OTHER Trip Report 08/03/2008

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	Mt Whitney - 14496
Date Posted	08/03/2008
Date Climbed	07/25/2008
Author	ClemsonClimber

Mt Whitney -- Mountaineers Route
Mt Whitney -- California #2!! 14,496 ft Route: Mountaineers Route Trailhead -- Whitney Portal (8,361 ft) As mentioned in my Mt Shasta report, this trip was done through REI Adventures. After leaving Mt Shasta City on July 21st and making my way down to Lone Pine, I had 2 days free before meeting up with the guides for the Whitney climb. So, I had a chance to take some pics of the Sierras. Here's one showing Whitney in the distance: Day 1:7-23-08 The first day actually began with a 6 PM meeting time at Horseshoe Meadows Campground. We met up with the guides and other trip participants for gear checks, group gear distribution, and dinner -- then to camp at 10,000 feet to help flat-landers acclimatize. It was also a great opportunity to meet each other and our AWESOME guides JB (James Brown --forget the jokes, he's heard them all ) and Mike Imperial with Sierra Wilderness Seminars. Day 2: 7-24-08 Today, we head down to the Whitney Portal Trailhead, stow stuff as needed in the bear boxes, and head out for our high camp at Upper Boyscout lake. The beginning of the route is on the Whitney Portal trail, but we turn off onto the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek trail right before the second creek crossing. Here's a waterfall right at the trail junction: The skies were an unbelievable shade of blue. We were ascending a long gully. Here's a shot looking up toward the top: The trail was quite easy to follow so far. JB said SAR had done a bunch of work in the last few years after a number of rescues from the ledges when climbers got off trail. We had a bit of easy scrambling to reach Ebersbacher ledges. Mike and JB did an awesome job guiding us through the ledges -- and giving guidance and encouragement for those in the group who hadn't done any climbing. Here's a shot looking down from the start of the ledges: Here's one looking back to the valley as we begin to traverse the ledges: We stopped at Lower Boyscout Lake for lunch ..check out the blue skies!!: We had some slabs to cross on our route. There were very low angle, but with wet boots, I didn't like them much: And we reach camp at about 11,500. Here's a shot of camp -- not exactly the moonscape we had on Shasta!!: Here's a view from camp -- showing our summit poking through the gap: Day 3: 7-25-08 After a 3:30 wake up call, we had downed some oatmeal and hit the trail. Our first objective was the top of the saddle to lead us around the ridge to Iceberg Lake. Once over the saddle, we got a nice view of our peak .. of course . .the sun wasn't quite up yet .. it's trying: There she is with the alpenglow!: At Iceberg Lake, we topped off water .. and took a pic or 2 -- there's our peak . .with those amazing blue skies!!: From Iceberg Lake, out next objective is to scramble up a gully toward the notch at the ridge. In the above pic, that line of snow is at the far left in the gully. The notch is very prominent when you look at the peak and obvious once you get to Iceberg Lake. The gully is a mix of loose junk and nice solid granite .. it can be an ankle-buster for sure!! Here's a shot from part way up the gully: And now again as we are closing in on the notch .. the sky really was THAT blue!!: Mike did and awesome job route-finding for us in the gully! And JB worked with Susan, encouraging and guiding her up the gully. She had been uneasy the day before and was unsure if she could do it. She kept on coming!! Here's a shot looking back from the notch toward Iceberg Lake: From the notch, we basically turned left and had a 500 vertical scramble up another gully to the summit. The bottom of this gully was essentially a drop off .. so the exposure was pretty huge. So .. bonehead that I am ... didn't take any pics looking up from the notch to the summit ... so ...next pics are from the summit. With the exposure, we roped up for this part. We were all short-roped and Mike free-climbed it, then belayed us up while JB climbed along. We did two pitches on anchored belay, then Mike did a running belay from the summit for the final pitch. Hmm . the toughest Colorado peak I've done so far is Crestone Needle ... It didn't seem that tough, but I'm thinking I was glad to have the rope!! Linda would have loved this!! Here's Susan's arrival at the summit!!: And the crew obliges me for a Tiger Paw shot: And finally .... This little guy is Bedonk -- one of the marmots that lives at the summit of Mt Whitney. Nope .. we didn;t feed him to get him to pose .. but JB and Mike seem to know him pretty well!!: Our summit day was about 12 hours or so. After our arrival back at camp, Sherrie convinced me to go for a cooling dip in Upper Boyscout Lake. That has to be the most refreshing thing I have ever done after a long, hot hike ... and no .. I have no pics of that Day 4: 7-26-08 We packed up and headed out, then down to Lone Pine for a "large marg" -- wait ... the Mexican restaurant didn't serve margaritas!! What?!!! We settled for beers instead ... nothing like a nice cold one after a climb!! Many thanks to JB and Mike for awesome guiding! I shall be back for more of those Sierras!!! And thanks to Sherrie, Susan, and Dave for joining me on this adventure!! It was great meeting you and I hope you will come to Colorado sometime and try out some of our awesome mountains!! And I shall do more of those after summit dips!! Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Mt Whitney -- Mountaineers Route

Mt Whitney -- California #2!! 14,496 ft

Route: Mountaineers Route
Trailhead -- Whitney Portal (8,361 ft)

As mentioned in my Mt Shasta report, this trip was done through REI Adventures. After leaving Mt Shasta City on July 21st and making my way down to Lone Pine, I had 2 days free before meeting up with the guides for the Whitney climb. So, I had a chance to take some pics of the Sierras. Here's one showing Whitney in the distance:

Day 1:7-23-08
The first day actually began with a 6 PM meeting time at Horseshoe Meadows Campground. We met up with the guides and other trip participants for gear checks, group gear distribution, and dinner -- then to camp at 10,000 feet to help flat-landers acclimatize. It was also a great opportunity to meet each other and our AWESOME guides JB (James Brown --forget the jokes, he's heard them all

) and Mike Imperial with Sierra Wilderness Seminars.

Day 2: 7-24-08
Today, we head down to the Whitney Portal Trailhead, stow stuff as needed in the bear boxes, and head out for our high camp at Upper Boyscout lake. The beginning of the route is on the Whitney Portal trail, but we turn off onto the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek trail right before the second creek crossing. Here's a waterfall right at the trail junction:

The skies were an unbelievable shade of blue. We were ascending a long gully. Here's a shot looking up toward the top:

The trail was quite easy to follow so far. JB said SAR had done a bunch of work in the last few years after a number of rescues from the ledges when climbers got off trail. We had a bit of easy scrambling to reach Ebersbacher ledges. Mike and JB did an awesome job guiding us through the ledges -- and giving guidance and encouragement for those in the group who hadn't done any climbing. Here's a shot looking down from the start of the ledges:

Here's one looking back to the valley as we begin to traverse the ledges:

We stopped at Lower Boyscout Lake for lunch ..check out the blue skies!!:

We had some slabs to cross on our route. There were very low angle, but with wet boots, I didn't like them much:

And we reach camp at about 11,500. Here's a shot of camp -- not exactly the moonscape we had on Shasta!!:

Here's a view from camp -- showing our summit poking through the gap:

Day 3: 7-25-08

After a 3:30 wake up call, we had downed some oatmeal and hit the trail. Our first objective was the top of the saddle to lead us around the ridge to Iceberg Lake. Once over the saddle, we got a nice view of our peak .. of course . .the sun wasn't quite up yet .. it's trying:

There she is with the alpenglow!:

At Iceberg Lake, we topped off water .. and took a pic or 2 -- there's our peak . .with those amazing blue skies!!:

From Iceberg Lake, out next objective is to scramble up a gully toward the notch at the ridge. In the above pic, that line of snow is at the far left in the gully. The notch is very prominent when you look at the peak and obvious once you get to Iceberg Lake. The gully is a mix of loose junk and nice solid granite .. it can be an ankle-buster for sure!! Here's a shot from part way up the gully:

And now again as we are closing in on the notch .. the sky really was THAT blue!!:

Mike did and awesome job route-finding for us in the gully! And JB worked with Susan, encouraging and guiding her up the gully. She had been uneasy the day before and was unsure if she could do it. She kept on coming!!
Here's a shot looking back from the notch toward Iceberg Lake:

From the notch, we basically turned left and had a 500 vertical scramble up another gully to the summit. The bottom of this gully was essentially a drop off .. so the exposure was pretty huge. So .. bonehead that I am ... didn't take any pics looking up from the notch to the summit ... so ...next pics are from the summit. With the exposure, we roped up for this part. We were all short-roped and Mike free-climbed it, then belayed us up while JB climbed along. We did two pitches on anchored belay, then Mike did a running belay from the summit for the final pitch. Hmm . the toughest Colorado peak I've done so far is Crestone Needle ... It didn't seem that tough, but I'm thinking I was glad to have the rope!!

Linda would have loved this!! Here's Susan's arrival at the summit!!:

And the crew obliges me for a Tiger Paw shot:

And finally .... This little guy is Bedonk -- one of the marmots that lives at the summit of Mt Whitney. Nope .. we didn;t feed him to get him to pose .. but JB and Mike seem to know him pretty well!!:

Our summit day was about 12 hours or so. After our arrival back at camp, Sherrie convinced me to go for a cooling dip in Upper Boyscout Lake. That has to be the most refreshing thing I have ever done after a long, hot hike ... and no .. I have no pics of that

Day 4: 7-26-08
We packed up and headed out, then down to Lone Pine for a "large marg" -- wait ... the Mexican restaurant didn't serve margaritas!! What?!!! We settled for beers instead ... nothing like a nice cold one after a climb!!

Many thanks to JB and Mike for awesome guiding! I shall be back for more of those Sierras!!!

And thanks to Sherrie, Susan, and Dave for joining me on this adventure!! It was great meeting you and I hope you will come to Colorado sometime and try out some of our awesome mountains!! And I shall do more of those after summit dips!!

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

ClemsonClimber	It was a blast! 8/4/2008 3:21am Thanks Kevin. This was certainly the way to go! It seemed harder than Crestone Needle to me. There was some class 3 stuff, but mostly it seemed more like class 4 to me. No one else in the group had done any climbing at all and it was pretty exposed. They said most people don‘t rope up. Since this was my first scramble after my experience on the Needle, I didn‘t even ask about not roping up -- there were certainly some sketchy moves.
uwe	You Go Girl 8/4/2008 2:08pm Great trip and pictures! Congratulations!!!
ktiffany	Stupendous! 8/5/2008 4:12am Congrats Monique! I‘m sure proud of you for getting out there and climbing again. You know that heaven is full of smiles right now :)
DHatfield	Congrats 8/5/2008 5:22am Monique on another California 14er. Looks like a great way to climb Whitney. Great report and pictures!!
Jon Frohlich	Awesome. 8/5/2008 5:01pm This is something I definitely want to do one day. This route has always looked like fun to me. Nice report!
ClemsonClimber	I highly recommend it! 11/30/2010 5:28pm For anyone interested, here's a link to my Flickr albums for Shasta and Whitney -- lots more pics and for Whitney in particular, I tried to take more that would help show the route -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/29212115@N04/sets/ edit -- it doesn‘t seem to be picking up the entire link when I post this -- might want to paste in
Kevin Baker	looks like a fun route 2/5/2011 12:22am Nice job, Monique! I have always wanted to get back and try the Mountaineer‘s route on Whitney some day. How did that route compare to other class 3 14er routes in CO? It seems like overkill that the guides would make you rope up for a class 3 route, but I guess better safe than sorry if there were people uncomfortable. I attempted class 3 Muir off the standard route for Whitney when I was just getting into scrambling and couldn‘t find a class 3 line. I think all of the class 4 CO 14ers would be rated class 3 in CA.

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