Mount Whitney east buttress conditions

Hi  All
Need some info help here...

Doing  East buttress at end of April. Wondering what the trail is like for Whitney portal to upper boy scout now. How much snow is there? Did anyone use snowshoes or  Is the snow  compact enough  to hike with boots?

What about the East buttress route? What's the conditions on the rock? 

It should still be pretty much all snow above 10K or so by the end of April.  Still plenty of snow up high, even down by Whitney (although much more snow in the Northern Sierra than the South).  You'll need snowshoes at minimum. It will be an awful slog without something to keep you afloat in the snow.  It might be supportable in the morning but you'll surely be busting through come afternoon.  Bring crampons and an ice axe for the mountaineers route descent, it is pretty steep and can be quite firm at the top of the descent (the top of the descent faces north).  

Here's a picture of skiing on Mt. Williamson April 1.  Whitney is noted by the arrow.  You can see plenty of snow on the descent.  

Snow line on April 1 down that way was 8800 feet.  I imagine it should be about 10K or so come the end of April.  

I have no idea how the route will be, but I'd be prepared for anything including snow and ice on the route.  I doubt many people (if any) have climbed it since it really started snowing.  It will feel a lot harder than 5.7 in April I imagine.  It will be cold as hell in the morning before the sun really hits it.  And it will get cold as hell again when it goes back in the shade.  

It's a much better route in the summer...

End of April? Why ask so early? Conditions change rapidly this time of year, any beta you get now will be obsolete by the end of the month. I would repost a few days before you plan on going to going. You can also check the webcam, gives you idea on where the snow line is

Trying to go up next weekend, I'll report back.

In the meantime, here is a webcam that gives a pretty good idea of the current conditions.

north fork of lone pine creek conditions as of 4/1/18.  some conditions visible in the footy.

• snow level from 9200'
• e ledges dry
• fully supportable snow til iceberg lake
• mix of corn and chalky snow from iceberg lake up
• windboard for the final 500' of the mountaineer's route
• fixed road closure still in place below the portal 
• east butt looks pretty dry with ice and snow on ledges probably 

Thanks everyone this is very helpful info!

Just a heads up, as one who epic'ed on the East Buttress of Whitney in mid-May...the low angle stuff gets significantly more time consuming when it is covered in ice.  Stuff you'd normally prance across blindfolded becomes a slip'n'slide to doom.  Much of the route consists of that and it really adds up during the shorter daylight hours.  I also spent a good amount of time clearing ice out of cracks with the tip of a trekking pole as I hadn't brought gloves.  The last 300' of the route was covered in 4'-6' of snow.  Navigating this on 4th-5th class terrain with the risk of punching through the crust into gaps between the rocks made everything a little bit more exciting...particularly in climbing shoes. A little bit from the summit the clouds came in and we lost all visibility (1'-2' at most).  Having come from 80*+ temps in the desert we were a little surprised and, after losing the route we spent the night about 200' from the summit.  

The next morning we found out that the mountaineer's route had a cornice hanging over it, so we had to descend down the trail back to Muir camp and then back track up the trail to our campsite.  The trail back to Muir Camp probably would have required crampons...if we had brought them.  Needless to say, we spent much longer on the route than we expected to.  Not sure what the weather will bring you in the next couple of weeks, but I guarantee that you'll have an adventure up there!  Just don't forget to bring gloves and, maybe, an ice axe.  

Enjoy!

I heard second hand a recent report that ice axe currently required to get to iceberg, confirming no snow on east ledges. A ton of snow on the east face, my buddy said his party bailed after what they thought might have been the second pitch

Following. Have plans for East Buttress late may.

: ) 

Was up there Friday and Saturday.

Road is still closed a couple miles below the portal. It's clear though and should open any day. The girl at the visitors center told me it was supposed to open last Thursday or Friday but that didn't happen. Should be opened up any day though. 

Ledges are dry. We traveled on snow from lower boyscout lake, firm crusty and supportive in the mornings but pretty slushy in the afternoons. We camped at upper boyscout lake and traveled in the mornings so we didn't need snowshoes. We postholed some but not much below upper boyscout, but not at all above it. If you expect to travel in the afternoons, snowshoes might be nice to have below upper boyscout.

I can confirm ice axe to get to Iceberg Lake. I'd never really heard of people having trouble on the wall before iceberg, but I saw it turn around a few parties this weekend. One group ahead of us felt it was necessary to send one of their stronger climbers up and fix a rope to bring up the rest of their group. We turned back here also, I was with my brother who had never used an ice axe or crampons before this weekend and he didn't feel comfortable on it. The goal of this trip was to teach him some basic mountaineering skills, and see how far we got. Even though we didn't summit, I'm pretty happy with his progress and how the trip went. I wasn't trying to get him in over his head.

Here is a photo from Saturday morning showing the conditions, but it might look totally different in a week. It's been really warm up there the last few days, there was noticeably less snow on Saturday than there was Friday. Everything was melting soooo fast!

I can email a higher resolution version of this photo, to anyone that would like one.