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I'd been contemplating a trip up Mt. Whitney for awhile and when my friend told me she got a permit for October and that I should come I immediately said I'm in. I live in Atlanta and although I've been to Colorado and out in the Sierras I've never really been up past 10k feet. Tentatively I think we are going to try and camp out around Whitney Portal a night or two and get used to some altitude then do an alpine start, summit, and come back down in a day (weather permitting). Any advice?
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Apr 24, 2017 21:57
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 11:49 |
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Work hard and regularly on your cardio to be in top shape before you go. It makes a huge difference in acclimatization success.
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Apr 24, 2017 23:01
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Makes sense. I'm working on getting back into cycling and working in a couple long day hikes and/or backpacking trips in every month with a lot of elevation gain.
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Apr 25, 2017 14:31
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Summiting and back down in a day is tough but if that's what the permit is for then I guess that's what you gotta do, bring good headlamps and leave super early in the morning. Definitely spend several days acclimating at Whitney Portal if you can. Make sure to bring enough food and make sure that you eat it even if you don't feel hungry. Altitude can affect your appetite but you need the calories to keep yourself going. You can probably get water at a few places along the way (there are a couple of lower lakes and then Trail Camp has water even if I find the whole camp area sketchy and gross) but bring something to treat it (either a filter or some chemical treatment). Don't leave any food in your pack if you drop it at Trail Crest to finish the ascent! Marmots will get into your poo poo and eat your food they are little ninjas at that poo poo. If the weather looks bad don't do it anyways, it's exposed as hell up there. Oh yeah and the whole make sure your gear is broken in and comfortable so you don't end up with massive blisters from new boots or something. If you get bad altitude sickness also don't push it and head back down. Altitude affects everyone differently and if it hits you real bad you're better off cutting the trip short. This is what happens when you leave your subway sandwhich in your backpack at Trail Crest 
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Apr 25, 2017 18:33
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Thanks for the tips! I've heard stories about those marmots and I can believe they are sheisty just based on how bold those fat squirrels in Yosemite are.
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Apr 26, 2017 14:24
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I did Whitney September 2010 after a week long backpacking trip, so we didn't start from the portal. We came in from the John Muir trail and broke camp at Consultation Lake. The next day my entire group bitched out so I went on to the summit from there alone and hooked up with a couple of women doing the ascent from the Portal and back that you're looking at doing in October. Here's some tips from my personal experience and what I gleaned from them along the way about theirs: 1. Acclimating at the portal will help. I was at 10,000 ft for a week prior so I didn't notice it, personally. 2. Bring lots of calorie dense snacks, eat pretty much the entire time. You may not be hungry but you still need to eat. 3. Drink lots of water. Same as the food, even when you're not thirsty you need to drink. 4. Have capacity to carry plenty of water because your ability to refill is limited during certain stretches, like above the Trail Camp. I tend to carry 4-5L. Two 1L nalgenes and a 2-3L camel back as kinda my standard. You could maybe lighten the load and take a little less, but then you're stopping to pump/filter water more frequently. Bring a way to purify water. 5. Electrolyte powder of some kind, Gatorade makes some nice individual pouches you can dump in one of the 1L nalgenes. 6. poo poo bags, a little bit of TP, and a larger freezer ziplock to put the used ones in. Whitney is pack in/pack out and if a ranger stops you and you don't have poo poo bags you're going to get cited. The trail is too heavily trafficked for everyone to bury it and above a certain altitude you won't have anywhere to dig anyway. 7. A good headlamp with extra batteries. Maybe an extra flashlight just in case. 8. Good boots that are well broken in. If you decide to do more of a trail shoe, make sure it has good ankle support. 9. Dress in layers. Hats and gloves. Waterproof/windproof shell over a lightweight fleece jacket and long sleeve base layer worked well for me. You're going later in the year, so you might need something heavier than that fleece I'm wearing. I could even see packing a t-shirt for lower elevations. Don't get sweaty and soak your clothes. 10. Stripped down first aid kit: moleskin for blisters, a roll of athletic tape, couple of small bandages and sterile gauze pads, pocket knife, and some NSAIDs. High SPF Sunscreen and chapstick. Echoing what Levitate said, you're going to have to start super early in the morning and you won't be back until after dark. The ladies I met up with started at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning to do a moderate pace, iirc. You don't have to rush, but you can't really gently caress around too much either. Make sure your cardio is strong and I hope you have good knees/ankles because the downhill back to the portal will do a number on them. That's primarily what the NSAIDS are for. My experience may be worse than normal for that bit though, as I did the descent to the portal from Consultation with a full pack plus 1/2 of an old dude's gear that couldn't hack it--I think it was 80ish pounds on my back. Trekking poles were nice but not necessary. The trail is well maintained, only a few areas toward the summit that could be dicey if there's a lot of ice/snow hanging around. It ended up being pretty socked in when I did it, wasn't bad if you were prepared, but it did limit the awesome view. I've done Mt. Langley in a similar fashion under clear skies though and I imagine it looked similar...just about 500ft higher up.   
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Apr 27, 2017 17:03
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Sorry for hijacking this thread, but I am thinking Mt. Whitney as a possible hike next year. I've done Mt. Baldy twice now, and I'll try San Gorgonio later this year. Assuming that all goes well, I'd like to start prepping for Whitney. The biggest issue I have is the permit process. With both Baldy hikes, I was following the daily weather conditions a full month in advance, and ultimately I made the final go-decision only three days in advance. But with Whitney, I have to get a permit well in advance (March) and if the weather is poo poo on the date that you reserved (wind, lightning storm, avalanche conditions) you are poo poo out of luck. What's the strategy for getting a permit and having a high chance of making it to the top, and back, unharmed? I'd like to go early in the season April/May, on non-weekend days, if it matters.
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Jul 16, 2017 20:22
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April/May is snow season still are you cool with that kind of ascent? There will definitely be snow up there and possibly a whole lot of it The lottery doesn't even end until the end of April so I think a permit in April or even Nay might not be as hard to get but again we're talking winter conditions and strong storms possible.
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Jul 17, 2017 04:16
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Levitate posted:April/May is snow season still are you cool with that kind of ascent? There will definitely be snow up there and possibly a whole lot of it I want some snow, but not a whole lot of it. If I don't see a trail that I can follow, I'm not going up. If I see a trail, but there is a chance of an avalanche, I am not going up. So let's say I moved my date to May/June, what's the strategy for getting a permit? Do I apply for one and hope that conditions on that day are good? If the conditions are poo poo, I don't go. Or do I apply for 10 permits and hope the weather is good on one of those days?
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Jul 17, 2017 04:30
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I believe the switchbacks have only become accessible in the past week or two this year. Even now they aren't completely clear. Tons of people are still going up the chute from what I have read. it sounds like an August date might suit you more. You can also try for walk-up permits.
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Jul 17, 2017 17:01
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erobadapazzi posted:I believe the switchbacks have only become accessible in the past week or two this year. Even now they aren't completely clear. Tons of people are still going up the chute from what I have read. it sounds like an August date might suit you more. Got it. I'll follow the winter weather to get an idea of how much snow there will be. I'd still appreciate input on the permit strategy.
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Jul 18, 2017 02:22
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If you have more than a day or two and can handle the backpacking aspect you can also look for permits starting at other trailheads and climb it from the other side
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Jul 19, 2017 05:09
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As Levitate mentioned it is easier to get a permit for the "montaineer's" route from the other side. A permit via the usual approach from North Fork Big Pine Creek (Visiting Mt Whitney) is significantly easier to obtain than the usual lottery (last I checked) but still books up much more quickly than most other Sierra Vevada quotas. You can also get walk-in permits. I never failed to get a walk-in pernit at any high sierra location that offers them by showing up ~1 hr before the ranger station opens but YMMV. There are other viable approaches to this route from other trailheads but I'm not that familiar with them and they will be much longer than north fork. From north fork, you will need like 3 days or something like that depending on snow conditions etc. The thing is, this route involves going up a steepish rock filled gully with the last few hundred feet pretty exposed. There is no "trail" as such for the last part of the ascent. Normally in the late summer months there is a snow free path up the gully that you can ascend with basic scrambling skills, but some people prefer having a rope/harness due to said exposure.. This year, I suspect it will be snow filled year round. It will always be full of snow in April/May/June. It is arguably easier going up snow than the lovely scree/talus gully, but you should have some basic familiarity going up moderately steep snow with crampons + ax first. So yes going up the other side is much easier to get a permit for, is not a technical climb, and can be tackled with basic backpacking and scrambling or ax/crampon skills, but if you are looking for a trail to follow up to the summit this is not that. For the regular trail (or anything in the high sierra), April/May will be full of snow. This year is an exceptionally high snow year, but there will always be significant amounts of snow and probably no real visible trail at the higher elevations in April. Even in early June of last year, which was a "normal" snow year, everything above ~11-12k feet was totally covered in snow. Even in 2014/15 which were apocalyptic drought years, there was plenty of snow above 11-12k feet in most of the sierra nevada, and the roads didn't open until ~late May those years so I'm sure in April everything above 10k was covered in April.
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Jul 19, 2017 20:32
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Excellent. Thanks for the input. I have basic crampon+axe skills, but it would indeed be safer to do the hike when it's free of snow. If I still insist on a snow hike, I can always go the year after. The mountain won't go anywhere.
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Jul 20, 2017 02:33
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I actually meant going up via the JMT, just not sure how many days you'd need to do it.
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Jul 23, 2017 06:13
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Levitate posted:I actually meant going up via the JMT, just not sure how many days you'd need to do it. Yeah, I got the idea. I am still skittish about camping. I've only done it once (a long time ago) but it sucked big-time. So a hike that requires just one night of camping (the regular route) is already pushing my comfort zone. Then again, perhaps I have changed enough that I will enjoy it this time. Who knows? Anyway, Mt. San Gorgonio first, and I'll take it from there.
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Jul 28, 2017 05:39
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Update: I made it! Thanks for the advice, it did help out. My friend and I made it to the summit on Oct. 11 around noon. First day we set out around 10:30am and hiked up to trail camp. It was insanely windy there, from inside the tent it looked like someone was picking it up and shaking it around. Had a hard time getting any sleep but got some rest. We got up around 4:30am and were on the switchbacks around 6am. There was still some ice at the cables but easy to get around. That last 1.9 miles from trail crest was pretty intense but nothing too bad. From the summit we went back to trail camp, packed up, then hiked down to the portal. That was a questionable call as my legs were pretty much calling it quits and we didn't get to the car until like 10pm. But we did it!
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Oct 20, 2017 22:55
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 11:49 |
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aswang_pro posted:Update: I made it! Thanks for the advice, it did help out. My friend and I made it to the summit on Oct. 11 around noon. Well done sir! I'm
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Nov 5, 2017 05:38
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