East buttress of Whitney
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Anyone know how the east buttress on Whitney looks? I was hoping to climb it early June |
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Check out the Facebook group "Mt. Whitney" |
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The E Butt will be clear of snow but the approach and mountaineers route will have some snow to deal with. Beware the final 400 when starting down the MR, it can get icy and dangerous until it melts out. |
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Kevin Mokracek wrote: Falls on ice descending the upper section on the Mountaineers Route, from the summit plateau to the notch, have resulted in several fatalities over the years. |
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If the descent ends up being a bit too hairy and you can't find a safe way to rap past the hazards, you can always walk down the Mt Whitney trail and redo the approach. This adds ~18-20 miles of trail running. I did this when I climbed the route a little too soon after hurricane Hillary which created uniquely hazardous conditions - a fully melted out choss pile at the top of the mountaineers route, covered by ~4ft of light and fluffy snow. If you're a little bit more confident, down climbing the route can also work. The crux would probably be reversing the summit pitches, because that's where the route gets most ambiguous. |
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J B wrote: The main trail is 11mi, each way. If you’re at the top, and choose this (the longest) option… what am I missing? Are they supposed to take a 9mi detour along the way? |
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@christian I think JB is imagining stashing gear below the east buttress, descending the MT (~11 miles), then reascending the NF to recover gear (~4.5 miles), then re-descending the NF approach (~4.5 miles). The math works out ... and walking down the MT can be nice, but I would carry everything up & over in that scenario. |
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Lots of snow up there. Looking at a 5/13 satellite image, it appears to start in earnest right above Lower Boy Scout Lake. As noted above, there have been many fatal accidents on the upper part of the Mountaineer’s Route due to falls on snow/ice. |
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Pfft, just schlep yer stuff up and over. That is, the route is not that difficult. So go light, climb the route to the summit, and walk down the trail. EZ - PZ. |
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Well, this time of year, the descent can be quite icy. I had pretty scarry time many years ago. Miguel Carmona and I were descending the Mountaineers Route. I put crampons on, Miguel did not. Just a few feet down from the summit, he slipped and flew down the slope. I was sure he was gone. But he arrested after quite a ride. He put crampons on right away. Be careful at the start of the descent. It can be very slippery when the snow is hard..
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Allen Sanderson wrote: That’s a good plan, especially when the MR has snow on the upper part. |
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I was on the final 400 a month ago and it was still covered in snow. If you're okay with leaving some slings, I think you can rap the whole thing in 3-4 rappels with a 60 I believe (that's a guesstimate) by staying climber's left in the small cliffband. We slung a boulder at the lip to rappell over the steepest top part of the final 400, then down climbed about 200 feet of snow to the final 4th class section, and rapped off a cordelette someone had left to get to the base of the 400. A local guide said other guides are constantly taking away tat so come prepared to leave rap anchors behind. I imagine the chute of the mountaineers route still has a fair amount of snow too so be prepared for that On the descent. But that's just based off of the still significant amounts of snow I saw one month ago... |
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Has anyone of yall seen the mt route avalanche before? |
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B O wrote: Tyler Karow has a video of an avalanche on the approach |
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I climbed the East Buttress two days ago and there were plenty of climbers in the area about to set off this weekend. Some snow on route still but it can be avoided easily with maybe some additional 5.6-5.7 climbing. Things seem to be melting out quick. Mountaineers route had snow a good bit of the way with a rock section on the upper gully and maybe 200 feet of scree on the top of the lower gully. Plenty of rap slings freshly placed by folks doing the MR to avoid downclimbing any difficulties. For sure still need crampons and an axe. |
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Thanks for the recent beta! Do you happen to remember what pitches had snow on the ascent? |
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All the 4th class terrain above p8 had patches of snow. I also had to traverse high to cross a snow field before the summit block around p10ish. IIRC the biggest blocks were the 5.6 ramp on p2 was filled and avoided by pulling a short overhang climbers right and the 5.7 fingers on p7 was filled with ice but was avoiding by moving up some delicate flakes and cracks on the face. Referencing beta from the supertopo. |
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Successfully summited East Buttress, thanks for all the beta. On 6/7, snow was still existing, but not too troublesome to work around. P2, P4 had touches of it and there was some to navigate around the scramble pitches 9-11. MR still had lots of snow on it, we ended up rapping down the upper section. In case anyone else stumbles up on this thread. |