Hello,

I only have the weekend to do a birthday trip with my husband. Lone Pine is closest so I was thinking of a traverse of Mallory and Irvine or Le Conte and ? That range looks like it has epic summit views. Distance looks like 18 miles? Which is pretty big for one day. I have overnight permits but my husband is better on a one day push. Lone Pine Peak is shorter but the trip reports suggest longer times maybe due to route finding? Anyway if you had one day which traverse would you do? Two peaks is plenty and looking for class 3 maybe a little 4. Most fun and least tricky route finding best

I would hike up Meysan Lakes trail to the the highest lake, about 4-5 miles and do Mallory first, then go to Irvine and descend back to the lake. That in itself is a good trip. Adding LeConte to this day trip would make for a long day and would need a strong party. You start at about 7,800 feet at the trailhead and go steeply up to (don't quote me) about 11+ at the highest lake. A strenuous trip. There are usually very few people there and the scenery is outstanding. Go do it.
BTW Lone Pine by the easiest route (East Side) is a class 2 slog of deep sand. Not very aesthetic but the scenery is tops.
Cheers, Alois.

I did a traverse of all 3 from Camp Lake 5 years ago. It's doable as a dayhike from Whitney Portal, I think, though we did it after the N Ridge of Lone Pine Peak and so were camped a few miles up the Meysan Lake trail. We started with Irvine NE ridge (easy), then traversed to Mallory (fun!) and finally climbed LeConte via the waterfall route. We descended the steep class 2 scree to Meysan Lake. You can find a TR and link to photos here:

https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty_p ... ePeak.html

Hope it helps.

Almost did all that in one weekend. Hiked in and did Lone Pine Peak the first day. Camped at Upper Meysan lake the first night, next day we did Irvine, then crossed over to Mallory, then had to abort on LeConte (couldn't find a route all were comfortable with doing). Came down, packed up and hiked out. Beautiful basin where the upper Meysan Lake is (above Grass Lake), especially as the sun sets and bounces off the rock walls all around you.

FWIW: Lone pine Peak had the best summit views.