Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Shoes

Hello!

I've climbed Mt. Whitney 3X in July and this Saturday will be the first time to have to deal with the snow/ice conditions that I keep reading about on the forum.

Question - Will trail running shoes suffice with microspikes (as needed)? I have shoe covers I can use crossing the creeks to stay dry but concerned with them getting wet in the snow. I can't get a sense if there are places it will be deep or if it's fairly packed down now or shoveled with a path to walk through to keep the feet dry.

Thanks in advance!

Since shoes is the topic du jour... I'm attempting August 24, and am curious:

1. What is the likelihood of trail runners getting wet?
2. How uncomfortable will that be?
3. What specific trail runners should I get?

Gracias!

I just don't think you will find any snow that isn't packed solid. So it will not bother the shoes. I think people are even getting through without spikes, but that is up to you and your comfort level.

For trail shoes, I love my New Balance Leadvilles.

Take extra socks in case they get wet. My favorites are injinji with an outer wool/synthetic hiking sock.

We took the Whitney trail up from 7/16 - 7/18 and I hiked in a pair of lone peak trail runners (not the waterproof kind.) I wore crampons on a couple snowy parts on the way up but I really dont think they were necessary. On the way down I didn't use them at all. There was a pretty long section of snow on the final push up but we opted for a short and easy rock scramble which bypassed all of it.

The only time my feet got wet were on a few sections of the trail with fast running water where I opted to walk through it rather then rock hop.

Also, a significant amount of snow had melted on our hike out so depending when you go, it may not be an issue at all.