Mt Whitney, Mountaineer's Route
Introduction
The "Mountaineer's Route", or the "North Fork of the Lone Pine Creek Route" is a challenging alternative route to the summit of Mt Whitney. Mahim Ranjan, Krishna Sekar, Saumya Chandra and I attempted this route in July 2005, after hiking the mountain the year before via the more popular "main trail" on an arduous 18 hour day hike.
Trivia
- Mt Whitney, at 14,491 ft, is the highest peak in continental USA
- Whitney Portal (trailhead) elevation: 8360 ft
- By measure of prominence, Whitney is the 81st highest peak in the world
- Mountaineer's Route (outbound): 5 miles
- Main Trail (return route): 11 miles
Report
I flew into Burbank (Ranjita decided against this trip, given the very short acclimatization schedule), where I hooked up with Narayan Prasad and Neeraj and drove up north to Lone Pine. The gang from San Diego had already arrived. During the course of the day, during which the four of us went up the nearby White Mountains to do a short acclimitization hike, we abandoned ideas of an overnighter, and decided to go the way of a long arduous day hike again. However, we decided (wisely in the end) to hike the MR only on the way up, and return via the familiar main trail. We (the MR gang) parted ways with the remaining folks, who were planning an overnighter via the Main Trail, did some last minute shopping, and crashed early at a hotel in Lone Pine. We drove up to the Whitney Portal (the trailhead) located at 8300 ft around midnight to make a 2 am start, as planned.
We were familiar with the first hour or so of the route, which the MR shares with the Main Trail. After the second river crossing, we followed a turn off to the right, and almost immediately started climbing steeply through the blackness of the night. On hindsight, maybe it was a good thing to negotiate the Ebersbacher Ledges in the dead of night, since we were blissfully ignorant of the sheer drop offs to the left. Of course, not knowing what lay in the blackenss to the left, we hugged the granite to our right, and made slow but steady progress with our headlamps.
Once the sun came out, we made a brief stop at Lower Boy Scout Lake (10,500 ft) and watched the sun rise over the Panamint Range in Death Valley while we breakfasted. From here on, route finding proved difficult over featureless scree. Sadly, the cairns, that had marked the way well so far, had all but disappeared. We were carrying rough directions based on trip reports published on the internet, and therefore knew that if we actually reached the shores of Upper Boy Scout Lake, we would definitely be off track. Sure enough, after an hour's uncertainty, we were at the second lake, located at 11,500 ft. Luckily, this gave us our bearings, and we headed to the left, and after some 20 minutes or so, regained the route.
Saumya and Mahim at first light, taking a break between Lower & Upper Boy Scout Lake, as the sun rises over the Panamint Range bordering Death Valley
Looking back east at the drainage of the North Fork of the Lone Pine CreekFrom here on, it was an initially challenging scramble, followed by perhaps the only somewhat level stretch of the route. This stretch has expansive views of the drainage of the North Fork of the Lone Pine Creek, looking East, back the way we came, and towering views of Thor's Peak and Pinnacle Ridge to the North (on our left). The hike along the boulder-strewn gully (we were above the tree line now) slowly brought the Keeler Needles and Mt Whitney into view. We probably goofed up again on the route here, deciding to move up and to the right via a tough scramble, which involved a tricky waterfall crossing. In any case, a tough half hour or so later, we were rewarded by the arrival of the brilliant blue Iceberg Lake (12,300 ft), partially frozen, and a view of the snow filled chute and gully leading up to "The Notch". We kept eyeing the chute, since it would be our home for the next couple of hours. At this point, at 9 am, we were happy with our progress and considered ourselves well on schedule for summitting by noon. After refreshing ourselves at the lake (we had to smash the ice to get to water), and snacking a bit, we donned helmets to protect us from falling rock, and launched the attack on the chute. We stayed to the left of the main gully, avoiding the snow as far as possible. This part of the climb was very steep, with progressively grander views of Iceberg Lake beneath us partially spoiled by some cloud that began to roll in. Luckily the altitude did not seem to bother any of us.
First views of the chute that leads to the notch at 14,000 ft.
Iceberg Lake from up close: The year before, we looked at this lake from 2000 ft above it and wondered how cool it would be to climb this route
There was a nervous moment when the three of us had gotten well ahead of Saumya, who was not to be seen or heard for a while. Worse, the mist had by now morphed into dense fog rising out of the Iceberg Lake col, reducing visibility to tens of feet . After 10-15 minutes, she came within earshot: relieved, we continued the slow climb up the chute, eventually resorted to wading through knee-deep snow. At 14,000 ft, we arrived at the Notch, where it was cold and cloudy, but we were luck enough to receive views of the magnificent Sequioa National Park Wilderness to the West.
Krishna leads the way from the Notch, negotiating a 10 ft vertical wall to start off
For some reason we were under the mistaken impression that the hardest part of the hike was over, and mini congratulations were exchanged. We had climbed over 5500 ft in a few hours, so how hard could the remaining 500 ft be? Turns out, lots. After meeting the intial challenge of a 10 ft vertical face (Krishna lead the way), we expected things to get easier, but they didn't. Perhaps it was the altitude, perhaps muscles that were tired from the scrambling, but it was hard, hard work hauling ourselves up using all four limbs over near vertical rocks, up towards the summit, one rock at a time. One false step, and it would have been a quick but spectacular descent down the West side of the mountain. We met a few folks heading down, using ropes, and felt relieved about not having to return this way. With conversation at a complete stop for the last hour of the ascent, we finally reached the summit at 2 pm to be greeted with the familiar sight of the highest restroom in the lower 48 states, but the unfamiliar sight of absolutely *no one* on the summit.
Summit toilet coming into view, calling for relief and celebration
Since the weather looked unfriendly (there was some hail, fog, and strong winds), we decided not to take a break, but raced on across the huge Whitney Summit, and headed down the Main Trail. An hour or so later, we took at a break at Trail Crest, where we met a German guy with whom we shared some snacks, and chatted for a while (first human contact in several hours). The weather looked better, so we relaxed a little, admired the views of the Sequioa area, and mentally prepared ourselves for the gruelling 96 switchbacks that we would now have to negotiate to descend to Trail Camp at about 12,000 ft.
Signboard at Trail Crest
The rest of the hike was relatively easy, including the infamous "rope section", which was relatively snow free (unlike the last year, when it posed a serious challenge). Hiking through familiar territory reduces stress significantly, so without too much hassle, we caught up with Dave, Mainak, and Mark --- all of whom successfully summited via the Main Trail --- at Trail Camp, and wound our way down the gradual but beautiful sections of the Main Trail, passing through Trail Meadow before descending below the tree line near Mirror Lake, followed by Bighorn Meadow, and finally, Lone Pine Lake. We were back at the trailhead around 8 pm, ending a successful 18 hour summit attempt of Whitney (second in as many years).
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Bad photo, but you can make out the four of us (L to R: Kanishka, Krishna, Mahim and Saumya)
Neeraj, Narayan Prasad and I drove back to the LA area the same night, where in Burbank, we were unsucessful at finding ourselves a decent meal late in the night. It's sad how after our most sapping extreme dayhikes, we've typically ended up with a less than satisying meals (sometimes none at all). Finally, we settled for the ever reliable, but culinary disaster that is the Golden Arches, and got a few hours sleep before heading to the airport early in the morning, from where I caught my Jetblue flight back to JFK, and the others headed back to San Jose.
Post hike thoughts
The Mountaineer's Route is an exhilarating alternative to Whitney Main Trail (which involves getting permits via a lottery several months before your planned hike). The upside and the downside is that it's a significantly more challenging route, and for more than 50% of the time, one is on all fours. However, in our experience, it stopped short of technical climbing. Compared to Long's Peak (in the Colorado Rockies) during the snow free season, this route is perhaps a tad harder, and more interesting in terms of scrambling challenge, and route finding.
It would be pleasant to do this over two days provided one packs lightly, so that one doesn't get robbed of the day light experience of the Ledges early on in the trail. A reasonable plan might be to start around 4 am from Whitney Portal, climb via the MR, and aim to descend to Trail Camp by the afternoon and set up camp. Or better still, have some buddies climb via the main trail on the same day, and set up camp for you.
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