Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports Whitney Day Hike, Dec 10, 2012

Bob Pickering and Carine day hiked the Main Mt Whitney trail yesterday. Carine posted her pictures here:

Wintery Whitney Dayhike 12/10/12

There's a nice new door on the summit hut!

Carine (AKA happytrails on WPSMB) and I had a great climb on Mt. Whitney yesterday. The weather was about as good as it gets in December. The road to Whitney Portal was open and free of snow all the way to the trailhead. Even the toilets were open.

We slept in our cars and started up the main trail just before 5:00 AM. We carried snowshoes, crampons, and ice axes. We used the snowshoes a little but could have easily done without them. The ice axes weren't necessary, but one shouldn't head up in winter conditions without one. We only used the crampons on the steeper slope just below Trail Crest.

We followed the trail almost to Trailside Meadow. There were some tracks that made following the trail easy. Unfortunately, people were cutting switchbacks quite often, tearing up the hillsides unnecessarily. We followed tracks through the snow to Trail Camp and then followed a few of the 97 switchbacks until we headed cross-country for the snow slope below Trail Crest.

We could see someone high above us, doing a great job of kicking steps up to Trail Crest. We followed his tracks until I caught up with him at about 14,000 feet. It turned out his name was Jason and he was making his second attempt this month. On his first attempt, he couldn't make much progress in the deep snow without snowshoes. Yesterday, he had snowshoes and never used them. That's the way it goes in December.

Jason and I waited for Carine on the summit. After the obligatory summit photos, we headed down. I had been itching to climb Mt. Muir on the way back to Trail Crest, but it would have delayed our descent by just enough that I decided it wasn't a good idea. As it turned out, we found our snowshoes about 10 minutes before darkness would have made finding them difficult.

Jason went ahead on his own, while Carine and I took our time in the dark, arriving at our cars at about 9:20 PM. It was a long but satisfying day. It also completed my little project of climbing Mt. Whitney in each of the twelve months. Thanks for a great day, Carine!

Awesome post and nice pictures. I am actually planning up to go the main trial with a few buddies this upcoming Wednesday. Weather conditions should be clear following Tuesday through the rest of the week, but there will be new snow this weekend and beginning of this week. Only having attempted it once in the winter I, just have a few questions:
1. Should micro-spikes be sufficient for the switchbacks/icy sections?
2.How much water should each hiker take? ...and how to prevent from freezing? temps should be...8F low and 24 High at 12000ft wed(12/19)
3. I have a few topo graphs of trail, but not really clear, any great ones?
4. other advice?

Thanks,

p.s. Anyone is welcome to come along our group of 4-5

We could have gotten by without snowshoes, but you'll need them with the expected fresh snow. We both use the MSR Lightning Ascent, which is intended for climbing, not just strolling along a path with your honey.

I have never used MICROspikes or any of the other crampon substitutes on the market. These products are probably fine when used for their intended purpose, but they are not suitable for mountaineering on steep terrain. You'll need fairly heavy mountaineering boots and real crampons above Trail Camp.

I would bring an axe, but plan on using ski poles almost all the time.

Once a decent amount of snow has fallen, the best way up is the slope/bowl/chute directly below Trail Crest. Avoid the switchbacks. Carine's photo #16 shows the slope. You can just barely see Jason about 40% of the way up. He's in the shadow, near the rock on the left side of the snow slope.

I brought three quarts of water and gave about a pint to Jason on the summit because he had run out. The 2.5 quarts that I drank was almost all I needed. I think Carine drank about the same and probably could have used a little more. We used insulated water bottle carriers and I wrapped a 2-quart hydration bag in foam and carried it inside my pack. We don't drink from hydration tubes in cold weather. Starting out with warm/hot water helps keep it warm enough to drink.

You're going to have considerably colder weather than Carine and I had. You're also going to have more fresh snow and less of a boot track to follow. Your trip will be more difficult than ours was. You might want to just hike up to Trail Camp or the base of the slope below Trail Crest. If you did that, you could leave the crampons and axe at home, and just bring MICROspikes.

Good luck. Be safe. Have fun.

Excellent pics and report thanks.