Whitney mountaineers route

Tentatively planning the mountaineers route on Whitney next week.

I have been watching the weather the last couple of weeks, but curious what kind of year it’s been in general for snow?

Anyone know how close to Whitney portal I can currently drive?

also, familiar with the snow pack in Southern California. Looks like a bit of snow today then dry for a week prior. In terms of avy is it more of a costal snowpack like the pnw volcanoes that stabilize in a few days or is it more like Colorado?

wisam wrote:

Anyone know how close to Whitney portal I can currently drive?

At this time of year the gate further down the road (I.e., lower) is generally closed due to rock fall that needs to be cleared from the road each year. This adds 2ish additional miles (on pavement) each way for the approach and descent.

How far past the portal before you hit snow? 

I haven't been up there this year so I can't say. Hopefully somebody else has been recently

Im going up the next couple days, ill try to give you beta when im back!

Give the climbing shop in Lone Pine a call - I'm sure they have a good idea of how things are lookin up there.

Just got back yesterday. Snow level was about 8300 feet on the road. Snow had multiple freeze thaw cycles and was pretty solid for the most part the traverse to bypass the final 400 looked like wind slab that the sun hadn’t transformed yet but didn’t take that way.

the first 40 feet of the final 400 was all snow. Then an awkward mixed step 50 or so feet up followed by snow to the top. 

wisam wrote:

Just got back yesterday. Snow level was about 8300 feet on the road. Snow had multiple freeze thaw cycles and was pretty solid for the most part the traverse to bypass the final 400 looked like wind slab that the sun hadn’t transformed yet but didn’t take that way.

the first 40 feet of the final 400 was all snow. Then an awkward mixed step 50 or so feet up followed by snow to the top. 

Congrats dude, and glad you made it back safely!

wisam wrote:

Just got back yesterday. Snow level was about 8300 feet on the road. Snow had multiple freeze thaw cycles and was pretty solid for the most part the traverse to bypass the final 400 looked like wind slab that the sun hadn’t transformed yet but didn’t take that way.

the first 40 feet of the final 400 was all snow. Then an awkward mixed step 50 or so feet up followed by snow to the top. 

Where did you end up parking? How long did this take you? Do you have a trip report anywhere? 

Managed to get past the soft closure and park roughly 2 miles from the trailhead.  Do it at youre own risk of course, there was a lot of rockfall in the road and in some areas barely enough room for a car so another rock in a bad spot means you might not get through,  The conservative way would be to drop youre pack at the hard closure 2 miles form the end, drive back and run up to youre pack but we felt fine parking there as there was no major precipitation forecast.  

Took a very causal trip with the main avy risk being wet slide so we aimed to travel between sunrise and noon each day.  One day to upper boycott lake, summit the next day and one day to get down.  That let us travel when the snow was firm.  Still needed floatation but small snowshoes worked fine. Didnt write a trip report

Path was fairly easy to follow but obviously depends on recent snow. 

wisam wrote:

Managed to get past the soft closure and park roughly 2 miles from the trailhead.  Do it at youre own risk of course, there was a lot of rockfall in the road and in some areas barely enough room for a car so another rock in a bad spot means you might not get through,  The conservative way would be to drop youre pack at the hard closure 2 miles form the end, drive back and run up to youre pack but we felt fine parking there as there was no major precipitation forecast.  

Took a very causal trip with the main avy risk being wet slide so we aimed to travel between sunrise and noon each day.  One day to upper boycott lake, summit the next day and one day to get down.  That let us travel when the snow was firm.  Still needed floatation but small snowshoes worked fine. Didnt write a trip report

Path was fairly easy to follow but obviously depends on recent snow. 

How many were in your party? Did you end up roping up or making snow anchors for the final 400? Or just climbed up existing bootpack/steps?

Thanks for that update! Super helpful. Since then they've had a round of snow so I'm sure the conditions are different now.

2 of us.  brought a 60 meter half rope. Solo'd on the way up and rapped one awkward section on the way down.  Belaying the one awkward step would have been nice but there was also probably a less awkward way to do it.  Decent boot pack on all of the snow sections. Obviously the route is likely changing fast this time of year.

In terms of the one rap, there is a decent feature that can be slung on climbers left just above the awkward step roughly 100 feet up the final 400 that was a decent anchor to rap off of the final 400.