Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Help: Ideas to extend Main Whitney Trail trip?

Hi all,

I am looking for some guidance/suggestions/ideas to extend a Whitney main trail trip, for my friend and I next week. We have secured overnight permits to enter on Weds (8/19), and were originally planning to do a 1-nighter (camp @ Trail Camp, summit and return on Day 2).

However, we are thinking to spice it up a bit and add a day (or 2) to the trip. We will be camping at Whitney Portal on Tues, so we plan to hit the trail pretty early on Weds. I have been scouring the forum and studying the maps, trying to figure out if there are any interesting additions, or changes we can make to the usual hike. I am just having trouble, gauging the difficulty of some of these ideas.

One idea was to take a turn south at Consultation lake, head up and over Arc Pass and descend down to Sky Blue Lake (Camp night 1). Then head back up towards crabtree pass, over it, and descend down to upper crabtree lake (camp night 2). And then go for the summit on day 3 (climbing up the sandy south side of discovery pinnacle), and then just exit the normal way down (perhaps camp a 3rd night at Lone Pine lake). I saw some other threads, regarding the long "slog" up that south side of Discovery Pinnacle, so just starting to wonder if it's a bit too much (esp. with our packs). Also, still uncertain about the climb up to Arc Pass from consultation lake (again, with packs). Is this overly ambitious? Or how about summit first (by switchbacks w/packs), and then descend to crabtree and then to sky blue, to arc pass, etc...?

Map

Some other ideas were to just summit on day 2 and return to trail camp (as normal), and then explore something else afterwards... McAdie? Wotans? Thor? Or is there some way to head north from trail camp, climb over pinnacle ridge somewhere (like that dip in the ridge just southwest of frog pond), and meet up with the north fork trail (taking a night or 2 to camp along the way)? Something like this?

Sorry this got lengthy. I am just throwing a lot of things out there to see if anyone has any suggestions, but any help is appreciated! Just looking to return to Whitney portal by Friday night, or very early Sat. morn.

About us: I have hiked Whitney once, several years prior as a dayhike (no issues). We are both ~30yo in good shape, and have done a lot of hiking, comfortable with Class 2 (prob 3?) level routes, and done a good amount of backpacking.

Thanks again!

You can add 8 miles round trip simply from starting the hike from the Lone Pine campground. It's really a nice trail too, starting at 6000 feet.

Aakash, I admire your enthusiasm! Only you will know when you get up on the trail how much extra energy and strength you have. But it is a mighty long day just to carry a full pack to Trail Camp. If you have the strength to haul it another 1300' (380 M) up and over Arc Pass, you are a lot stronger than 99% of Whitney hikers.

Going over Arc Pass on the route you laid out is definitely possible, but maybe not in the first day.

I've not seen people write about crossing Pinnacle Ridge, but it does seem feasible where you traced the line. Do understand, though, that the contours are 20 meters apart (65 ft) on the maps you are using, and so are not as closely spaced as the 40 foot contours on the maps used elsewhere in the Sierra. Crossing the ridge with a pack would be quite difficult.

Another issue: the dashed line on the North Fork Lone Pine Creek is NOT a trail. It is a use trail, and the dashed line is completely wrong as compared to the route hikers actually take. One has to know where to look for the route -- you won't find a trail there.

I have actually descended the drainage from N of Wotans' throne to Mirror Lake, and it is about as steep as talus can hang. It was quite an unpleasant descent, withOUT a pack.

Here are several suggestions if you are open for more:
Base Camp at Consultation Lake. Climb Whitney and descend. Next day, do a day hike over Arc Pass, and return via Discovery Pinnacle, back to your base camp. It would make a challenging day, but much easier that with an overnight pack. Doing the loop in the opposite direction would be easier: Climb the switchbacks to Discovery, take the easy descent to Crabtree Lake, then continue your loop, finishing over Arc Pass.

As another (easier) option, Climb Wotans Throne from your base camp.

Good luck! Let us know if you actually do anything like this. We would love to see a trip report.

@Bruce, this is an interesting option. I will check it out.

@Steve C
Wow, this was incredibly helpful, and exactly what I needed to hear. This helps me narrow down our plans to something much more reasonable.

At this point, I think sticking with 'base camp' at consultation lake/trail camp is a fine option. We will see how we feel after climbing whitney on day 2, and decide - at that point - if we are up for a dayhike to Wotans or Arc Pass the following day.

I can at least focus my attention now, and dig around for some tips on Wotans Throne (and maybe hitting that little lake just south of Pinnacle Ridge) or also look at the option of climbing up to Arc Pass from consultation (and back down), is it worth it? maybe McAdie is within reach?

Thanks again, the knowledge on this board is really appreciated.

still looking for ideas?

the following depends on your grunt-work pack, how many hours or extra night you want to add, and required familiarity with the Mountaineers route, both upper and lower (ledges) parts. Some sections of this are rated class 3.

A. Trail camp carrying 2 liters of water to summit to Mountaineers walkoff route (or chutes). Once down to Iceberg L, down ledges route/North Fork to WP.

B. Trail camp to summit to Mountaineers walkoff route (or chutes) and then down just to Iceberg Lake (can camp), go back up Whitney-Russell col, over to Arctic Lake drainage (can camp on bench above where it drains into Guitar Lake, or at Guitar L, or at tarns above it.) Exit from there via Trailcrest to WP. Not sure if your permit allows for an additional crossing on a separate day, but..