Mount Whitney Climber's Log

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Joeyroo

Joeyroo - Oct 21, 2015 8:06 pm Date Climbed: May 25, 2014

Last Minute Trip  Sucess!

Associate got the lottery for the permit, but two of his friends bailed. He asked if I wanted to go, so I got a spot to go few days before the trip. Weather was great.

My first non-winter conditions trip. Unlike my past winter Whitney trip where there was an overnight wind storm. My friend's tent pole snapped and the tent collapsed from the weight of the snow. Woke up to 2-3 feet around the tent with some snow on top.

elcy79.gp

elcy79.gp - Oct 20, 2015 4:11 pm Date Climbed: Aug 13, 2013

via JMT  Sucess!

Started Onion Valley on the 8th (32 wedding anniversary, sorry honey) with our group of 6. All but one made it to the top (got dysentery in CT Meadows). Great day and beautiful weather the entire 6 days of the hike.

2nd time on Whitney, 42 years apart.

Blackmouth

Blackmouth - Sep 25, 2015 1:23 pm

Re: MR-Day Hike

Second Time
Sept 24, 2015
Solo dayhike up the Mountaineers Route to Whitney and then onto Mt. Muir and then the main trail to the portal. 16 hours car to car. A beautiful fall day in the Sierra with very little wind.

dakine - Sep 18, 2015 5:23 pm Date Climbed: Jul 27, 2015

Dayhike  Sucess!

Dayhike on the main trail, this time with trekking poles, almost feels like cheating.

fallonclimbs

fallonclimbs - Aug 30, 2015 1:17 pm

Busy mountain, fun 3 day trip  Sucess!

Trip report in 2012
https://summitsofthestates.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/mt-whitney-ca-44/

Lots of people, blue bags suck....But otherwise beautiful, cute marmots, physically exhausting but fun! Way more enjoyable to do it in 3 days

Jonodo

Jonodo - Aug 26, 2015 8:19 pm Date Climbed: Aug 23, 2015

Main Trail  Sucess!

Nice hike, great views, met some real nice people.

dan-o

dan-o - Aug 11, 2015 11:24 pm Date Climbed: Jul 15, 2015

Whitney  Sucess!

Great end to the JMT!

Scott

Scott - Jul 21, 2015 4:47 pm Date Climbed: Jul 3, 2015

Whitney  Sucess!

July 2

The original plan was for Kessler and I to climb Mount Whitney in one day, but the permit office in Lone Pine had three overnight permits, so my dad wanted to come.

We set off up the trail fairly early in the morning and enjoyed the scenery up to Trail Camp. At Trail Camp we were hit by a storm right after the tent was set up.

The weather was quite bad and other people climbing the peak were turning around. We were glad that we were attempting the peak the next day.

Kessler and I decided to check out Wotans Throne when the weather cleared in the evening. We climbed up the northernmost gully on the west side, reaching a chockstone not far from the summit. It was a nasty route and I didn’t want to climb the chockstone since I was afraid that we would pull loose rock onto us. We then checked out the gully to the south, but eventually the exposure became too great considering the loose rock (either route might make a good early season snow climb). We the bench around to the south side and explored along the South Chimney Route (we had no guidebook or beta since it was an unplanned ascent), but it too was pretty exposed considering we didn’t have any climbing gear or helmets. Thus, we returned unsuccessful since we ran out of time. We should have gone around to the north side which is much easier.

We also discovered that the marmots at Trail Camp are relentless and luckily bear canisters keep them out our your food.

July 3

In the morning, Kessler, my dad, and I set off to climb Mount Whitney. The weather was clear, unlike the day before. My dad (71 years old) lagged behind, so Kessler and I spent quite a bit of time on the summit waiting for him. He eventually caught up though.

On the descent, Kessler and I took off ahead so that we could climb Mount Muir. Mount Muir was rated class 3 and although I knew that class 3 was generally harder in California than in Colorado, we underestimated Mount Muir. It was harder than I thought it would be. It was quite exposed as well. Since we weren't planning on climbing Muir until we happened to get the overnight permit, I hadn't brought any good climbing shoes and we just had old running shoes. We also didn't have any beta and didn't bring helmets. We probed two different routes before climbing one in the center of the summit block. It wasn't too bad until we had to do a slab traverse to the left with our low-traction shoes (sticky shoes would make this a piece of cake). We got up to the rappel anchor at the overhanging rock, but with our old running shoes we didn't want to stand on the summit. It was fun, but I wish we had brought better shoes (and a helmet).

Still ready for more action, we descended Muir and climbed what our map labeled as Trail Crest Tower. Either the map was wrong or there is a non technical route up the tower, because we didn't do any technical climbing. It was still a great viewpoint.

After climbing the tower, we descended and caught up with my dad on the switchbacks above Trail Camp. We packed up camp and headed down the mountain. One sore point is that a lot of people seem to leave their poop bags at Trail Camp. I took two garbage bags and put the extra poop bags in them and tied the garbage bags to the outside of Kessler's pack. We don't like packing out other's human waste, but it needed to be done. People who leave the bags are scum and shouldn't be allowed on the mountain.

The rest of the descent was routine, but at the end, Kessler and I went ahead of my dad in order to get drinks and ice cream from the store. It was a good climb, but the only sore point was the extra waste bags.

Kessler

Kessler - Jul 20, 2015 6:17 pm Date Climbed: Jul 3, 2015

Whitney  Sucess!

7-3-2015

edsaxe

edsaxe - Jul 14, 2015 1:08 pm Date Climbed: Jul 11, 2015

Ice waterfall   Sucess!

Climbed up Mountaineers route in 1:15 to the notch on the left side up the rock above the snowy chute, then the last 500' was covered with ice and snow from the last 3 nights. we used ice axes and a rope and slowly made our way up, it was really slippery and took a long time with 3 people and a half rope. Then traversed over to the ridge on the right and scrambled the rest of the way up. Beautiful view but took almost 2 more hrs to get up from the notch

ljwoodw - Jul 6, 2015 2:18 am Date Climbed: Sep 2, 2013

Labor(ious) dayhike  Sucess!

Got seriously, perilously off-route before the ledges, then struggled to find a way through the willows above Lower Boy Scout Lake, then went up too far to the right of the chute and had to traverse on an airy ridge over to the notch. Then, altitude sickness. Wanted to stop, but figured that downclimbing to iceberg lake would be harder and more dangerous than summitting and taking the trail. The Class 3 notch was probably the easiest part of the day. The whole hike took about 9.5 hours.

Picked up a JMT through hiker on the way down and drove him to Yosemite. Oh, but Tioga Pass was closed so this involved driving back to the Bay Area via Bakersfield. What a day.

DukeJH

DukeJH - Jun 25, 2015 2:19 pm Date Climbed: Aug 10, 2014

14er Quest  Sucess!

Picked up a last minute day hike permit after coming out of the Palisades. 2nd time. Fast and light.

jdw10

jdw10 - Jun 11, 2015 3:32 pm Date Climbed: Sep 27, 2014

Mt. Whitney Summit  Sucess!

Completed a 40 mile backpacking trip with Whitney's summit as the highlight of the trip. Beautiful weather and beautiful landscape. I'll be back in 2015!

Nick Turtura

Nick Turtura - Jun 6, 2015 7:24 pm Date Climbed: Jun 4, 2015

Spectacular  Sucess!

Weather was good. No need for picks and pons but there was snow above trail camp. We left TH at 4:00am 18 hours RT. The trail is 22 miles RT but feels like 30 so be ready for a never ending eternity of SWITCHBACKS! Hope this beta helps.

edge17 - Apr 8, 2015 7:52 pm Date Climbed: Apr 6, 2015

via mountaineer's route  Sucess!

Climbed via the mountaineer's route. Camped at Upper Boyscout Lake. It was fairly windy and never really went above freezing. Iceaxe and crampons above Iceberg lake. Went down through the willows while heading back to the trailhead the following day, rather than maneuvering heavy packs over the ledges. Snow flurries started coming down while Eric and I were heading back to the trailhead.

Simkin

Simkin - Mar 18, 2015 7:43 pm Date Climbed: Feb 10, 2015

Mountaineers Route in February  Sucess!

Here is the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rXmwZ8l9Sk

Hiker4life

Hiker4life - Feb 28, 2015 8:36 pm Date Climbed: Sep 27, 2006

First 14er/State HP  Sucess!

Started on the main trail at 5:45 AM and reached the summit just after noon. Weather was perfect! I've been hooked on hiking ever since.

IronHiker

IronHiker - Feb 28, 2015 5:52 pm Date Climbed: Jul 25, 2013

Main trail day hike  Sucess!

Six in party. One dropped out at Trail Crest, another had to be helped down due to altitude sickness. Long day, but great day.

camden kirkpatrick

camden kirkpatrick - Jan 28, 2015 2:15 pm Date Climbed: Jul 24, 2014

The Unforgiving Hike

When I got to the mountain it was about 6:15 am. I started to make our way up the mountain, and I ran into a stream which was about 2 feet deep, and 12 feet wide. All there was to cross it was a wet log, and a few sticks washed up in the stream. I thought that the water was melted snow, and ice from the top of the mountain. I was able to cross, and got across without getting wet. I was making it up to 11,500 feet up the mountain, and then I ran into some slopes that were going up at a 85 degree angle, and about 4 of them. As I was making it up the 3rd one, I slipped, and fell 50 feet! Not exactly straight down, but it was almost like that. I was able to keep going cause I only got a few cuts, and bruises. I was able to proceed, and I was at 13,225 feet when a blizzard came in. My Mom, and Dad were with me when they said that we couldn't continue. So we had to turn around due to a blizzard, almost sub-zero temps, and finally they were tired, but don't worry cause I'm going to climb mount Elbert again this year!

HawkeyeHuff

HawkeyeHuff - Jan 26, 2015 4:20 am Date Climbed: Aug 11, 2000

Whitney in a Day  Sucess!

I flew down from Alaska to go up Whitney. Had a one-day pass so I got on the trail a little past 5am and got to the top about noon and back down to the start at 5pm. What a beautiful day and gorgeous scenery! Met nice and interesting people along the way, which always seems to happen going up these mountains. This was my first hike since turning 50 on August 7th. "

Steve Hufford

Anchorage, Alaska USA

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