Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Whitney Circumnavigation Route

Myself and four other friends are heading to Whitney Wednesday the 25th. We are planning to spend four days to complete the circumnavigation route. Has anyone done this trail recently and have any trip reports or useful information for this group's first time on Whitney? From what I have read the access road to the Portal store is open and we should be able to drive to the trail head. Below is a detail of the route we are planning on taking.

We will be following North Fork Lone Pine Creek to our first camp at Upper Boy Scout Lake. The next day we will head past Iceberg Lake and over the Whitney-Russell Col and down the valley past Arctic Lake to Guitar Lake where we will camp the second night. On the third day we will join the JMT to head up the west slopes of Whitney. Near Trail Crest we will join the Whitney Trail to reach the summit. From the summit we will return to Whitney Portal via the Whitney Trail stopping for the night at trail camp.

I was also interested to know if this route will require snow shoes or will the crampons and ice axe I was planning on bringing be sufficient?

Any info would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Phil

Welcome to WhitneyZone, PA Climber!

I did that hike once, but in the summer. Camping the first night above Iceberg Lake was the only place I "lost my cookies" due to the altitude.

People heading out these days are all saying snow shoes would not help. Only the crampons and ice axes.

If you can get up to Iceberg Lake following the standard route, then you will have no problem the rest of the way, except for the usual extra time and energy it takes to tramp over snow. Here's the WhitneyZone MR section: Mountaineer's Route info links within...

Good luck and have fun.

And we definitely want a trip report and pictures!