Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Opinions needed for first week of June conditions

My wife and I have day passes for the first week of June. We're planning on trying the main trail and switchbacks. We'll spend a couple days at altitude ahead of our summit attempt.

Need some seasoned opinions:
- Currently, how well marked is the Main Trail between Mirror Lake and the Switchbacks?
- Based on super-helpful pictures on this forum, looks like microspikes would be better than crampons for the switchbacks. Agree?
- Ice axes nice to have but probably not necessary. Agree?
- What pantwear do you all prefer? It's been 12 years, and the few other times we've done Whitney it's been Late June or later and we wore shorts to the summit...

Hi Fletch,

1. Leaving Mirror Lake, the trail switchbacks up to the ridge to the south. I accidentally lost it at one switchback by following tracks in snow when the trail actually made an almost 180 turn back. In a month, that snow will be gone. But it would be best to hike that section in daylight, because it is easier to lose the trail in that area.

2. I doubt there will be any snow on the trail by the time you go, but wait for more recent reports. I hiked the entire trail with just boots and poles, but currently, spikes would be helpful to many.

3. Leave the axe home.

4. Shorts are fine unless it's cold. I have zip-off pants, so it works either way depending on temperatures.

Hi Steve,
Thanks very much for the helpful info! I don't want to carry anything unnecessary, so this is a big help in our planning. I'll keep an eye on trip reports as they come in over the next few weeks.

The first time we hiked Whitney, we left the portal at 3AM. We made our way through the Mirror Lake-Trail Camp section in the dark. We lost the trail once when we came to an abrupt drop off. We turned around and backtracked to where we knew the trail was. We saw that the trail made a sharp left turn that was out of the beam of our headlamps. Very near Trail Camp in the dawn light we missed a turn again. However, we saw the roof of the now gone solar toilet ahead. We just walked towards it. Four more summits after that first one were completed with no problems.

If you lose the trail, stop and backtrack to where you see the trail again. Look around. You will find the continuation.

There’s also sun exposure to consider. Particularly if you are fair-skinned and burn easily, wearing shorts means applying (and periodically reapplying) sunscreen to your legs. I don’t know about anyone else. But I don’t like using sunscreen if I don’t have to. Long pants and a long sleeve shirt just work better for me for this reason. But as another person said, zip-offs can be a good idea. Having both shorts and a pair of long pants also works well (and doesn’t really weigh more).