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Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
#4904 06/04/10 10:44 AM
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Steve C Offline OP
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This thread is designed to hold posts displaying pictures and describing the current conditions of the Main Mount Whitney Trail (MMWT).  I hope everyone will contribute.

Please feel free to post pictures of your own or from any source (please post a reference to the original location), so that everyone can come here and easily find/read/see the conditions.

Older posts will be moved as conditions change. (As a result, some posts may appear to answer comments that are no longer in the thread.)

Thanks for everyone's help. Your posting trip reports helps untold numbers of hikers following you.

Older posts moved here:   Out-of-date Mt Whitney Trail Conditions -- 2022


Note: Sometimes this thread spans a number of pages. You can click through all the pages, or click here to display all in one page.

Re: Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
Steve C #59517 04/18/22 12:15 PM
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"Elevatedtv" climbed Mt Whitney via the Main Trail on 4/12/22, spending one night at Outpost Camp.

His trip report is here: Mt Whitney Trail 4/12/2022

Here are some of the pictures:

Main trail half a mile above Whitney Portal
[Linked Image]


Outpost Camp
[Linked Image]


Mirror Lake
[Linked Image]


Looking down at Trail Camp
[Linked Image]


The Cables Section
[Linked Image]


The Cables
[Linked Image]


Approaching Trail Crest
[Linked Image]


The crest, past Trail Crest
[Linked Image]


The Summit Hut
[Linked Image]

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Re: Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
Steve C #59535 04/26/22 09:01 PM
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As of this evening, April 26, 2022, the Inyo County Roads page shows the Whitney Portal ROAD IS OPEN!

Originally Posted by Steve C
I called the Inyo County road department, and the best thing I could get was "They're working on it" and it will open "any day now". The phone person took my number and said she would ask the person in charge to call me....

The link to the roads page is at the bottom of the Road Dept page.

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Re: Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
Steve C #59577 05/11/22 10:06 PM
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A buddy and I are attempting the Whitney Trail this weekend. The weather has been kind of bad the last few days from the weather reports, but does anyone have any trail conditions from this week?

Re: Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
themountainnman #59578 05/12/22 05:33 AM
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Take ice axe and crampons -- At some point you will need them. The only unknown is where.

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Re: Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
Steve C #59598 05/18/22 02:34 PM
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This is awesome! I wish we could have a post dedicated to each CA 14ers like this showing current trail conditions.

Re: Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
Steve C #59613 05/22/22 02:57 PM
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Hi! Planning on hiking Mt Whitney next weekend and was wondering if there were any updates on trail conditions? Thank you!

Re: Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
Steve C #59614 05/22/22 05:02 PM
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Here is a picture posted on May 20 of the Cables. I read a report that the chute (west of the switchbacks) was too soft to climb. The person reported they downclimbed the trail, and thought people should at least have microspikes at two places -- at the cables, and I am assuming, the final switchback before Trail Crest.

Here's the picture at the Cables.

[Linked Image]


The spot farthest in the distance is the worst. same picture, zoomed in.

[Linked Image]

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Re: Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
Steve C #59615 05/23/22 07:18 AM
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Will my group need micro/exo spikes for a mid-June summit? Any ice under there?

Re: Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
Steve C #59616 05/23/22 11:36 AM
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I was up there on the 17th and the chute was perfectly fine - arguably much safer than the switchbacks as long as you have crampons and an ice axe. You just have to ascend it early in the morning between 4:30 and 9am. I ran into some campers who said that a guy told them that the switchbacks took him the entire day to ascend/descend on the 16th and he started up at 7:30am.

Re: Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
BillMcC #59617 05/23/22 08:47 PM
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Originally Posted by BillMcC
Will my group need micro/exo spikes for a mid-June summit? Any ice under there?

It should be ice free by mid-June. But no guarantees.

Re: Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
Steve C #59624 05/31/22 03:32 PM
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Hello! Heading up this Thursday. Would like to take the chute vs. the switchbacks (will overnight at trail camp). Any update on the conditions?

Re: Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
MGEORGE #59625 06/01/22 12:04 AM
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I found this report from a May 27:

"Zero people took the chute. It was full of rocks and I would say it is done for the season without a large snowfall. On the main trail there is maybe 25 feet of total snow to walk thru. We brought microspikes and considered putting them on while descending but with poles and sticking to the rocks it's totally fine."

Here's a picture at the cables on the switchbacks, posted May 29, 2022, by "Fox Adventures" on Facebook:
[Linked Image]

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Re: Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
Steve C #59626 06/03/22 08:51 PM
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I went up today (June 3) wearing minimalist trail running shoes with close to a thousand miles of tread wear (had beta from past 3 days so decision was with care).

Went up and down both sides (main trail and jmt to guitar lake, trip report coming). Can confirm that unless there’s a storm, this trail is fully passable without traction. Cables are no problem, a couple 15 foot sections of sun cup snow after trail crest and before the summit boulder field. Also no problem.

Filmed a bunch of the water and snow/ice sections for beta reference for anyone else. Uploading to YouTube now, I’ll edit this post with the link when it’s up (might be tomorrow, I’m on a horseshoe meadow road clinging to 2 bars ????).

See the trip and video report here.

Re: Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
John JDS #59627 06/04/22 05:15 PM
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Following up on my beta request, I can confirm that the trail is completely possible without traction as of June 3rd 2022. A few notes:

-- Left trail camp around 5am. The first few hundred vertical feet were sometimes icy from snowmelt the day prior. This was easily passable without traction.
-- The cables have a completely snow free path (about 8 inches wide on average). There is a snowbank to your right (ascending) that requires a good hand hold or pole hold to feel secure. No traction is needed as the foot path is snow free.
-- There is a small snowfield about 750 vertical feet below the summit. There is a very deep and very secure path trodden in, and requires no traction.
-- While at trailcamp, there were a few instances of what sounded like significant rockfall. I wasn't able to spot it, but sounded like it was coming from somewhere near the east face/mountaineers route.

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Re: Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
MGEORGE #59629 06/05/22 06:32 AM
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Originally Posted by MGEORGE
-- The cables have a completely snow free path (about 8 inches wide on average). There is a snowbank to your right (ascending) that requires a good hand hold or pole hold to feel secure. No traction is needed as the foot path is snow free.

This snowbank, is it on your right (ascending)?

Re: Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
RenoFrank #59632 06/05/22 10:31 PM
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Originally Posted by RenoFrank
This snowbank, is it on your right (ascending)?

Frank, watching his video, it's on the right, on a switchback or two above the cables section.

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Re: Current Conditions: Mt Whitney Trail
Steve C #59820 10/21/22 09:30 AM
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Anyone have any intel on the current trail conditions? I was up there last weekend, saw nothing much to report. Someone on here posted the cables had snow and some ice.


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