My wife and I did our first summit of Mt. Whitney. Rather the popular “one day hike”, we did our more enjoyable “backcountry” trek. We did it via Horseshoe Meadows, during a 4 day, 4 night trek.
Drive up, Sunday, 7/26/09
We arrived to Lone Pine Sunday afternoon and got our permits. We got a pair of walk-in permits (it was easy since we were entering on a loop and less traveled route. The trail crest exit quota was plenty full for walk-ins) We left our car at the Portal and hired Whitney Shuttle to pick us up and bring us to Horseshoe Meadows. Since we knew we wouldn’t have much time on the return, we ordered a round of Burgers and a 6-pack of beer at the portal store. We packed it go to and had it for our “last supper” It was magnificent!
Backpacking Hiking Mt Whitney via Horeshoe Meadows, Crabtree Pass
Day1 – Horseshoe Meadows to Soldier Lake via Cottonwood Pass, 10.5 miles
After our “last breakfast” made up of McDonalds food, OJ, milks and the like stored overnight in a cooler, we left Horseshoe Meadows at 9:30am.
Heading Out day 1
We took the Cottonwood Pass route (vice New Army Pass) since we had a long day ahead of us and didn’t want to kill ourselves over Army Passes. At Siberian Pass trail junction, turned North to join Rock Creek trail and continued North to Lower Soldier Lake.
Morning hike at Soldier Lake
We arrived at 4:30pm to a deluge of mosquitoes . . and a thunderstorm with hail and about 1.5 hrs of decent rain. We did dinner after the storm passed. At over 10 miles with full packs, this was the longest hiked day and pretty sore.
Day2 – Lower Soldier Lake to Upper Crabtree Lake via Sky Blue, 5miles
We got on the trail again about 9am’ish. We left the trail and went up behind Lower Soldier lake an up the tarn into Mitre Basin. That is a beautiful area, just wide open with extremely scenic views all around. Continued north through the basin, parallel to Rock Creek. Made it to the southern edge of Sky Blue lake and had lunch and a good cold, foot soak.
Mitre Basin en route to Sky Blue Lake
Continued around Sky Blue towards Crabtree Pass. We got a bit sidetracked as we followed a side stream up too far northwest and hit one of the small side lakes. We realized the error and continued back northeast to the unnamed lake. The terrain is moderate, without trail and a few spots of light bouldering and a lot of rock hopping. It’s a continuous climb. We passed around Unnamed lake about 3pm and decided to continue up over Crabtree pass. There was one nice campsite at the lake, but decided to push on per our plan. We got up and over Crabtree to upper Crabtree lake and found a nice campsite at the base of some left over snow – creating some cool pics.
Camp at Upper Crabtree Lake, Crabtree Pass in background
It was a cold, clear afternoon and night. While only 5 miles, we both felt it was one of the longest 5 miles we did . . very slow moving without trail and climbing w/ packs.
Day3 – Summit, complete with Snow, back to Trail Camp
We got an earlier start and got back on foot by 8:30am to what Richins book calls “the least desirable portion of the hike” He wasn’t kidding. Headed up “the sand” for hours, attempting to cross over the pass aside Discovery pinnacle to join the main trail. Our camp was not at the water’s edge, up 1-200 ft from water level – so we started off trying to avoid going down to the bottom and back up. We tried to skirt around the perimeter of the pass, but the bouldering and terrain was larger than thought, so lost about an hour with slow moving. Book said go to bottom of lake and just plug through the sand.
The infamous “sand” face. Don’t let pic fool you – it’s a 1500ft climb and 0.8 miles. Took us 4 hours.
About 1/2 way up the side, the skies were darkening. It started to mist, then drizzle . .and it picked up a bit harder. The drizzle was continuing and the skies remained dark so we took some cover in a rock formation. The rain turned to hail with snow mixed in. We stayed put for about 1.5 hrs and ended up doing lunch. Fearful of getting stuck on the side, we departed out again after breaking out more clothing. The sleet/rain continued and as we neared the pass, it picked up to full blown snow. Unfortunately, we hadn’t planned on snow hiking so weren’t fully prepared with the right gear. We pushed on and finally reached the tarn about 3:30pm . . pretty damp and fairly cold. We dropped down onto the main trail and made it an actual “trail” that wife was very glad about. That was the longest 2 mile hike we’ve ever endured.
Up the sand, and in SNOW . . . yes, snow
At the trail crest, we snacked and rested and within 15-20 minutes the rain and snow stopped and the skies opened up to sun. We decided to dash up to make our summit that afternoon. Everyone else was coming down and discussing the “near white out” of snow. We finally summitted at 4:30pm and with exception of a solo overnighter, we were the last to summit that day (at least we saw no one else going up as we made it back to Trail Camp)
The Peak Sign
The summit was quick as we didn’t have a lot of time, and there was another storm to the east throwing a lot of lightening. We got back to our packs, and continued down to Trail Camp arriving at 7pm.
Signing the summit register
Day 4 – Trail Camp to Portal
After making our goals, we had an easy morning and departed Trail camp about 10:30 to return to the portal. It was uneventful, except still hearing chatter about the “snow storm” the night before from those coming up. We got in about 2:30 to our awaiting car. Didn’t have time for another burger, but got a beer, soaked the feet in the creek and headed back to San Diego that afternoon evening.
Last night at Trail Camp
It was an awesome trip! I’d do the region again, a different route.
Notes & Lessons learned
- The hikes and ups and climbs are always longer and more difficult than expected.
- Wish we spent more time on the summit – but due to time and weather, we rushed it. I have only my pictures to remind most of the memory.
- Time to reduce some load/weight. Throughout the trip, we identified many areas where we can shed a few pounds.
- Use those new unused pounds in some heavier weather gear, primarily waterproof jackets – not just fleece.
- Amazed at the construction of the Main Trail.
Excellent article! I did Whitney as a long “dayhike” starting under a full moon last August. It was tough, at least above 13K ft. I was planning on going back up this summer with 5 others to do a 2-3 day backpack via the main Whitney trail. However, my permit was denied, so I’m looking at alternatives. Do you think the route you described would be doable for hikers that have marginal knees? Any other suggested routes? Thanks, Roy
Enjoyed your trip report.
I read it before my own recent excursion. Mine had a different flavor due to more snow all around, but one quote was in my head on day 2, from Soldier Lake to Upper Crabtree Lake, “While only 5 miles, we both felt it was one of the longest 5 miles we did . . ”
Our 5 miles ended up being about 7.5, according to my GPS, what with the wrong turns and needing to scale the ridge to the left of the unnamed lake at ~12,000 feet. It was supposed to be our light rest day, but we hiked from about 10AM to 7PM.
My trip report with pics and video to follow.
I feel a kinship with anyone who completed this route, so beautiful and unforgiving.
So i just got back to updating my blog and some of the “spam” filtering and out of a couple thousand, see a few legit ones. Sorry, i don’t spend time much on my personal blog these days.
@Roy – this trip should be doable, but there are a few areas where scrambling and steepness come into play. But, I’d plan on 3-4 days, vice the 2-3. If you only have 2-3 days, then do the main trail by stopping at the 2 camps – one one way up, other on way down.
@Derek – Thanks man! I just found your blog and post on the same trip. http://bit.ly/agEBGM Great TR and it brought back all of the memories of my trip. I never made it back to Whitney this year, but hope to return next.
Thank you for the trip report. As you did a loop and not an out and back, how do you feel the trip would have been had you camped 1st night at Lower Soldier, made Upper Crabtree Lake evening-2 base camp, summited with just a day-pack not carrying all of your gear up the sand slog to Discovery Pinnacle, then returned to base camp to retrieve your gear and hike out to Either Blue Sky, or Lower Soldier for the final evening-3 then back out to Horseshoe via Cottonwood Pass?
Thank you for your feedback!
Glenn W.
Hi Glenn. From what I recall from my research, and doing this route, your plan could certainly work. (It has been 4+ years so I’m going off of memory) The big difference is that you’re coming back out Horeshoe where we wanted to return to the portal via the main trail. The benefit of either however, is that the permits are lot more easy to come by (assuming not much has changed in the last 4 years)