Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Nighttime route finding north fork route

Hey all, stupid question-

How’s the route finding for the mountaineers route in the dark? More specifically the ebersbacher ledges?

Originally was just gonna do the main trail again since I got some friends interested that haven’t done Whitney yet but I got a sneaky suspicion their gonna flake so Plan B is doing 1 day solo mountaineers route on July 15th.

Skill wise and day time route finding I’m confident but I’ve gotten lost once or twice at night doing some other XC stuff lol.

I’d like to get an alpine start but i wonder if I should wait for dawn?

It would take about an hour to get to the base of the Ebersbacher Ledges, so you could start out in the dark, and get to the ledges at "civil twilight", when there's enough light to see.

If you haven't been there before, really study the route before you go. Farther up, between Lower and Upper Boy Scout, you need to know where to cross to the north side of the stream.

I think I’ll get up there a day earlier and scope it out

Check out my videos to find your way

https://vimeo.com/167990580

https://vimeo.com/183027955

Much appreciated

in reality, you don't need to cross the entire e-ledges to get where you want to. I usually head out to the ledges, then take that first short slope on the left. You end up at the same spot. Leave your camp at a time to reach the e-ledges when the sun is thinking about rising. And yea, that area between lower Boyscout and Upper Boyscout can be a bit of a pain. I've done it wrong before. Just make sure you make a sharp left at the beginning of Upper Boy Scout on your way up to the summit. The times I've been on it, there have not been many people on it, so yea, you might be on your own. I would suggest a partner though.

I found the e-ledges, relatively straightforward in the dark. It is a heavily used route. The ledges zig zags a bit so, just take your time - if something looks hard you probably arent looking at the route. There cairns and well used footpaths.

My first time up I did lose the route between lower and upper BSL. It was a snowy foggy night and ended up being a good thing I turned back as a storm moved in but in my opinion that area is harder to navigate the CORRECT path in the dark. Especially if there is snow.