My wife and I are considering hiking Whitney on an overnight in mid September. On average what are the conditions like? We will be traveling from the east coast for a meeting in CA and want to bring as little gear as possible. A few years back we went in early June and had lots of gear and experienced fairly deep snow. Thanks for your help. Rob

Of course no one can really predict the weather that far out, but in general Sept. is a good month to visit/hike. I actually prefer it to all other months for a number of reasons:

- I normally spend two or more days at Mammoth Lakes to acclimate prior to attempting higher peaks. Mammoth is at ~8,000', so a good altitude to sleep at. There are many local hikes for "warm up" hikes - Mammoth Mountain (11K feet), Crystal Lake/Crag and Mammoth Crest to name a couple. And, Sept is the "shoulder season" for Mammoth Lakes, so that the Hotel/Motel rooms are "sort of" reasonably priced.
- Mosquitoes are normally gone
- Easier to get permits since there is less traffic (although the first one or two weeks can be active).
- If you can hike during the week, permits are not normally a problem after Labor Day weekend.

For the last two years Sept has been great weather. Sept. 20th of 2012 I hiked Whitney, and only at the top needed a windbreaker. Of course, on different days you might have encountered less desirable conditions. Last year (in September) I spend time at Saddlebag Lake/North Peak, and also enjoyed great weather.

If mid Sept suits your scheduling needs I would not reschedule for a different month. As I'm sure you will, check the Whitney weather and trip reports prior to departure, so you know best what to expect (and what equipment you might need).

Enjoy!

Rob,

Welcome to the message board. John's info is right on. The only thing I would add is that the days are definitely shorter than in June, so you will have less daylight hours.

I love questions ( especially about the Sierra) that involve averages. On average, conditions in September are extremely comfortable. In the sense that if you have one foot in a block of ice and the other in the fire, you are, on average, extremely comfortable.

September is my favorite month to do Mt. Whitney. However, it is not a month those wanting to haul as little as possible from the east.

The two times I stood on Mt. Whitney this month were below freezing temperatures, one time in single digits but I have seen single digits on the summit in August.

The one thing predictable about Sierra weather is its unpredictability. All this forum offer you is our collective experiences in September.

I used to live in Inyokern for several years, and Whitney Portal was about 90 minutes away so I had the opportunity to summit many times (17 thus far) and did shorter hikes to Trail Camp many times. Of the times I summited, 7 of them were in September.

John mentioned several reasons why September is a good month, and I'd add that in general the typical hiker that time of year tends to be older and more experienced.

While the weather in September is fairly stable, and the chance of a sudden t-storm unusual, it's likely that the section with cables may have a bit of ice build-up due to colder nights and lack of sunshine in that particular section. This ice is nearly always easy to avoid by rock-hopping, and its existence will be well-noted by the frequent trip reports posted either here or on the Whitney Portal BB. Also, do watch the weather forecasts carefully, because it seems that there will be at least one storm in late September that will dump a few inches, sometimes more. Often this snow melts in a few days, but it signals the transition to more winter-like conditions. Summiting is generally easier - at least for me - before this transition storm rather than after.