definitely needed both crampons and an axe, some were doing it with just poles and crampons, but I needed the axe (certainly to descend). I was wearing tennis shoes because I was nervous about the creek crossings and so forth and kept telling myself when my feet get wet I will switch into my hiking boots, I actually kept the tennis shoes on all the way to the summit even through the chute, looking back on it I might have just stuck with boots the whole time.

It took me what seemed like forever to get up the chute. There were not good tracks to follow and the ice (it was around 8 or 830) was hard to dig my crampon into. Ultimately I made it up and to the summit around 11. The climb from vista to the summit was windy and a little unnerving but not too bad. There were some pockets of snow/ice but always with enough rocks to hold onto so you never felt like you were going to go over the edge.

The descent is where the fun started. I was nervous to glissade because the chute is so steep and long and the ice had melted to a mushy snow by the early afternoon. After an attempt at walking through someone's previous switchbacks (and one slip that required a mild self arrest) I gave up on walking and decided to give my rear a try. It worked quite well, going 20 or so yards at a time before stopping myself so I wouldn't go to fast. All around me though folks were losing control and panicking to a stop after 30-50 yards. One individual had only poles and took off for the bottom, whether it was intentional or not I do not know, but down he went.

After the chute it was mostly fine, all downhill obviously and pretty easy. It's been said time and time again that the thing that makes this hike difficult isn't the technicality but the length, and that is certainly true. 16 hours later I was back, and happy to be done!

Happy hiking everyone!

Thank you for the update, MDRhiker! Sounds like you did great! Was any part of the trail flooded? Another hiker noted it was quite a challenge as many parts of the trail was flooded on June 6th due to recent snow melt. A group of us is doing an overnight hike this coming weekend - 6/16-17.

I summited last thursday. By the afternoon the chute was soft snow and not ice. In the morning it's straight ice, by the time I hit it to glissade it was soft snow but I still gained a ton of speed.

I had a blast, but be super careful, lots of rocks at the bottom and some under the snow.

Report from 6/10:

Before I get to details please note the following: I found 2 very disappointing things on the way up/down: The first was poo. Full wag bags were left many places. For example, there was one 20’ from Lone Pine lake, another In the middle of a small island in the creek at Trailside Meadow, and several others spots. There was also uncovered human waste about 8’ from the lake at trail camp. The second disappointment was trash. It is early summer still, and there was a lot of trash on the trail and around camps. Not all of it was microtrash that was inadvertently carried away by the wind. For example, there was one gallon size orange juice bottle (?!) on the trail near trail camp. I had no more room left in my pack or I would have picked it up.

Please pack out your feces like you agreed to do! I can't see why it would be, if its an emergency and you must leave it, go AT LEAST 100 feet from water source or camp, dig deep and cover, and don’t add plastic (wag bag) to your biohazard litter. Please try to leave the mountain cleaner than you found it. No one goes there to see other peoples poo and trash.

Rant over, now trail report from trip on 6/8 through 6/11.

Lower trail still has snow blocking switchbacks in a few places past Lone Pine Lake and up. They are easily seen and passed in daylight. It is not flooded, stream crossings are easily doable. Switchbacks were not yet usable. I did talk to one crew that said they climbed them past the cables but did not make it to trail crest. Not sure how they did that.

Started chute at 06:00, reached trail crest at about 08:00. It was just barely starting to soften up at about 8:00. I did it with spikes and an axe. I think the spikes were better than crampons. A few people were making ascent with only poles and spikes/crampons. Ascent was doable this way, but descending without axe was very strenuous and dangerous.

Past trail crest there are still several snowed/iced over areas on trail. In a several places hikers must follow the tracks off/above trail through well packed and iced over snow. Most of these are over sheer drops, so not for faint of heart. The big boulder blocking trail-pictured in an earlier post-no longer has any snow around it.

The glissade descent from trail crest was done in soft corny mash at about noon. From the top it is very intimidating, and I would not have wanted to do it without the axe, nor with any shadows on the slope. Many folks were unfamiliar with technique, and a few got dangerously out control. Its surprising no one got seriously injured. A few lost poles, and one lost an axe on descent. These were retrieved during the short time I was watching, but it's possible some were not since the season began, so add potentially submerged projectiles to glissade hazard list. Go as slow as you can.

I will add that I had no experience with this equipment, but studied and practiced glissading, arresting and other axe skills before attempt. It was still at the hairy edge of my comfort zone.

Arrest technique: https://youtu.be/94QFImjdEAo Glissade technique: http://www.climbing.com/skills/learn-this-how-to-glissade/ Note the handle is the brake, not the pick/adze end, that's for arresting.

I did not see anything that was flooded. There were a few stream crossings, maybe 4-5, all of which were made easy to cross by rocks that were in place. The only tough one was the one I mentioned which required a little more attention but was manageable. A stick made it a lot easier, so I'm assuming people will poles had an easier time.

Agreed about the human waste, I saw several wag bags too. Why use them if you are just going to leave them?! One was left in a stream it seemed right were someone might think was a good water source, gross.

You said the switchbacks were not usable, I didn't use them but I did speak to 2 people who summited and descended using the switchbacks and not the chute. they said one in their party turned back out of fear, but that they made it without trouble.

you mentioned after crest having to go off the trial, I did not experience that.

You saw the bag I was talking about at Trailside Meadow. I moved that bag (ewe) from the middle of stream as far as I could from water and covered it with a large stone. Fortunately I had antiseptic wipes! It had been damaged by critters, so may have been dragged to the location we saw. As you said, Why?!

Past trail crest there were about 2-4 snow/ice areas that were maybe 3-6 above the trail and between 8-12 in length. If you were moving at a good clip you probably didn't notice trail below as these were well worn tracks, and probably looked like the trail.

This is a significantly late entry, but possibly helpful to any solo hikers out there. I started my journey as a solo overnight female hiker on the MT 5/27. I encountered snow starting at around 9.5K, I'm sure much of that is melting now. I made it to trail camp but did not get to attempt the summit due to one of my crampons slipping on my regular hiking boots. But I did have a fantastic time though! Watched the morning alpine glow, the sun rise (I camped just left of the outskirts of trail camp- I had a 360* view of no other campers in site) which made it totally worth it! It was the adventure, peace, and solitude I was hoping for despite not making it to the summit.

Here is my list of things that were helpful for me. I have done many trekking trips, a 16.5K & 19.5K, but this was my 1st overnight solo hike. So naturally I was an overly prepared girl scout.

Mistakes I made

*Blk Diamond Crampons w/ regular Lowa hiking boots. Unfortunately the pair I rented- one of the metal beads that holds the size in place would slip out when my boot flexed when walking on ice. UGH!!Obviously NOT a recognizable problem until I got to TC and did a practice run on icy snow. Therefore, it was a NO GO and I was scratched from attempting the morning summit. BUMMER! Hard plastic Mnt boots (the kind that don't flex w/ walking) are a MUCH BETTER guarantee despite many others having similar hiking boots/crampons.

*Stove- don't take it. Plenty of available H20 and you'll only be noshing on snacks. I would take an MRE next time if I really thought I would want a hot meal (which I did not).

* Too much of everything for that matter. Stick to your instincts, if you are a solo hiker and don't have group members sherpa-ing your stuff around. ** I carried 47LBS to TC. That is 2 more LBS than a 1/3 of my body weight btw. It was tough and I was tired when reaching trail camp.

Helpful tips

*Mount Whitney Trail Samsung phone app w/ Version service + extra battery charger. Very accurate when I lost the trail twice buried in snow and followed footsteps of other hikes making the same mistake. Once at Mirror Lake and once after passing Trail Side Meadow.

* Carrying 47lbs as a solo hiker was exhausting. I started at 6:30am, after getting lost twice adding 1 hr to my time, made it to TC at 1:45pm. This gave me plenty of time to talk to other hikers and recover from being a bit tired. I was very fresh the next morning after going to bed at 7:30pm the night before. I was the 2nd hikers to make it into TC, all other hikers started rolling in at 5:30-7pm. In my opinion getting to bed early for an early summit would have worked in my favor.

Info from other hikers

Inventory from the 22 other hikers coming off the Mnt- on my acclimation hike ( 5/26) and actual hike (5/27). Only 5 ppl made it to summit. 3 ppl started the summit from TC at 7am and returned to TC at 5pm. The other two successful ppl started at 3:30am (not sure of their finish times). Many ppl stated they froze in the night.

Did you get any feed back on the 99's? Heading up 0n the 23rd would love to know how they look??

Robert W: Re 99 switchbacks, they were still very much covered w/ snow 5/27 and only the chute was the accessible route. However, by 6/23 I image they would have melted. Be sure to keep checking this webpage for frequent updates. But if this forum isn't helpful, I know when I picked up my permit the ranger was informative regarding the conditions on the chute. I am sure you could call the Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center for current updates as well.

Hey all,

I went up on 6/10 with two other friends. We started up the trail at 1:50AM. The first two creek crossings about a mile into the trail and just before the John Muir Wilderness sign had a good flow of water crossing the trail. The first creek crossing was not sketchy, but the second creek crossing could be sketchy to the inexperienced. Slow down, use your trekking poles to stabilize and ensure a solid footing on the rocks as you cross. From there to the Whitney Zone sign is a breeze. There was a sketchy patch of snow a little ways up from the sign leading to Big Horn park that was a little icy at night. Use care when crossing this patch and you'll be fine. The hike thru the meadow at Big Horn Park thru Outpost Camp is very pleasant. Once past Mirror Lake and heading up the rocky domes above Big Horn, it can be easy to lose the trail if you don't pay attention. There's two patches of snow that cross the trail. Slow down again, get your bearings and use your best judgement. We ended up scrambling up some rocks before realizing where the trail was. Nothing really sketchy here because it's obvious where you have to go. Trail Side Meadow was beautiful with a snow free trail all the way up to nearly Trail Camp. Maybe a quarter mile before TC there's some areas where you have to hike thru a bit of snow. With a little care it's no big deal. The lake at TC is snow and ice free. We refilled there and I have to say it's the most refreshing tasting water you'll ever have. TC is snow free. The 99 switchbacks looked passable for the most part. I couldn't get a solid view of the cables but based off of a picture I saw more then a week ago, a lot of snow has melted away from the cable area which looked passable with care. My group opted to head for the chute. There's still quite a bit of snow on the chute, but it's melting fast. We started up the chute around 8:30AM. We had on Micro spikes and used our trekking poles to get up. One of the guys with me made it up a third of the way. By then the snow really got mushy and he was uncomfortable going up and trying to get down since he had no experience in snow before. The other member in my group opted to continue up. We watched him successfully make it to the top of Trail Crest in about 45 minutes. He met us later that afternoon and said it took him 2 hours to get to the summit from Trail Crest and the going was easy other then stopping to catch a breath now and then. 2 hours back to Trail Crest and about 5 minutes to glissade down the chute with an ice axe to self arrest. It was a great day, amazing weather, and awesome experience to be on Whitney again (I've summitted before 2 years ago).

Regarding the switch backs, I eventually got a decent visual on them and did see a group make there way up and thru the cables. the last switch back leading to Trail Crest had a little snow but from there to the cables appeared relatively snow free, some areas had little snow but was nothing to worry about. Majority of the snow seen on the switch backs was at the cables and a few switch backs below. With the high temps lately I'd say they'll be snow free in a week or two.

I do want to make a note regarding the chute. We saw many people not prepared to go up or down. Some had an axe and no crampons or spikes. Others had nothing at all and were using a large pocket knife as a self arresting tool. My advice is if you don't have the appropriate gear, do not go up or down the chute. Additionally, if you don't know the proper technique or are not with anyone that knows proper technique, you have no business being up there. You put yourself and others at great risk.

I wish you all the best at your attempts! Enjoy the experience, and make lots of great memories! Stay safe and use good judgement. The mountain will always be there!

I read this thread several times before the trip, so I'd like to return the favor with some information.

Headed up on 6/11 from Whitney Portal. Left at 12:30 am. Trail up to Trail Camp is pretty much free of snow. Running water at Trail Camp and at the bottom of the Switchbacks.

Climbed the Chute at 4:00 am. The snow was firm and it was very easy in crampons. The Switchbacks are still filled in with snow but we saw several people take that route.

Trail from Trail Crest has patches of ice on several sections but with some care these can be navigated without a problem.

On the way back, just as we reached Trail Crest @ 12:00, we saw an ice axe and poles scattered on the slope of the Chute. A group that came up said that two guys tumbled down from the very top and ended up in the rocks at the bottom, one of them was hurt badly. We called 911 and reported the fall. Retrieved their axe on the way down but everyone was gone by the time we descended.

As we hiked out, other hikers told us that both were relatively OK. One had a major burn/gash on the leg (we saw a picture) from hitting the rocks and the other had no visible injuries. The backstory to their fall was that they glissaded as a "train" and lost control right away.

All of the people who saw or heard about the fall opted to descend via the Switchbacks and as far as we could tell they did make it down.

The snow was mushy and easy to hike down in the Chute but there are patches of ice in the old glissade paths, so pay attention.

Be safe and don't exceed your abilities!

UPD: Forgot to attach the pictures.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0By7-GPUtbpMzQ0NRcldTU3FNbTQ


https://drive.google.com/open?id=0By7-GPUtbpMzU0FZYXoycDYtbms



https://drive.google.com/open?id=0By7-GPUtbpMzVEdsMFZKMHpqQnc


https://drive.google.com/open?id=0By7-GPUtbpMzZG56eERibmdURUk

Thank you for all of your posts and pictures. We are heading up on Friday morning around 2:30am. The route looks to be 50/50 on the switchbacks vs the chute. 6 years ago we went up the chute in June in microspikes and it was long, steep, and <expletive> grueling but the glissading was smooth, safe, and fun. That was a 2-day trip, with a lot of snow, but this time we are doing it in 1 day.

I am seeing a lot of comments about the dangers of the chute. What is the preferred option: Chute or Switchbacks? The switchbacks were completely snow covered last time.

Is the chute more dangerous later in the day with the melt?

Also, does anyone know how difficult it is to find open spots at Whitney Portal Campground? I couldn't book a site for Wed night as it is full, but walk-ins are available.

Thanks! `Nick

Hi everyone, not sure how the threads work on posting, but wanted to report back. Thanks for all the feedback, we had a successful one-day summit on 06/11/16. The forecast wasn't looking so great with 50% snow after 11 am. It ended up hailing, cloudy, a windy summit for some and rain by 8pm. As the weather changes daily (and this post becomes irrelevant), I found this site to be helpful for weather updates: http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-118.277916&lat=36.592408#.V18Yx-YrLWY

Regarding the 99 switchback, we heard a few were able to use this route and only parts are covered with snow. We opted for the chute, and admittedly, this was the most challenging part of the hike. On the way up the chute, we veered off to the rocky patch as recommended by some who said it was safer. However, we found it to be slower, watching those on the chute pass us by.

On the descend, while my partner successfully glissaded, I had trouble controlling my speed. We returned late so the snow was softer and I had trouble digging my ice axe deep enough to self arrest and slow down. Crampons and ice axe highly recommended for the chute. It's rather steep and slippery so make the right choice at the top because once you slide down, there's no turning back (well, you can always can hike back up). If it's too slippery, you can also put your crampons back on and hike down. Given the condition of current snow, I would have chosen the switchback. Besides the chute, the rest can be done with regular hiking shoes. When the clouds cleared, it was a beautiful view.

It is a long hike and I commend you all for trying. I wish everyone a successful summit and wonderful experience at Whitney. The weather should only get better from here, all the best.

went up from portal at 12:30am for a 1 day summit on 6/10. went up the chute. need crampons and ice axe. need to climb the chute early, before 8am, when snow is hard. later in the day, snow does not hold. I reached the bottom of last rock before crest at 10am but snow was too soft and I can not make it on the rock and slide down. my mistake for not bring a rope. good luck you guys and go early. the climb is long and hard, takes a while. a few guys in our group did it. practice self arresting before you go. hold tight to your axe.

Thanks everyone for the great posts about the conditions. Planning a day hike with my son on Sunday. I see some comments about the switchbacks but has anyone here taken them up to Trail Crest? I don't think we're experienced enough to try the chute.

Hi Nick, our group is going up on Thurs, 16th, camp at trail camp and then summit on Fri, 17th early morning. Based on the recent reports so far, we probably will hike up the chute early (around 4a) and depending on conditions, take the switchbacks down. Maybe we will run into each other on Fri.

Please post an update after your hike on Sunday. I'm going on the 29th. Thanks.