So on Mother's Day a friend and I drove up to attemp the mountaineers route from San Diego. We slept at the Whitney portal the first night (the road was open). And planned an early morning climb to iceberg lake. That first night was cold at the portal. My 20 degree down bag was about right. We didn't realize we had to get the permit arranged for a late arrival beforehand. Actually we didn't do much research about the route or process ahead of time. I guess we figured we would follow others tracks and that things would be self explanatory once we got there. So anyway we had to wait till I think it was 8 or 9 am and drive back down to lone pine to the office and wait for them to open. There they gave us our permits to stick in our car and another to carry with us along with a wag-bag for each of us. So needless to say we got a late start. No problem we were planning to take it easy the first day anyway.
The route was pretty easy to find. We had done enough to research to know we had to turn off the main trail just before the river crossing at about .9 (where the sign was) and luckily we watched someone come down the ledges so we knew the way up. The route was marked with cairns so it wasn't too bad and the ledges were easy. Route finding was either on a trail or looking for tracks in the snow. Speaking of snow, no snowshoes were needed and we strapped on crampons sometime between lower and upper boyscout lake. Because of our late start the snow was pretty wet and soft.
Finally we made it to upper boy scout lake exhausted. We weren't prepared for wearing 40lbs on our backs. All of our training was with about half that. We brought ropes and things just in case we needed it up top. We chatted it up with a few guys comin down (some with AMS) and one told us that ropes were probably not needed except for maybe one spot. So we set up camp at LBSL and left most of that junk there. We were happy to camp there as they had running water were as iceberg was completely iced up. Plus it meant we didn't have to carry our junk another hour up and down.
That night was rough and breathing was pretty rapid. Our acclimatization consisted of 1 night at the portal, one night at LBSL, and a couple of acetazolamide pills starting at the portal. So far no headaches or nausea, just shortness of breath.
The next morning we got up sometime after 4 and left around 5am. The sky had been clear and the snow nice and firm. We decided to leave our rope and take just a couple cams and some accessory cord and a couple slings/runners. Basically just enough for a move or two if we felt uncomfortable. Hiking with the lighter load and firm snow made the trek to iceberg much easier.
Again the track was mostly following others footsteps, no problem. Once we made it to iceberg we notice one group of two about 3/4 way up the couloir. We were the second group trying to summit that day. We started our way up taking about 10 steps and then resting a bit. After each rest we could recover quite well so I felt our legs had it in us but the lack of O2 made it tough. The temp was pretty comfortable with a base layer, R1 fleece, and a softshell. My partner might of had only a base layer and maybe a softshell because he heats up more than I.
The sun had softened that snow a bit but it was still okay until about the halfway point where we started to sink in a bit with each step. Anyway after a long slow climb we finally made it to the notch where the temp seemed to drop and the wind picked up. Maybe 20-30 knots. We put on a shell and puffy and took a break. I downed some of these power jelly beans from REI and I don't think anything has ever tasted so good in my life. We both took about 2 liters of water from UBSL and we drank about 3/4 of it by this point.
We knew the way past the notch was either up or traverse over which was supposed to be easier. With the recent snow the traverse was unmarked with any tracks. The final 400 straight up was a nice steep snow climb on firm snow. The sun hit that portion later and kept it firmer for us. There was one move about 10 feet which I would say was the crux of the route. For a 5'8" guy like myself I struggled a bit to find where to hold onto. In the shade there my hands started to numb up (even though I had my guanlets on). It was a slab of rock with a thin (maybe 2") coating of snow. Anyway I somehow figured it out but thought it would have been a dangerous place to fall and noted that on the way down we would rappel down. Other than that it was a steep snow climb on firm snow that the ax just loved. Up at the top a couple simple rock scrambles and we made it! 10:30am (5 1/2 hours from UBSL).
After some lunch, pics, and a few push-ups we decided to head back down. I rappel led down that tough spot using two ice axes as anchors and my 6' friend used his long arms and help from me pointing out footholds to get him down. We then tried glissading down the couloir with some success in the soft snow and made it to our tent around 2:30. We weren't in a rush as this was our first mountaineering experience together. After laying down at our tents and talking to every group we crossed paths with we finally made it to our car around 8pm and to a nice burger and shake at the MT Whitney restaurant in Line Pine around 9pm. Great trip
