First timers from the flat lands...according to your IP number. Therefore, a suggestion go 14,000' before you go is a problem since isn't a 5 hour drive to trailhead like it is for me.
Some suggestions...
Read this board and ask questions...as many questions as you need answered.
Read the orientation notes and take a peek at my website...the link is at the bottom of this post. Read about our May 2007 trip...and check out the pictures from that trip.
Get to Lone Pine a couple of days early and ask the folks at Eastern Sierra InterAgency Visitors Center what the current conditions are like on the MMWT. Ask if they can suggest a hike into similar conditions.
Such a hike might be Horseshoe Meadow to Cottonwood Pass, if you have problems getting over it, you will have similar problems somewhere along the MMWT.
If conditions do not fit your skill set, you can come and go as high as your skills allow or cancel and come later in the year...late September or early October when permits will be available...and new snow may be a possibility.
My guess snow will be an issue at the beginning of June this year. This means you will need to climb the chute from Trail Camp to Trail Crest, if you want to summit Mt. Whitney. To do this your group will have to have basic winter skills, ice axe, crampons and possible a climbing helmet...I always bring one when I feel rock fall is an issue or glissading is a possibility.
Last edited by wbtravis; 04/25/10 05:20 PM.
