Mount Whitney Mountaineer's Route

2023-05-20

Yep another obligatory tick of a classic ski line and the highest point of the contiguous U.S. I just wish I had oneee more day to do Mount Langley’s Northeast Couloir (didn’t have a truck) but not a bad way to wrap up skiing in the Sierra :)

whitney-1.jpg Cool clouds on the drive to Whitney

whitney-2.jpg Couloirs galore seemed to be the theme of skiing in this range

whitney-3.jpg Horn of Mount Williamson, California’s second tallest

whitney-4.jpg The classic round rocks of the Alabama Hills just below Whitney

whitney-5.jpg I’ll keep saying that being able to see a peak or ski line from the road ups the coolness factor by 10

whitney-6.jpg Sunrise on the way Lower Boy Scout Lake. There was some flooding seen at the trailhead and the snow started getting continuous pretty early on, like around 9000’ I think.

whitney-7.jpg Thor Peak

whitney-8.jpg Impala and Winged Horse

whitney-9.jpg Ahh the classic view of Whitney (right, tallest) and the Needles. The Mountaineer’s Route not pictured but it’s looker’s right of Whitney.

whitney-10.jpg Someone decided to bring their downhill setup lol

whitney-11.jpg Summit view down to the valley, probably around 11,000’ of maximum difference. The fun fact that everyone points out is how interestingly close the highest point (here) and lowest point (Badwater Basin in Death Valley) of the contiguous U.S. are in proximity. It’s a couple valleys over but still less than 100 miles away.

whitney-12.jpg Looking north at Mount Russell, another California 14er but looking quite a bit smaller from here

whitney-13.jpg Not a ski from the true summit given these rocks but I did hear that it went this season with the historic snowfall

whitney-14.jpg More views I guess. Spent a bit of time trying to talk to this Korean guy who couldn’t speak English well and tried to hit the hand-rolled cigarette he was smoking (he wouldn’t let me bum).

whitney-15.jpg The classic shelter with the Kaweah Peaks above

whitney-16.jpg There was a lot of avalanche debris to negotiate

Notes

  • This was probably ~9 miles and ~6200 feet of vertical gain in a little under 6 hours.
  • The north face of Whitney kind of caught me off guard with how steep it was. It’s only 300’ and not a huge deal but I know some people get hurt with how firm it is in the early afternoon still (north even slightly a little west facing).
  • This makes it hard to time with the Mountaineer’s Route which faces due east - I honestly thought I missed the corn cycle, but I need to keep learning that it’s okay to be a little outside the window. It was probably even a little better just slightly overbaked (maybe some would consider it normal/optimal corn haha).