Mt Whitney Zone Forums Reference Older Trail Conditions - Mt Whitney Trail, 2022

Thanks for the post. Looks like the weather was about to get real sketchy up there.

Here are some recent pictures from the North Fork -- provided by Connie Kim. They were taken March 19, 2022.

Whitney Portal


North Fork Lone Pine Creek -- where the Main Trail crosses.



In the North Fork -- Mountaineers Route approach

"Elevatedtv" climbed Mt Whitney via the Main Trail on 4/12/22, spending one night at Outpost Camp.

His trip report is here: Mt Whitney Trail 4/12/2022

Here are some of the pictures:

Main trail half a mile above Whitney Portal



Outpost Camp



Mirror Lake



Looking down at Trail Camp



The Cables Section



The Cables



Approaching Trail Crest



The crest, past Trail Crest



The Summit Hut

Steve, thanks for the pictures. Looking nice up there, but I' am guessing a decent amount of snow has fallen since then at least over this last week.

Do we have any intel on when the gate will be open to the trailhead? I see they were going to open the campgrounds, but then changed it due to not knowing if the road would be done...

Let me rephrase this in case anyone has an answer.

The "middle" gate is what I would be referring to; not the one near the trail head. So we know the gate at the bottom with the sign is open, the one closest to the trail head is not (I think), but what about the middle one that is always closed in the winter?

Looking to possibly head up there later in the week.

Would love to get beta on the access to the portal as well. Heading up this weekend to hit the Meysan Lake trail/Mt. Irvine and hope we don't have to hike up the national scenic trial from Lone Pine Camp.

I called the Inyo County road department, and the best thing I could get was "They're working on it" and it will open "any day now". The phone person took my number and said she would ask the person in charge to call me....

The link to the roads page is at the bottom of the Road Dept page.

Steve, can you also ask about Horseshoe Meadows road.

Last year the road was open to the last gate which is about a third of a mile from the trailhead on April 19th. Less snow this year so I thought it might open around the same time.

paul

I love how the Road Dept page has "News Items" about the 2020 work on the road to South Lake, but nothing for 2021 or 2022.

Thanks Steve. I've been calling the Eastern Sierra Visitor Center, which is supposed to be open on a daily basis, but the phone has been going to voice mail every time.

Steve, I appreciate you doing that and posting the information here. I should be heading down there later this week, so when I can confirm it I will post it here.

If anyone goes before then, let me know.

Thanks for the updates, everyone. I’m headed up to the portal this Thursday morning. I’ll give a report at that time. Going to summit Friday so I’m hoping the upper gate will be open.

As of this evening, April 26, 2022, the Inyo County Roads page shows the Whitney Portal ROAD IS OPEN!

Awesome! Me and my friend are hiking up Thursday and hiking to Consultation Lake and camping then summit on Friday

Thanks for the update Steve as always. Appreciate it.

So we’re camping at Consultation Lake that’s the plan and I was wondering where to store our bear canisters pretty sure there’s no trees up there.
Secondly, does anyone know where to rent ice axes in Lone Pine? I called a couple shops but I know there’s more, and REI none of them rent the axe. It’s for my friend I’ll be bringing crampons and a ice axe.

Just put it 50 feet from your tent where you can see and hear if anything is messing with it (marmots would be more likely than bears at Consultation Lake). Make sure it's not near a place where it could get pushed into water or down a steep cliff.
I sometimes put my cooking pot on top for extra noise.

Bears stay low--at Whitney Portal, where they can steal daypacks from early-morning hikers who set them on a picnic table while they're getting ready to hike. Or they raid the campground areas. Way easier for them to score food there. You only need to keep your food away from mice and marmots.

Call Elevation Sierra Adventure in Lone Pine regarding the ice axe rental: (760) 876-4560

Just to double confirm this, I was just up at the portal.

Bottom gate is open, no road closed sign. Middle gate is open up above that.

The gate all the way at the top on the road not too far from the trailhead is locked, and all campgrounds are locked. About 15 cars up there when I was there.

NVG, thanks for that. The gate you found locked must be the one the Road Dept person referred to as the Forest Service gate.