Wanted to share my experience with everyone on the forum because it was a great source of information in planning our trip. Hiking to the summit was probably one of the greatest experiences of my life. The storms last week gave us a curveball that we were not expecting but 10 out of 17 people in our group made it to the summit.
We arrived Friday morning to the Whitney Portal Campground. The campground is an excellent place to stay and the sites are clean and well maintained. (even the pit toilets were pretty nice!)
We spent Friday setting up camp, picked up our permits, then went down to the Whitney Portal Hostel to talk to folks who had recently summited. Dave and Tracey, the owners of the hostels, were great to talk to and gave us many tips and suggestions for the hike. I would recommend anyone who has not done the hike before to stop in and talk to them before you leave.
Saturday our group went to Horseshoe Meadows to have lunch and spend more time at a higher elevation. The area is beautiful and the drive up gives you some spectacular views. We went to bed around 8pm Saturday to try to get as much sleep as possible before our accent the next morning.
Our whole group was on the trail at 1:23am and made it to Trail Camp just as the sun was rising at about 5:30am. At Trail Camp we all filtered water and geared up (half of the group had crampons and half of the group had microspikes, all had ice axes). We did see some people in only hiking boots and poles but I would not consider that to be a safe option.
Most of the group took the chute up. It was steep but nothing unmanageable. I on the other hand, went up the switchbacks with two other people in my team. We talked to a group who had spoken to someone who had taken the switchbacks the day before and had reported it wasn’t too bad… This was not quite true, it was pretty scary. I would not currently recommend taking the switchbacks. There were some areas, especially around the cables, that were pretty sketchy. If you do not have an ice axe then don’t even consider it right now, there is still a lot of snow.
After making the way to Trail Crest via the perilous switchbacks we took a short break then headed to the summit. The backside of the mountain still has a fair amount of snow so we decided to keep our microspikes on. The last two miles, though they are not very steep, are some of the hardest because of the air and when you reach Trail Crest you feel like you should be done.
We made it to the summit at noon and stayed for about 20 minutes to take pictures and revel in the fact that we had made it to the summit. Many people stayed for less time because of the altitude and lack of water. The lack of water seemed to be happening to most people, make sure to take at least 2-3 liters up with you from Trail Camp.
After coming back down to Trail Crest we all glissaded down the chute. The snow was very wet so getting out of control was not really a threat but knowing how to go into self arrest with your ice axe is necessary. Most in our party had not used an ice axe before but were able to learn the basics very quickly. It helped watching YouTube tutorials and reading the Freedom of the Hills.
At Trail Camp we refilled on water, all of us had run out after leaving the summit, and took the much longer than we remember trek down to the portal. We arrived at the portal just after 8pm with achy feet, sunburnt faces but full hearts.
All in all it was an amazing weekend and will definitely be back to do it again... next time in two days and later in the season!
