Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports 5/1/11 Whitney Summit

We left the portal at 7:30a and didn't need snow shoes. There is still a lot of snow on the main Whitney trail. We brought crampons and ice ax but didn't use the crampons until about 4 miles in. They weren't necessary then, just made it a bit easier. Trail is a little difficult to follow in the snow because of multiple paths. They all lead to the same place but some of the tracks are downhill tracks and you definitely would not want to go up those routes. Basically keep an eye out ahead of you to select the right path. We camped just above Outpost and it was cold! The tent frosted up on the inside and whenever a gust of wind came by it would drop frozen dew on us.

We left camp around 6a and used crampons and ice ax up the snow field above Outpost. Could probably get away without the ice ax but we felt more comfortable with them. We took off crampons above trail crest but probably should have left them on. Summited around 10a, rested a bit, and then headed back down. Kept the crampons on the entire way down until about 2 miles above portal. Very fast decent and only took 2 hours from outpost to portal, but trail was very difficult to follow and we wound up off path for sometime. Snow gets a bit slushy so you may want to plan for that. Weather was great though and trip was gorgeous!

Thanks for the report. I'm heading up this weekend. How far was the Whitney Portal road open?

The road is open to the Portal, and the Whitney Portal Store is open for business.

Happy day! I guess Joe and wazzu get their post-WWW burger after all!

I see from the other BB that there is a rock fall across the MT just below Lone Pine Lake. Anyone here seen this?

Any news on results?

I (happily) woke Joe up at 4:45 this morning - rustled him out of his bunk at the Hostel. Like I alluded to earler, Joe does not enjoy early mornings.

Spoke to him again a few minutes ago - he and DJ finished it up in pretty warm weather. They were whipped and actually passed up a Portal burger in order to get back on the road to L.A.

Wazzu, Joe said he spent part of the day with you. Did you get your Portal burger?

There appears to have been a small avalanche sometime during the winter about 2 miles above the Portal Store, but the amount of debris is relatively minor, and one tree that was blocking the trail had been removed.

Could this be the rock fall?

We did see a spiffy avalanche in the late afternoon today high on the southern wall about a mile from the store. Lots of puffy snow clouds, a bit of a roar, and then it was over. It didn't trigger anything 500' or so below it.

Kevin R: your description fits what was posted elsewhere. A tree was involved.