Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Do you keep the tent open or closed for Marmot

For people camping at outpost or trail camp, do you keep the tent open or closed during the day? I heard if you keep the tent closed and marmot will tear the tent open to check whether there is food inside.

I've camped at both locations over 20x each and have always kept my tent zipped up while gone. With no food inside. I was taking a nap once when the tent next to me had a major screeching event go on. Turns out a juvenile marmot most likely entered the front open part of the tent and went to the back where the sun was beating down and tried to exit. Two other large marmots were trying to get in by biting a hole through the tent. The little guy finally was able to exit with half eaten wrapped twinkie. The big guys then chased after the little guy. I looked in the front of the tent and it was full of wrappers. No bear can in sight.

I keep my food in my bear can outside my tent and well away from it. I try to keep it clean. But, I have seen marmots inspect my bearikade scout and try to push it over several times. I've parked my backpack at trail crest several times and crossed my fingers with my bear can in the bottom of the pack. However, back in 2014, the pack next to mine was ripped open at the base and a kit of meds and bandaides were strewn all over. Ever since it has made me a bit nervous when leaving my pack there, but I still do it. I do this when visiting the summit and then heading north on JMT.

On the JMT, I've had more problems with bold chipmunks that have run up and grabbed part of my sandwich fixings while I am making them.They can be annoyingly quick. I've also caught mice licking the salt of my back pack. I tend to sweat a lot and leave an obvious white salt zone on my pack. So, now I try and remember to wipe it off before hitting the sack. I'm a light sleeper and when cowboy camping almost anything wakes me up.

Bears at the portal have been more of an issue. While waiting for my ride in the wee hours, I've seen guys drop their packs next to their cars late at night or very early in the morning and then go use the restroom on two different occasions. Both times the packs were ripped into as I was getting up to walk down the road and warn the guys.

I've been hiking and backpacking since 1968 and by far the most opportunistic activity I've seen is from Whitney portal to Yosemite Valley. Probably not statistically significant as I have spent more time in the Sierras than most other places.

I'd say don't worry about it, but I always have plenty of room to pack my fears and worry about what ifs and the possibilities of zombie attacks on trail. Its taken more than 50 years to get my pack weight down from mid 50's to mid 20's for a 9 day typical summer outing. And I've yet to see a zombie or encounter dinosaur sized ants on the trail.

Best of luck.

Thanks for the detailed answer. A related question: if I have some food left in the car parked on the trailhead, what problem would it cause? Will Bear break into my car?

Yup. Happens all the time.

The bears are quite good at ripping doors open and breaking windows. Your car should look empty. When I had an SUV with no trunk, I put spare gear under a large black sheet (cheap Walmart). So the bear looks in and only sees a flat black surface. And I don't leave anything smelly in the vehicle (like air fresheners). No soda / coffee cups either. I have seen rangers write up a few vehicles that have had a large amount of what looks like food items in the vehicles. There some older photos on this site that show the aftermath of bears entering and exiting vehicles.

There are large bear boxes associated with parking lots. Stuff your food and smelly stuff in a bag with your name and return date on it. Then put it in the bear box. Remember to close and latch the bear box. The bears frequently check the boxes to see if someone didn't latch it properly.

Thanks again for the detailed answer. It's good there are large bear boxes at the parking lots that I can use.

I must have accidentally left one atom of food in my tent at Trail Camp. Got back from the summit and marmots had chewed an entry AND exit hole in the tent, shat on everything, and chewed up my pack.

Wiff- those are some sick minded marmots, to do that to a man's tent and pack is just wrong. Not a marmot, so guessing they liked the salts on the pack or nanoparticle scent remaining from past food storage.

Wrt the original thread questionaire, learnt here and practice the recommendation to leave tent clean and unzipped/open, they are going in either way if that is the goal. Its really a Harry Callahan decision/moment "do you feel lucky"? Hopefully, worst case as read here in past from patron leaving tent unzipped, they went in looked around and dropped a biscuit before leaving through the opening, kinda saying thanks for nothing and have a nice day.

Also observed some folks just collapse tent for day with minor inconvenience of putting up upon return.