#ThrowbackThursday – It has been too long since my last Mt. Whitney trip. Prior to this long sabbatical from hiking the tallest mountain in the lower 48, I was making at least one trip per year to Whitney Portal. Looking at these pics really rekindles my desire to get back out there … The Plan Due to the late snow … Read More
The other day I realized that the anniversary of this crazy day was coming up. I wasn’t exactly sure what day it was, so I visited this blog to figure it out. It turns out, I had never blogged about it. Doing a search of my email account and some of the forums I used to frequent, I found what … Read More
Gil (GoHiker.com) and I hiked the High Sierra Trail to Mt. Whitney, June 17-22. Here is Day 6 of our trip: If you’ve hiked the High Sierra Trail or plan to do so in the future, please join our Facebook Group, High Sierra Trail! The Plan Day 6 (Mon) – hike Whitney Summit to Whitney Portal Hike 10.7 miles || 6 hrs LEG 6 Total: 10.7 miles || 6 hrs The … Read More
I had originally planned a Mt. Langley overnighter for July 17-18. My plans did not work out, so I decided to stay at the Whitney Portal Hostel for the weekend, spend Friday and Saturday checking out some possible Mt. Whitney acclimation hikes (Mono and Kearsarge Passes, trip reports coming soon), then spend the evenings and early mornings taking photos of … Read More
From 2011 to 2016, I led a half dozen trips on Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in the contiguous United States. In the spring or early summer, I enjoyed introducing someone to hiking, with Mt. Whitney being our “big” hike at the end of the summer. Upon learning of what was involved for a Mt. Whitney hike (22 miles, 6,000+ … Read More
As part of a High Sierra Trail backpacking trip, I hiked the Mt. Whitney Main Trail (MWMT) on June 22. Here are some thoughts temperatures we encountered, trail conditions, and gear. Temperatures On this trip I carried a Delorme InReach from LowerGear.com. Among other things, this device allowed us to get weather forecast as an automated reply as a text message from friends/family. … Read More
Itinerary A rough outline for our Mt. Whitney Dayhike, scheduled for September 8th. More details to come… Sept 6 (Saturday) Early AM Drive to Onion Valley Campground (4 hrs, 225 miles) Afternoon Acclimation hike Hike towards Kearsarge Pass POIs Little Pothole Lake Overlook 2.7 miles RT || 1000′ climbing Gilbert Lake 4.0 miles RT || 1355′ climbing Flower Lake 4.5 miles RT … Read More
The Plan Due to the late snow storm in the Sierra this year, I came up with several different plans. The different options I came up with can be seen here: Trip & Hike Planning, June 1-4 2014 (Mt. Whitney, Yosemite & Mammoth) In the end, this is the option that we ended up doing: Option 1, Mt. Whitney June … Read More
With the low snow levels this year, we were hoping to hike Mt. Whitney June 3-4 with just hiking poles and microspikes. With some late season snow storms, the snow is sticking around longer than expected, so we need to come up with some alternates to Mt. Whitney. Here are a few ideas, including the plan for Whitney itself. June 1st … Read More
In my experience, NOAA has the most accurate forecasts. I’ve listed some other sources below. NOAA Summit (Shown by default below, subtract 5-10° d/t elev) Trail Camp Lone Pine Lake Whitney Portal Lone Pine 395 Travel’s Daily Weather Forecasts Posted Daily on the WhitneyZone Forums: http://www.whitneyzone.com/wz/ubbthreads.php/topics/44730/Current_WEATHER_FORECAST_by_DM#Post44730 Mountain Forecast I’ve found that this websites forecasts tend be extreme, particularly when it comes to … Read More