Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion shuttling this weekend (9/30-10/3) Onion Valley to Whitney

Hello All,
So me and my sister have passes and are planning on doing Onion Valley to Whitney leaving 9/30 and finishing 10/3, we originally had two cars and a group of 4 but had the other two drop out last minute. Does anyone have any advice on shuttles? As of now I am looking up the services in the area and just wanted to know if anyone had any good info.

Beyond the driving situation, does anyone have any general info, like the whitney portal road situation as of now or weather updates?

Cheers,
Jacob

From the Road construction and Parking thread:



Also call the Mt Williamson Motel / Base Camp in Independence. (760) 878-2121. They especially help hikers using the Onion Valley trail head. They might have some good ideas, or even be able to shuttle you up.

If you park and Independence and either hitch hike or catch a shuttle ride to Onion Valley, hitching a ride down from Whitney Portal is pretty easy. I think hitching from Lone Pine to Independence would be easy, too.

By the way, shuttle services are expensive. Good luck!

Is the weather for this weekend, some pretty low temps on sunday/monday, as alarming as it sounds? I have never hiked the sierras after early August and just want some input.

Just be prepared for a little bit lower temps than forecasted and you should be fine. We were up at Shepherds Pass this past weekend and the first night we camped at Mahogany Flat and it was forecasted to be a low of 28 degrees. When we hit the sack at around 10 it was already 28. I was cozy in my bivy with a 32 degree down bag with an extra layer of thermals on. Just make sure you have a good pad with a higher R value. My Neoair X-therm is worth every penny for sleeping well in the shoulder season.

I see several forecasts call for a little precip later Sunday. Temps will be 50 down to 25. You need a good tent, thermal layering, definitely gloves.

This is certainly the "shoulder season" -- winter is not too far away.

More info: Here are the 7-day temperature plots for two backcountry weather sensors...
    Upper Tyndall Creek   elev 11,400'
    Cottonwood Lakes     elev 10,150'