Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Weather on 8/9 to 8/11 I was there

full TR later, but we did NAP to Langley to fantastic Miter Basin, scrambled by Sky Blue Lake and over Crabtree Pass. Sorry Steve, despite your great advice we chickened out on a long slog to go up Sandhill by Discovery P and then a traverse of Whitney to exit via the MR walk off. Instead went around the bend for a hailstorm and 27 F night above Guitar. Was 10 F that night according to a couple who slept( or maybe not) on the summit . We dayhiked Whitney from west . For those who to pontificate, I only took one qt of water but of course it is short from the west. Another storm that evening, next day out to Tyndall Cr NOBO on JMT. Gorgeous blazing full moon, Glad I brought blinders to sleep. Then 3 am all hell broke loose. Pinned down in tents until 1100 am. looked bad up on Forester but we went,hail, sleet, lightning.A few very tired and probably hypothermic older people were barely moving. On the way down from Forester, it was apparent that this was not a typical 1 or 2 hr Sierra squall, but the better part of 18 hrs. We figured setting up camp on the wet water- flowing ground with increasing damp gear ( despite good gear) would not be fun that night or exiting in the same the next day as it appeared to suggest. Most we met already camped were miserable. We chose to be miserable a different way, at least staying warm, by not stopping. So we went from Tyndall over Forester, made our final decision in lower Vidette Meadow, headed over Kearsarge Pass by headlamp with a 3 minute sudden but short glimpse of the orange rising moon, and reached Onion V just before midnight. For us, it was our planned goal anyway, we just got there much faster. It felt good to sleep in a real bed.

Dan and I talked about the suffering and risk going on up there for those who were on the last legs of their JMT SOBO journey. By the looks of some of them, we wondered if there were some rescues needed because of exposure and/or exhaustion. Anyone hear of any?