Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion MR snow/ice-free?

I'm heading up the Mountaineer's Route on Thursday (8/6/20). Is there any snow/ice left in the Chute, or on the Final 400, or on the Walk-Off?

As for that Final 400: from what I've read, the easiest route is to start on the left and then mostly go up the middle, but finish on the right. Does that sound about right? Anyone have any annotated photos?

Hey Adam,

I was there a week ago (7/29). Here is the final 400' and the West traverse. Even though the traverse ice is mostly gone, the scree around it looked pretty loose and sketchy. We took the final 400' both ways.

As far as navigating within the final 400', we started on the right, went hard left and kept left until we hit the snow. We then went to the right again all the way through the chimney. There is still a lot of ice glazing the rocks in the middle, so avoiding that dictated our moves.

In my opinion, the hardest part of the final 400' is getting on it (first 20 ft).

Have fun! The MR is a beautiful trail!


https://photos.app.goo.gl/KgATRYU7Xk8ggdVc7

Thanks for the info. Here goes nothin'!

Well, I made it, but the Mountaineer's Route KICKED MY ASS.

I got on the trail at 5:38am and went up the Rockwell Shortcut and then the "slab shortcut" (which isn't much of a shortcut, but it's fun) between Lower and Upper Boy Scout Lakes... so far so good. Twice I ascended too early when trying to get to Iceberg Lake, but I made it with no mishaps. That was about the time that the altitude started really getting to me. I didn't have AMS, I was just exhausted every time I had to take a step uphill. It took me two full hours to get from Iceberg Lake to The Notch... and at least half an hour to negotiate The Final 400.

All in all, it took me 10 hours to reach the summit. Granted, part of that is because I take tons of wildflower pictures. But I think it was mostly the thin air; this was my first time ever above 12,200', and I normally reside at sea level.

The descent on the Main Trail only took 6 hours. If it'd been daylight, I'm sure the flowers would have slowed me down some more, but the sun went down somewhere between Trail Camp and Outpost Camp. I finished on the Old Trail and got back to my car at exactly 10:00pm.

Congrats! We're headed to the MR in about two weeks. Did it look like all the remaining snow on the final 400 will be gone by then?

Congratulations, Adam! I hope you might share a few pictures. Send them to the contact us link at the bottom of the page, if you don't have a photo-sharing place of your own.

Maybe, but I wouldn't worry about it either way. The snow wasn't much of an obstacle.

I will, once I get myself re-combobulated. Should I post them in this thread or make a new one in Trip Reports?

By the way, Steve, those videos you posted a few years back were very helpful. I even took a few of the ones from the Rockwell Shortcut and the Ebersbacher Ledges and re-mixed them into a single file that I copied to my phone.

I agree, Steve's videos were very helpful. To me, the videos showing the turns between LBSL and UBSL were the most useful.

Where are Steve's videos? I'm headed up the MR for the first time next month and would love to research it more!

The videos start in this thread: http://www.whitneyzone.com/wz/ubbthreads.php/topics/8177

thanks so very much!!! i really appreciate it!

There are more MR threads and info here:
Reference Forum, first thread: Important Whitney links , first link there is Mountaineers Route info and links Some of the links and threads are old or broken, but lots of good stuff still there.

ya'll are awesome!!

thank you!

I posted a trip report: 8/6/20: Up the Mountaineer's Route, down the Main Trail