Hiking up Mt Whitney

Trip to Mt Whitney 1999

notes by piero scaruffi
See the travel page for more travel resources

Links:

California Guidebook
National Parks
California State Parks
California Highway Conditions
Highway 395
Lone Pine trails

Bishop Weather
Bishop Weather
National Parks Weather
Lone Pine chamber of commerce
Bishop chamber of commerce
Bishop visitor center
Highway 395

Mt Whitney home page
Topographic map of Mt Whitney
Aerial photo of Mt Whitney
Picture of Mt Whitney
About hiking to Mt. Whitney
Mt Whitney trail
Trail description with maps
A picture of Mt Whitney
Whitney Portal store
A useful page on Mt Whitney

These are the approximate distances from the Portal to the Summit:

Landmark Distance Time Altitude

Trailhead 0 0 2550 m.

Lone Pine Lake 4kms 1h 30' 2900 m.

Outpost Camp 6kms 2h 3100 m.

Mirror Lake 7 kms 2h 20' 3200 m.

Trailside Meadow & Consultation Lake 8.5 kms 3h 45' 3600 m.

Trail Camp 10 kms 4h 30' 3700 m.

96 switchbacks 5h 30'

Trail Crest 13.5 kms 6h 4200 m.

Summit 17 kms 7h 30' 4400 m.

The trail from the parking lot to Lone Pine Lake is long switchbacks with a moderate grade. The trail from Lone Pine Lake to Mirror Lake is very easy. The trail then picks up grade and runs along a creek to the base camp. From the base camp you head for the face of Mt Muir. The "96 switchbacks" (there are actually more than 140) take you to the Trail Crest. The switchbacks are a very mild grade, but they are very long and the altitute kicks in. At the Crest you crossover to the other side, with incredible views of the Sequoia Park wilderness. The trail goes down and you reach a fork: left you go to Sequoia. Turn right to Whitney. The trail goes up mildly. You will see three spikes sticking out of the mountain. The third one is the peak. When you get to its base, you still have to climb about 500 meters of rocks (there is a trail but it's difficult to follow).

It consistently takes us between 7h30' and 8h30' from the parking lot to the top. We normally leave before sunrise and are back before sunset. Calculate about 16 hours total, including stops.

For the record...

Check how Whitney compares with other mountains

Camping

Choices for camping include:

the Whitney Portal campground, at the trail head ($10): 1-800-280-2267 or 1-877-444-6777
Tuttle Creek (5 kms west of Lone Pine on Whithey Portal Rd, FREE): 760 872-4881
Horseshoe Meadows (8 kms west of Lone Pine on Whithey Portal Rd): 760 876-6200
Check others at Reserve US
the mountain itself (need permits, of course)

Permits

To hike Mt Whitney requires a day permit. This is not only a very stupid practice, which rewards people who've got nothing to do over people who have a job and can't plan ahead, but they also make it as difficult as possible for you to get one. The phone number changes all the time and it's busy all the time anyway, and the website has the least intuitive name one could think of and finding the permit area requires a degree in dealing with retarded minds. Anyway, permits can in theory be obtained from Inyo National Forest (1-760-873-2408). Of course, you cannot get a permit by email. You can get the permit on the day of your hike, if you are planning to start hiking after the ranger station opens (ah ah) or if you arrive there in the evening before the ranger station closes (ah ah).
You will probably not be checked if you leave early in the morning and return late at night. You will certainly be checked between 8am and noon. Without a permit you can proceed only up to Lone Pine Lake. There is usually a ranger posted right after the lake just to check permits. Rangers here behave like nazists guarding a concentration camp and will show no mercy: I have seen them send back tourists from abroad who obviously didn't know that in communist America you need a government permit to walk on a mountain. (It is not true that hiking permits limit damage to a delicate ecological environment: the most accessed and vulnerable areas have always been the ones that are still permit-free, and above that only a tiny percentage of tourists would go anyway. Hiking permits are just bureaucracy for bureaucracy's sake).

What To Bring

sleeping bag, mattress, pillow
blanket (if you get cold easily)
fork, knife, spoon, cup
flashlight and batteries
swim suit
insect repellent
toilet paper

For the hike...

flashlight and batteries
hiking boots or good walking shoes
sunglasses
sunscreen lotion
hat
LOTS OF WATER AND FOOD FOR THE HIKE
3000-6000 calories in food/powerbars etc
light rain jacket for if it starts raining
light fleece sweater for the cold part
some long pants for the cold part

If I had to list the most serious dangers of the Mt Whitney hike:

Getting hurt (always #1 concern when I go on a long hike). Carry band aids.
Sunburn (even if the temperature will be chilly most of the way). A hat is very important.
Dehydratation (above 3000m the body needs a lot of water, and there is no water most of the trail). Calculate how much water you need for the 16 kms going up (going down you will be dead anyway).
Altitude (if you suffer from altitude). If it gets bad, walk back down a little bit and see if you recover quickly.
Getting stuck on the way back in the dark. A flashlight is wise, although the moon will still be pretty bright.

Notes of the 1998 trip

Confirmed people

(The numbers are numbers of people)

Name	Country	Permit	Tent	Car	Passengers	Time	Chef
Dominik	Schweiz	4	needs	4	(Margherita), Soad, Peter	3pm	Rodney
Bunmi (*)	Nigeria	piero	Rodney	Rod		????	Rodney
Ania	Poland	Dominik	2	5	Stina, Ross, Scott, Kent	7pm	Ania
Kent	Sweden	extra	2	Ania		7pm	Ania
Stina	Sweden	piero	2	Ania		7pm	Ania
Ross	U.S.A.	Dominik	Ania	Ania		7pm	Ania
Scott	U.S.A.	piero	Stina	Ania		7pm	Ania
Christian	Holland	Dominik	2	Daniel		4pm	Daniel
Peter	Sweden	extra	2	Dominik		6:30	Rodney
Soad	Hungary	no	Peter	Dominik		6:30	Rodney
Daniel	Schweiz	extra	2	5	Christian,Howdy,Monika	4pm	Daniel
Rodney	U.S.A.	no	4	Rod		any	Rodney
Linda	Sweden	no	Rodney	Rod		????pm	Rodney
Louise	????	no	Rodney	Rod		????pm	Rodney
Margherita (**)	Italia	extra	needs	Dominik		5pm	Rodney
Monika	Poland	no	Christian	Daniel		5pm	Daniel
Howdy	U.S.A.	extra	Daniel	Daniel		????	Daniel

(*) depending on whether Nigeria beats Brazil or not thursday night.
(**) only if somebody drives back early on monday

Practical issues

We made reservations for the campgrounds: National Reservations System, Lone Pine CA (10 kms before Whitney Portal): Sat., July 3 and Sun, July 4. Sites: #32, Reservation # 1-247003 and #34, Reservation # 1-247011. They are in Dominik Zumbuhl's name.

To communicate use Christian's voice mailbox: 1-800-216-3133, pin 501-0625. We want to know if you heard a message: every time you call Christian's 800 number, leave a message just to say that you did hear his current message. He cannot change a message until he is sure that everybody has listened to it.

Permits: As people flake out, we will assign permits in chronological order. Henrik is not coming, so Christian gets his permit. If at the end we are still more than 8, I will give everybody a photocopy of a permit. Chances that all of us make it to the top are nil.

Renting cars: Dominik's van would cost $240 for 7 people, versus a rental car at $130 for 4 people. Right now there are too many unconfirmed people.

Food: there is a majority for

splitting in 3 groups: Daniel's car, Rodney's car+piero's car, Ania's car+Dominik's car (each group has cooking gears, each group has its own food, each group takes care of its own organization)
eating at the campground on: breakfast saturday, dinner saturday, dinner sunday (4th of July, hard to find a restaurant near Lone Pine), breakfast monday morning

We should be ok because

People willing to buy food: Christian, Ania, Rodney
People who promised to bring cooking gears: Daniel, Rodney, Ania/Stina.
Chefs: Daniel, Ania/Stina, Rodney

which roughly correspond to the previous groups.
(Dominik also volunteered to go shopping)
(Peter has an ice chest)

On driving private cars: It is of course fine if one wants to drive his own car. The reasons we normally don't use our pri vate cars are very simple.

If your car has a problem, and it is YOUR car, of course you have to really take care of it. With rental cars, we have driven for 50 kms with a flat tire and completely destroyed the rim: so what? AVIS pays for a new rim. If it is your own car, you would stop right there. If there is a small noise or the car overheats or whatever, you want immediate assistance. With a rental car, you keep driving and whatever happens to the car is AVIS problem.
We often calculated the cost of using a car, and it is always more expensive than renting one. If I am not mistaken, peoiple in Daniel's truck have always paid more than people in my rental car. Unless of course you do not charge the wear and tear to the other passengers. If you use the AAA tables (which computer tyres, oil, value depreciation, tune-up etc), I think it is about $0.32 per mile, and for a long trip this is a lot of money.
You will not drive your private car in the places where I drive a rental cars. Ask Christian for details:-) This means that every time we have to go on a dirt road with big stones we have to discuss.
Every time we park, get a hotel, or whatever, you will be concerned about the location where you leave your car. Etc.

As long as drivers are aware of 1. 2. 3. 4., they can obviously use their private cars at will. But in a couple of cases this has literally ruined the weekend. And in all cases it has created problems in calculating how much passengers should pay to the car owner: paying just gasoline is of course unfair. Paying the right amount is too much. So in the end the owner has to come up with some compromise that in most cases leaves bad feelings in both the owner and the passenger.

We have saturday and monday free. Possibilities include King's Canyon, Los Angeles, Death Valley, Yosemite, Mono Lake, Las Vegas, etc.
Currently, the poll on what to do saturday and sunday stands as follows:

Death Valley: Christian, Daniel, Ania, Dominik
Eureka Sand Dunes: Stina & Scott
Mono Lake: Rodney, Daniel
King's Canyon: Piero
Los Angeles: Piero
Mojave Desert: Ania

Friday night Daniel and Rodney drive to Mono Lake and camp there. Ania and Dominik drive to Death Valley. We meet saturday evening at the Lone Pine campground.