Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports Mt. Whitney Summit & Descent via 99 Switchbacks

Completed an over night trip to Mt. Whitney Summit starting on Saturday June 16 and summiting and descending on June 17.

Whitney Portal to Trail camp is great and clear. There is one part with about a foot of snow on a flat area and it's well packed to cross just before trail camp.

Many people are using the 99 switchbacks. I can estimate in the time that we were on it we saw at least 20 people. Some with just hiking shoes and poles.

Many people are also using the chute to glissade down and hike up. But the snow is getting thin on the chute.

The 99 switchbacks still have 7 snow patches that are fully covering the trail. 2 of them were a bit tricky.

Note: The snow patches are melting heavily but hard to estimate when they will completely clear.

Unfortunately, in my opinion two of the trickiest parts may take the longest to clear. Good news is they are being crossed by hikers now and the snow is well very well packed by usage in these parts. The snow is hard early morning so offers for better grip if you are using ice axe and micro crampons or yak tracks. It was was getting soft and slushy by 11am where there is better grip on the packed trail but ice axe may simply sink into the snow completely. For details read below.

Not so tricky parts of the snow patches...
There are 4 parts on the trail and 3 at the edge of the switch backs. Both at the edge of the switchbacks can be avoided by simply scrambling up/down to the next level. Easy! Or you can use the snow path that is packed. Little difficult. So look for scrambling paths where there is snow covering any switch back turns. Note: The path to the cables is one of these.

The two straight paths on the trail are well packed by foot so they can be crossed easily as well. However, having an ice axe helped me feel safe. One of the paths had about a 20ft slide slope.

Now the 2 tricky parts...
One is by the cables which about only 10 feet long but it's at a very steep part of that stretch and it's iced at the top due to lots of snow melt that is falling from above and freezing on the shaded snow on the trail. The packed path is setup in a way that you have to walk above the cable fence height to cross.

The other is near trail crest. This is about 40ft long. This is where the glissaders start their slide from the top. So there is a good 1000+ feet drop from this point.

We had to use ice axe and crampons/yak tracks to cross these points. We saw some people do it with just hiking poles and shoes.

Good luck to the hikers that are going in the next couple of weeks. Be safe, careful and enjoy!

Please post any questions you have and I'll answer.