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

NVG and I dayhiked the Mountaineers’ Route yesterday. The gate just before the overflow parking was still locked. It’s only a short walk to the trailhead, and there were cars parked WAY down below the gate.

Any updates on current trail conditions? How are the switchbacks, overall snow accumulation on trail, etc? Flying out in 3 weeks from NJ to complete the hike and want to know what to expect as it approaches with an idea of more current conditions

Bring ice axe and crampons. There will be spots you will be glad you have them.

How far can you hike until you need ax and crampons? Just looking to go for a hike and not summit.

Right above Trailside Meadow, which is 1 mile before Trail Camp, is where you’ll need crampons. Section of trail that is pretty dicey. Then you won’t need ice axe and crampons until ascending the chute to Trail Crest. Bring climbing helmet. Hit the chute super early in morning.

I have a video on YouTube showing all these areas in detail. It’s from April 29th so pretty current trail conditions.

https://youtube.com/channel/UC0ePKWygPWyZZtC2yWlpQ8g

If that link doesn’t work look up MtnMike on YouTube.

A buddy and I are attempting the Whitney Trail this weekend. The weather has been kind of bad the last few days from the weather reports, but does anyone have any trail conditions from this week?

Take ice axe and crampons -- At some point you will need them. The only unknown is where.

This is awesome! I wish we could have a post dedicated to each CA 14ers like this showing current trail conditions.

Hi! Planning on hiking Mt Whitney next weekend and was wondering if there were any updates on trail conditions? Thank you!

Here is a picture posted on May 20 of the Cables. I read a report that the chute (west of the switchbacks) was too soft to climb. The person reported they downclimbed the trail, and thought people should at least have microspikes at two places -- at the cables, and I am assuming, the final switchback before Trail Crest.

Here's the picture at the Cables.




The spot farthest in the distance is the worst. same picture, zoomed in.

Will my group need micro/exo spikes for a mid-June summit? Any ice under there?

I was up there on the 17th and the chute was perfectly fine - arguably much safer than the switchbacks as long as you have crampons and an ice axe. You just have to ascend it early in the morning between 4:30 and 9am. I ran into some campers who said that a guy told them that the switchbacks took him the entire day to ascend/descend on the 16th and he started up at 7:30am.

It should be ice free by mid-June. But no guarantees.

Hello! Heading up this Thursday. Would like to take the chute vs. the switchbacks (will overnight at trail camp). Any update on the conditions?

I found this report from a May 27:

"Zero people took the chute. It was full of rocks and I would say it is done for the season without a large snowfall. On the main trail there is maybe 25 feet of total snow to walk thru. We brought microspikes and considered putting them on while descending but with poles and sticking to the rocks it's totally fine."

Here's a picture at the cables on the switchbacks, posted May 29, 2022, by "Fox Adventures" on Facebook:

I went up today (June 3) wearing minimalist trail running shoes with close to a thousand miles of tread wear (had beta from past 3 days so decision was with care).

Went up and down both sides (main trail and jmt to guitar lake, trip report coming). Can confirm that unless there’s a storm, this trail is fully passable without traction. Cables are no problem, a couple 15 foot sections of sun cup snow after trail crest and before the summit boulder field. Also no problem.

Filmed a bunch of the water and snow/ice sections for beta reference for anyone else. Uploading to YouTube now, I’ll edit this post with the link when it’s up (might be tomorrow, I’m on a horseshoe meadow road clinging to 2 bars ????).

See the trip and video report here.

Following up on my beta request, I can confirm that the trail is completely possible without traction as of June 3rd 2022. A few notes:

-- Left trail camp around 5am. The first few hundred vertical feet were sometimes icy from snowmelt the day prior. This was easily passable without traction.
-- The cables have a completely snow free path (about 8 inches wide on average). There is a snowbank to your right (ascending) that requires a good hand hold or pole hold to feel secure. No traction is needed as the foot path is snow free.
-- There is a small snowfield about 750 vertical feet below the summit. There is a very deep and very secure path trodden in, and requires no traction.
-- While at trailcamp, there were a few instances of what sounded like significant rockfall. I wasn't able to spot it, but sounded like it was coming from somewhere near the east face/mountaineers route.

This snowbank, is it on your right (ascending)?

Frank, watching his video, it's on the right, on a switchback or two above the cables section.

Anyone have any intel on the current trail conditions? I was up there last weekend, saw nothing much to report. Someone on here posted the cables had snow and some ice.