Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Kearsarge Pass - JMT - Summit Whitney

Greetings! Anyone started at trail head of Kearsarge Pass - JMT - Summit Whitney and finally down main Whitney Trail? Any suggestions? Ideal number of nights. Thanks in advance for your reply.

Pics from my trip in 2004:

Onion Valley to Whitney Portal, July 04

First night at trail head, second at Center Basin, third at Wallace Creek, fourth on the summit. I had some AMS second and third nights -- no appetite.

You need a Trail Crest Exit permit to do that trip.

have done it several different ways/stops

last year led a group after a few acclimatization days/hikes in Mammoth first

day 1 - group went over Kearsarge Pass to Kearsarge Lakes. I accompanied an AMS-member back down, spent the night again in Mammoth, returned early am next day, and caught up with the rest of the group at:

day 2 - treeline north of Forester Pass

day 3 - over Forester. long hard day because of big snow year in 2011 so we only got as far as Tyndall Cr. Ordinarily would have pushed on to Wright Creek.

day 4 - Guitar Lake

day 5 - summit day. A second person in group got AMS with headache "10" on summit ridge, so she and husband turned around, descended to TrailCamp to await the rest of us after we summitted.

day 6 - easy partial day Trail camp to Whitney Portal. We wanted to avoid hurting our knees with a 6,000 ft descent all on day 5.

Thanks. The Trail Crest Exit permit you speak of is simply obtained from either Lone Pine or Bishop Ranger office and has nothing to do with lottery? Right?

Thanks. Impressive story, catching up with the rest of the group on Day 2.

The required permits are outside of the lottery. You need both a Kearsarge Pass entry permit AND the Trail Crest Exit permit. They are made available online starting 6 months before your hiking date, and there is a quota, which fills up pretty fast. In fact, checking online, nearly all exit permits are already gone for July 13 - Aug 22. Kearsarge Pass permits seem to be more readily available.

In your favor, though, is the fact that 15 are reservable, and 10 are held back for walk-ins. So make that entry reservation NOW, and then when you go in to pick up the permit, ask for a trail crest exit permit.

Steps on reserving your wilderness permit are outlined in Box 3 of the Wilderness Permit Options page (link is above on the left). You would choose the "Overnight Exiting Mt Whitney", Trail is "Kearsarge Pass JM31".

Enter any date close to your hike date, and it will then let you browse forward and back through dates, 2 weeks at a time. And since you chose "Overnight Exiting Mt Whitney", it will also give you the dates and available numbers on the exit permits on the same screen.

Good luck, it is a bit confusing at first.

Once you have made the reservation online, you can then pick up your permit in any Inyo N.F. ranger station: Lee Vining to Lone Pine and in between. The permits are available up to 2 days in advance of your hike date.

"nearly all exit permits are already gone for July 13 - Aug 22. Kearsarge Pass permits seem to be more readily available."

I read that and decided to get off my rear and book my trip.

I think I just took the last August 23rd exit date.

It was relatively simply to book the permit and I already have my confirmation (Enter Aug 15th Kearsarge/Exit Aug 23rd Whitney)

Looks like I should have enough time to take a nice relaxing pace.

It really depends on your physical condition and the time you wan to spend on the trail. We did it 4 days 3 nights.

Day 1...to just short of the Center Basin Jct on Bubbs Creek

Day 2... to Tyndall Creek South of the junctions

Day 3...to the Tarns above Guitar Lake

Day 4...Out.

About 11 miles a day except the last, which was 16. The GPS had it at 50 miles.

I like this way much better than from the Horseshoe Meadow Trailheads through Guyot Pass.

We did not have a lot pictures of the trip but they can be accessed through my website.

thanks for pointing out your webpage. Your write up of the OV to MW trip gave me an idea. I'm clearly going to have to talk my time on my trip and maybe get some fishing in. But I'm thinking that after spending a night at Guitar Lake, I should hike up to the summit and spend the night on the summit so I can see the sunrise from the top.

Night(s)?

Still need to go back and get it under 24 hours...

Pics.

(All of a sudden I started channeling DUG)

A day hike starts at midnight... then you have all 24 hours to work it ;-) lol

There is no need to spend the night on the summit. Just get up early and go. We've been on the summit at dawn or the crest every time we've approached from the west. It's well worth losing a few hours sleep...I, for one, don't sleep all that swell at 11,700'.

By being on the summit by dawn, you give yourself a lot of options for the rest of the day. We usually hike out, take a shower and head for home but if you want another night on the mountain, I'd suggest Lone Pine Lake. Only a few people camp there, compared to the upper and lower zoos.

All you need is a very good headlight for trail walking, I currently use a BD Spot.

Thank you, folks, for getting me thinking about this.

I just went ahead and picked up a couple of permits for around July 4 -- 6 days/5 nights, enter Kearsarge Pass, exit Whitney Main Trail. Who knows, maybe with this year's lack of snow, the passes will be passable that early in the season for regular hikers who are not carrying mountaineering equipment (maybe I'll bring my new microspikes!). If not, I will probably end up releasing the permits and doing some other fun trip....

I love to camp at LPL. Done it at least three times.

My whole approach to this trip is to take it as it comes. Sleeping on the summit would be one of those things where I can say "been there, done that". Not sure that I would sleep any better at 11,700 than I would at 14,500'. Maybe after a week at altitude...who knows.

Even if this is a low snow year (and I realize we don't yet know what we are looking at in that regard), are water crossings likely to be an issue the last week in June/first week in July on the Kearsarge/Whitney route, maybe near Bubbs Creek? What kind of water crossing might we expect early in the season, assuming precipitation continues to stay on the low side...?

Pretty excited -- gonna do this trip either around July 4 or around Labor Day. Done a bunch of unguided shorter trips, and guided longer trips, but this will be the longest unguided trip I have done (50 miles, 6 days/5 nights). It's been on my bucket list for a while, so this is the year. Realize this is kids stuff for many of y'all ... but an adventure for me. Working up to doing the whole JMT...

The JMT actually doesn't cross Bubbs, so don't worry about that. There may be a few tributaries coming in from Center Basin or down from Forester, but they shouldn't be too bad. The only significant creek crossings will be Tyndall and Wallace Creeks. But that's what crocs are for!

NOTHING in the backcountry is kid's stuff, my dear. Believe me, I had that wake-up call this past weekend. You are already planning away, thinking of contingencies which might occur. Good on ya for that.

-L

Hi Akichow,
This will be my longest trip. I see this as my proof of concept that I can do the JMT in 2013 (planning on starting on my 50th birthday).

I see this as a big deal for me. And I'm just a little bit apprehensive since I will be doing it alone.

Since I am going to do it pretty late in the season, I'm not overly worried about snow and water levels. Though, I plan on being prepared for whatever.

I'll probably do an overnight trip out of OV to the JMT a few weeks before, just so the trail is familiar on the first day out.

Tdtz, we are almost contemporaries then (you are paving the way). Yes, I am working up to doing the whole JMT also, when I can get the 3 plus weeks off that I would want to have to do the trip. I probably won't do it solo myself, though. (I did just get a McMurdo personal locator beacon, since I do enjoy shorter trips solo.) I will look forward to reading your trip report(s)!

I did OV to Kearsarge two years ago, as an acclimatization hike the day before starting a 3 day/2 night Whitney hike. Loved it. The OV/Kearsarge/Whitney trip has been in my mind ever since.

If the weather/snow levels don't work out for early July, then I will probably do basically the same route in early September. On way or the other, I think this is the year for the mini version (JMT south) for me.

Thanks, Laura, for the info re the creeks. I think I'll Google up some pictures.