Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports Oct 30-31 hike

Edit: This topic moved from Current Conditions thread and title changed to Oct 30-31 hike

Pics from Halloween weekend, didn't make the summit due to poor time management and younger brother freaking out on the slopes between the cables and trail crest. Such a beautiful time, though. First snow around the North Fork Trailhead (carried snowshoes for no good reason, really. It was deep but they weren't necessary. Crampons and ice axe were, however.

Thanks very much for posting the pictures!!!

Burchey,
What's the difference in the slopes between the Cables and Trail Crest versus the rest of the switchbacks? I did the trail in the dry and can't remember that part being any more scary. I actually thought from Trail Crest to the summit was much more hazardous.

Cool pictures!

Up to the cables we went straight up the switchbacks, as they were almost completely covered in snow. The last time I was above the cables was in dry conditions years ago, we stopped a few meters above them this time due to my brother and his fears. I can't speak for the conditions above that, but there is really no path, just a steep snow slope with rock slab peeking through in spots. I was loving it, more pics from my friends fisheye.

Well, I got to experience it first hand on the 4th. I tried to sleep at the Cottonwood Lakes area on the 3rd to acclimate. I didn't get a wink's worth of sleep so I headed over to the Portal, and arrived at 2 AM. There was only one person there that I saw. This gentleman also happened to have met those three rescued Nebraskans as they were heading up Whitney, and he was going down.

I headed up the trail ahead of him as I knew he would catch up. I just started hiking mid last year and knew he was in better shape. The gentleman caught up to me as we neared the switchbacks. When I was at the visitor's center the previous day, a ranger told me the trail was totally doable and that I would probably not even need crampons. He said 100 mile/hour winds had blown a good deal of the snow away. Good thing I brought the crampons. Conditions were identical to Burchey's pictures on the 4th. If I was by myself, I would have turned around. I made the decision to attempt the summit with this funny and friendly Marine by my side.

Last Thursday was by far the most terrifying and grueling hiking experience I've had yet. I made it to the summit though. On the way there, we met a 53 year old gentleman who literally camped right next to the Cables! He told us he had recently climbed Mt. Hood and Ranier. He did Whitney without crampons or Microspikes! I couldn't believe that all he had was an ice axe. Without the crampons, I was slipping and sliding all over the place. Amazing.

Anyhow, I'd have pictures but I put my camera down on the trail on my way back from the summit, about 30-45 minutes from Trail Crest. I forgot to pick it back up. I met two guys going for the summit in the evening. I promised to reimburse them if they found and sent me the camera. I was too tired to go back for it. I hope they made it back alright because everything from the Cables on up was pretty dicey in the daytime for me. I can't imagine going back in the dark.

By the time we made it back to the Portal, I was partly hallucinating and literally ready to pass out...literally. I almost keeled over more times than I can count. So, I'm sure all the mountaineering gurus won't have a problem with Whitney with the weather the way it was last week. HOWEVER, for any newbie like me who is considering the trek...don't!!! Seriously, it was a great experience, but I'm lucky to be alive. I had reached Whitney's summit once on Labor Day, but it was a totally different experience in the snow. Back in September, when I got below 12,000, I felt like a million bucks with AMS gone. The rest of my body was fine. After 20+ hours of hiking this past Thursday, my body was ready to fall apart.

Also, if anyone board reader finds a camera in a black pouch with a 1 GB memory card on the backside of Whitney, please let me know!!! Also, I was too tired and dazed to think straight last Thursday and didn't get a chance to write down your info, but if you read this board Jeff, I owe you a pizza for all the help and encouragement to get me to the summit and back in one piece!!!

Thanks for the current conditions update and trip report. Congratulations.Whitney is always tough but under current winter conditions it is not for newbies. Glad it turned out OK. Sounds like your lucky day to find a Marine to hike with.Hope you get your camera back.

Hey their Hiking Buddy!! It's Jeff. Sorry about your camera! If you send me your private E-mail I will send you some pics for you to remember the hike. I don't know how to post pictures on this site. I have some good ones!! Thanks for the good time. We really pushed it that day!! You definitely have bragging rights. Hope see you on the Mt. again some time. Too bad the pizza shop was closed, I had to eat Carls Jr.
Jeff.

Hi there DB,

Are your pictures at a hosted site (Picasa, smugmug, Flikr) if so, just post your pictures' links, and I will fix them to display (along with an explanation as to how to post) as long as you have a host site, posting pictures is easy.

And if you don't have a picture sharing site, email them to me, and I'll get them posted. Just send to the "contact us" email address at the bottom right.

We will be setting up a picture-sharing gallery on this site soon, so you can upload them directly here.

Edit: Here are Dolbybear's pictures:

Sent you a private message my friend!

Did they summit ??

Haha, that's what I was thinking. The guy in the second pic looks like he's on his way to see the new Harry Potter Movie (which wasn't bad, btw).

EDIT: I think he did make it, is that 2600fromAtari that had a rough go but made it? Respect for the flannel.

Yes we made the summit! Good news is that someone found my camera and the fella sent it back to me. I sent him a $50 thank-you-check.

It wasn't as cold as it looked. All things considered, the weather was PERFECT that day. I just wasn't in optimal shape for the trip but glad I did it nonetheless.

Steve, just a suggestion, but how about a little tutorial on using some of the file sharing websites. I use ImageShack.

http://www.imageshack.us/

The great thing about ImageShack is that no registration is required and you can upload a buttload of images in super large sizes for free. It can even be done en masse versus one-by-one. Another great thing I like is the ability to post pictures as thumbnails, just like my post above, which makes browsing a lot easier instead of having to scroll down through large images and/or wait for them to load.