On Wednesday the 26th I hiked the Main Trail to the summit. No mosquitoes to speak of. I camped for two nights prior to the hike. The first water crossing at North Fork Lone Pine Creek was running enough over the rocks both morning and afternoon making for a dicey crossing even for agile folks. For the time being, using the Old Trail that bypasses the creek and joins the main trail just uphill of the creek makes the best sense--no need for a dunking so early in a long hike. The next water crossing/s are in the Outpost Camp meadow. On the way up the trail is flooded for 100 feet or so as soon as you drop into the meadow. The water level is just about at the top of regular hiking boots, so if you place your feet just right (which is hard in the pitch dark with a headlamp) you stay dry. Then there's a muddy sloppy section of trail just up from there. Both the creek entering and the creek exiting Outpost can be crossed morning and afternoon without taking off your boots. If you have waterproof or leather boots you're ok. Running shoes will get wet as the water is running very slightly over the stepping rocks. Again, these are easier in daylight of course. Moving upward above Mirror Lake there is a section of stairs that is a little creek. You can walk up without getting wet if you're careful. That's the end of the water. Then comes the first snow crossing. There are two patches on a steep slope located well above Mirror Lake and just below Trailside Meadow. It's where the trail comes up with a very high rock wall on the right before crossing left over a creek and ascending up to Trailside Meadow. The creek crossing is covered by two separate snow slopes that hikers have tracked over. Both are easier in the morning than in the afternoon when they become slushy. The first one starts out with a good slope for ten feet or so. On the 26th it made sense to use micro spikes. People without them were nervous. If you slide, you're all done. The switchbacks are open with some conditions: the are a couple switchbacks covered in snow that require a little scramble to reach the trail above. The cables are open. There is a snowfield just below Trail Crest that is easy to cross with boots and poles--but a slip would end your day. That's the natural conditions as of yesterday. But there's more.
I've hiked the trail about a dozen times over the past 20 years. The last time was about 4 years ago. I read the reports of wag bags on the trail. And then I saw them. I saw 4 marmots (one critter way up on Trail Crest) and about 15 wag bags--and trash here and there. The first trash was about twenty minutes from the Portal where someone ate a couple mangoes and left the skins and some food wrappers in a pile at trailside. The wag bags seem to start around Trailside Meadow and blow through Trail Camp and even the switchbacks. Halfway up the switchbacks there was a garbage blowout of a few wag bags and misc garbage! There's no doubt about the nature of the problem. The question in my mind is WHY now and not in all the years prior? I have a few thoughts. Some say there's a Monkey Wrench Gang of fanatics who want the toilets back so they're terrorizing the place with wags in an effort to force the Federal Government to reinstall toilets. Interesting theory, but I don't buy it. I think there is a new breed of Mount Whitney hiker, lately come of age, with a different sensibility about Wilderness, who hike Whitney as a trophy, and generally want people to do things for them. Now please don't get me wrong, but I think there might even be a cultural element to the problem.
So when I came down and drove out of Lone Pine, I swore I'd never return. But I met a few real nice people on the way up and way down. And by the time I was driving up the long grade out of Bishop toward Mammoth and the real High Sierra were disappearing over my left shoulder, I figured I'd give it another shot next year.
All best.