Peaks near Mt. Whitney to acclimate

[Contender603]

Hello all,

A group of friends and I will be making our way out to climb Mt. Whitney this upcoming June and were looking for a peak or two in the area that we could check out while we were there. We will have 3 days and 2 nights prior to our permit date for Whitney and would love to use this for acclimating and exploring some nearby trails. We read an article stating Mt. Dana, White Mountain, and Trail Peak are all decent mountains to use for acclimating but we haven't heard from anybody that has been to the summit to know if they are worth it... We'd prefer not to waste too much of this time driving but are willing to travel if the sites will be worthwhile. Also, if there are mountains that would provide any unique views or scenery that differ from Whitney, that would be a plus!

Any information you can provide would be great!

Thank you all in advance!

[peter303]

When I lived in California coastal cities I'd spend a couple nights at Tioga Pass to the north to acclimatize. Lambert Dome is quick 10K. Mt Dana is a 13K. Mt Conness is another 13K, but rather long dayhike.

Across the valley from Whitney is an easy 14er called White Mountain which could be a warm up. It has a jeep road up much of the way.

[spiderman]

I used to do Whitney every summer with my Boy Scout troop. That was before the permit Nazi's took over the mountain. In terms of a prep hike, White is a 14 mile RT hike on a jeep road. A 4wd vehicle is recommended but not necessary to get to the TH. I wouldn't take a rental car up there without additional insurance. The main redeeming thing about that mountain are the ancient Bristlecones.

There are lots of other options in the area. Onion Valley is a trailhead to the North of Whitney and Gould is a fun 2nd class prep hike. To the South is Cottonwood Meadows and Cirque is a good conditioning peak. If you are in the mood for another state highpoints, Boundary Peak is a couple hours drive away. It is a half day of hiking. Telescope peak is a few hours away and offers a completely different vantage point. It has >5000' of prominence. The downside is that you only get up to 11,000'.

http://www.summitpost.org/mount-gould/151259
http://www.summitpost.org/cirque-peak/152203
http://www.summitpost.org/boundary-peak-nevada/150452

If you are in good shape, Whitney can easily be done in a 12-hour day with a light pack. My son did it in 13 hours when he was 8, and most of our Boy Scout troop was up for it when they were 14. Start at dawn and finish at dusk. Thunderstorms are very rare events in the Sierras and can happen any time of the day, not like the afternoon events that we get here. The Whitney main trail is a perfectly-graded highway. Check the snow and ice conditions before you head out so you don't get surprised by snow and/or ice on the backside that could require spikes, an axe, or even a rope if you are unlucky. The Mountaineers route is a fun option for going up, but during June likely will require experience with moderately steep snow fields.



Directions for old trail shortcut that eliminates the retarded switchback of lameness at the start:
"The first shortcut, the original trailhead, is easiest to find: Walk past the Whitney Portal Store
to the end of the paved road. Just before it loops to the left, to go to the picnic area, you will
see a giant boulder on the right. On the far side of that boulder is the trail, otherwise unmarked.
The trail is every bit as good as the current trail and shaves off quite a few minutes. It joins the
current trail a few feet before the John Muir Wilderness sign.

[kaiman]

When I climbed Mount Whitney the first time, we acclimatized by spending a couple days in Great Basin National Park climbing Wheeler and Old Mike peaks (the second and third highest peaks in Nevada) as well as exploring the Lehman Caves, then drove to the White Mountains on the Nevada/California state line and climbed Boundary Peak (Nevada's tallest) and White Mountain (California's easiest 14er) before heading across the Owens Valley to Lone Pine and the Whitney Portal.

This seemed to be a great way to acclimatize for Whitney and by the time we started backpacking in to Constitution Lake I was well conditioned. Great Basin is particularly nice and if you have limited time I would suggest going there first on the way to Whitney or, conversely hiking up Boundary or White first (the 4,000 year old Bristlecone Pines on Boundary are not to be missed and tend to put things in perspective).

Hope that helps,

Kai

[dr_j]

For my first time hiking Whitney, I acclimated over a few days with the following:

drove from Bay Area to SLT (6.5K)
Mt. Dana (13K)
Bishop Pass (12K)
Cottonwood Lakes (11.5K)
rest day in Lone Pine before heading up to the Portal

[spiderman]

+1 Kaiman, on Wheeler Peak if you are driving to California. It is a good half-day hike and also the most prominent peak in the state. It definitely is the prettiest mountain in that state. Wonderful to get started on the prominence peaks while also working on the state highpoints. I wish that I had done that to begin with. Only one completer so far of that list. Got to get them checkmarks.

http://www.peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=41207&cid=6288
http://www.peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=41203&cid=6288
http://www.peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=41209&cid=6288

[jf32]

White is a 14er with a th at 12k ft - I have on 2 occasions set up a makeshift camp at the th. The drive out to the th is long though and the road isn't paved. I think a sedan could do it but I haven't tried it. The hike itself is ok - it's pretty but you are on a road most of the way. The terrain on this peak and on the drive will be different than the Sierras and you will pass a bristlecone pine forest that has the oldest known tree on the planet.

If you're traveling from Colorado I would not drive up to Yosemite to do Dana unless you just want to spend some time exploring the Touloume area in general. It's 2+ hours north of lone pine one way. That said it's a pleasant hike to a 13k peak.

I would recommend some hikes from the horseshoe meadows campground. It's close to Whitney, it's at 10k ft, it has access to a 14er (I day hiked Langley from there - which while a roughly 20 mile day is pretty mellow as the first 5 miles are flat and go through some stunning scenery), and it has access to a few other passes/lakes with some pretty good fishing.

Hope that helps.

[Shasta Locales]

Hello all,

A group of friends and I will be making our way out to climb Mt. Whitney this upcoming June and were looking for a peak or two in the area that we could check out while we were there. We will have 3 days and 2 nights prior to our permit date for Whitney and would love to use this for acclimating and exploring some nearby trails. We read an article stating Mt. Dana, White Mountain, and Trail Peak are all decent mountains to use for acclimating but we haven't heard from anybody that has been to the summit to know if they are worth it... We'd prefer not to waste too much of this time driving but are willing to travel if the sites will be worthwhile. Also, if there are mountains that would provide any unique views or scenery that differ from Whitney, that would be a plus!

Any information you can provide would be great!

Thank you all in advance!

Dana is certainly worth it. If you do it you can check out Mono Lake as well, which is AMAZING. Mono Lake is a must-see and it may disappear soon.

If you're in the Lone Pine area and don't wish to drive, just do the Meysan Lakes trail and go as far as you can. Will prep you well for what you will see on the Whitney trails.

http://lastadventurer.com/last-adventur ... meysanlake" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[dmdoug]

I also suggest Horseshoe Meadows. It's not much of a drive it's at 10,000 ft rather than at Whitney Portal which is only ~8000 ft. We did a couple easy day hikes from there, nothing too difficult so that no one accidentally twisted an ankle and ruined their Whitney hike. One hike was to Edge of the World Peak (Peak 11,062) that overlooks the Owens Valley. We found the peak register went back to 1981 and had only a couple entries per year. Trail Peak was another great hike with awesome views. Also accessible are Cottonwood Pass, Chicken Springs Lake, and Cottonwood Lakes but I think that has a quota.

[jchapell]

We will be climbing the Mountaineer's Route the last weekend in April (here's a friendly solicitation for climbing friends ), and I ran across this site that touches on a number of the hikes mentioned so far, plus a few others:

https://sites.google.com/site/mtwhitney ... ail/warmup" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;