Hi,
We just came out at Whitney Portal yesterday afternoon after having hiked from Crescent Meadow to Whitney Portal.
FYI the inside-the-park shuttles at Sequoia start at 9am.
1- Precipice lake is totally iced over, and surrounded by snow. Not the best place to camp in my opinion but it may have melted out by then. Then again, the park is seeing daily thunderstorms and snow sometimes. Very pretty any time of day. Sunset is best, but see note below.
ALSO - Every single day that we were hiking, huge thunderclouds were building up on the passes. We had to turn around and try Kaweah the next day because of a huge black ominous cloud ascending above us. You don't want to be up on those passes later than 1pm. We ran into numerous people who had turned around because of weather and snow, but we were fine. Just start early every day.
3- There were no mosquitoes up until the other side of Kaweah Gap. Getting into Big Arroyo, they were bad but not terrible. At Funston Meadows they were absolutely terrible at night. At Kern they were bad.
4- We carried microspikes. They're necessary in my opinion once you get to Whitney. On Kaweah gap there were a few patches of snow but they were avoidable. Again, these might melt out.
5- We carried down for insulation. One day, there was a bad hailstorm, and the trail was covered with 6+ inches of hail and in parts was a rushing river (at 6500 ft). Be prepared to get wet.
6-I had 24 lbs total. It depends on your fitness. Personally (I'm a small 16 y/o), I would lower it down.
Zoe
