Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports Switchbacks 2019

I'm sitting here with sunburned lips and sunburn around my nostrils. Guess where I've been.

I spent 3 nights at Trail Camp -- my body just about can't survive at that altitude and do anything requiring exertion!

Word has it that some fool with more energy than brains shoveled a path through the cables and several other key places on the switchbacks. I walked down from Trail Crest, through the switchbacks Friday 6/7/19, and they are nearly all usable with hiking poles (WITH snow baskets) and crampons. Took me over two hours to Trail Camp, though. The "fool" may have missed several switchbacks, since some areas are completely white-out snow field.

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3 days at Trail Camp...I'm guessing that was you with the shovel

Nice work, Steve!

Geesh! Is this part of "the fool's" knee rehab program?!

Great work Steve. I'm sure many anxious hikers will benefit from your work.

What was your shelter system on the snow?

Yep, it was knee rehab time. Man, I couldn't be happier with the result. Can sure hike better than the past two years, no pain whatsoever!! It's been 4 1/2 months since the TKR surgery.

We camped on dry sandy surface at Trail Camp. There is running water available there, too.

Da pics are here with captions. The main ones are posted below.

That's amazing you're able to do that much in such a short time after the surgery. Very cool!

Ok, now for pictures...

View of the lower switchbacks from Trail Camp. Many of the lower ones are buried under snow. I walked a zig-zag line up to the first ones left of the main tracks thru the snow. (click on each picture to see the full-size view.)



Switchback trail thru the cables section.


The bend at the top of the cables. It is a steady incline, even though the picture doesn't look that way.



Looking back down the cables section.



Mid-way traverse, looking eastward, Consultation Lk below. You can see my tracks where I walked the switchbacks below, then climbed up, looking for the next sign of the trail. Not finding it, I checked the EarthMate map on my iPhone, and realized it crossed this big snow field heading up and west.



The same midway traverse, looking west.



The top switchback traverse. Spot my hiking poles



The top switchback traverse. (to the right of the picture above).



I finished digging out the traverse above, and reached Trail Crest at 4 pm. The traverse should have been made a little wider, but time was ticking away, and I needed to get down! The traverse is just a few feet up that incline to the right of the sign.



Here's my view of the Whitney summit and the hut (red arrow). That is Mt Muir on the left. This is as close as I got to the summit this year.



All my pictures from the trip are here with captions.

Awesome! Thank you for the hard work, and for sharing.

That is some epic work! Wow - great pictures too, thanks for sharing.

Powers That Be should release a number of additional permits for volunteers who are willing improve the safety of the route. I think the members of this site will have lots of hands up.

SteveC - will you post a pic of your crampons, please?

Umm... they're almost 40 years old! People would laugh.

No one laughed at the picture of your knees, and at least one of them is much older than 40 years.

Yeah, and one of them isn't 5 months old, yet! I can hardly believe how amazing that is. It gave me NO trouble, leg is way stronger than before the TKR. (Oh, well, maybe it did give me a little ache the last morning in my sleeping bag.) It's pretty incredible.

Amazing work Steve and great to hear your TKR was worth it

Wonderful photos ( and great physical effort well-recognized)

Wow Steve, thank you. You're doing God's work. Glad to hear you're having a great time with your new knee.

Haven't been on here for a while, enjoying the trip reports. Hope to get up there in end of Sept with some friends for a day hike, crossing my fingers for some permits to open up.