Mount Whitney (9x) Mountaineers Route 2/25/06 Parked at the usual spot below Meysan Lake TH Bivied at the Portal the night before Log 04:05am - Left trailhead 04:25am - Reached North Fork Lone Pine Creek 05:48am - Reached Lower Boy Scout Lake 07:04am - Reached Upper Boy Scout Lake 09:05am - Reached Iceberg Lake 11:55am - Reached the Notch 12:53pm - Reached summit 01:08pm - Signed register 01:10pm - Left summit 02:00pm - Returned to the Notch 02:56pm - Returned to Iceberg Lake 04:14pm - Passed by UBSL 04:39pm - Returned to LBSL 05:25pm - Reached Main Trail 05:46pm - Returned to trailhead Stats Time from trailhead to LBSL: 1 hr 43 mins Time from trailhead to UBSL: 2 hrs 59 mins Time from trailhead to Iceberg Lake: 5 hrs 0 mins Time from trailhead to summit: 8 hrs 48 mins Time from summit back to trailhead: 4 hrs 36 mins Total Time: 13 hrs 41 mins Gear Usual winter gear: Ice Axe, Snowshoes, Crampons, Trekking Poles with Snow Baskets Hauled the snowshoes beyond UBSL but never used them on the way up or down though they may have been helpful at times. Report: Encouraged by recent reports I headed for the Portal on Friday for a dayhike attempt at the summit via the Mountaineers Route the following day. This was my last chance for a February summit attempt. Reports were accurate. Though there were still a few icy spots on the road I was able to make it (in my low clearance 2wd car) to the typical spot below the Meysan Lakes trailhead. Cool! Now I have a chance. The weather was clear and nice. To attempt to gain some acclimation and to check conditions I hiked up into the North Fork drainage. Finding conditions there favorable I hiked back down to the Portal where I had dropped off my bivy gear. As soon as the sun went down the temperature dropped rapidly. I set my alarm for 3am. Several minutes before 3am I woke up and turned off the alarm. It was a bit breezy and quite cold. It took some time to find the motivation to get out of my warm sleeping bag but by 4am I was ready to go and headed up the trail. The day before I had debated whether to bring my lighter non-insulated boots or my heavy winter boots. As cold as it now was I felt I made the right decision with the insulated boots. I made it to LBSL in under 2 hours without using crampons or snowshoes. Shortly beyond LBSL it started to become light and I was looking forward to the sunrise. Partway up to UBSL the top few inches of surface powder got a little deeper and I decided to put on my crampons to provide better traction. I reached UBSL just after 7am and though I wasn't concentrating on speed I was pleased that it only took 3 hours to reach that point. After a short break I continued on. On the way to Iceberg Lake I began to feel the effects of the elevation and exertion. It's usually not possible to stay acclimated well this time of year and I was feeling it. Halfway to Iceberg I finally decided to ditch the snowshoes that I had hauled to this point and hadn't used. They might have been a little helpful between UBSL and Iceberg but I just didn't want to go to the trouble of switching gear. I reached Iceberg Lake at 9:05am exactly 5 hrs from the Portal. At this point I took a break to carb up and contemplate what was to come. With the recent avalanche thread on my mind I surveyed the chute for any visual clues. Up to this point the slopes below seemed to have a lower accumlation of snow than I expected and avalanche risk seemed remote. None-the-less it now occurred to me how utterly alone I was. I had seen no one on the way up; not at LBSL, not at UBSL, and not here at Iceberg. I was alone. Shortly above Iceberg I began to encounter sections of deeper powder. My plan was to avoid the center of the chute staying close to the rocks. Unfortunately this seemed to be where the deepest powder was. Thus I resorted to simply hunting around for the firmer snow as I worked my way up the chute. There was a varied combination of conditions present. For the most part it was either frustratingly soft powder or hard crust. While I preferred the crust much of it was too hard to kick steps into and I had to front point with my crampons (essentially ascending on my toes). The journey up the chute to the notch was agonizingly draining. At one point I even started climbing up the rocks on one side of the chute to avoid the snow. Eventually it seemed that I was taking more time stopped than I was moving. As usual in these situations I lost track of time and didn't even want to know. It just seemed to take forever. In the shade of the chute it had also become quite cold again. It was also a bit windy but not excessively so. I finally arrived at the Notch just before noon. When I checked the time I was mostly relieved. Though it had taken two and a half hours to get to the Notch from Iceberg Lake I was somewhat pleased because it felt more like 5 hrs. At the Notch I took another much needed break and had a good look at the final chute. Coverage in the chute appeared fairly typical with the rocky band partway up being mostly clear of snow. The traverse (the alternate route) looked a bit spooky as usual. I dropped my pack at the Notch and then began climbing up the chute. When I reached the rock band I tried to use what snow there was but it was mostly powder and gave way when I thrust my ice axe into it. I really couldn't get any kind of solid grip here and stopped for a moment before awkwardly climbing up and over the rock band. Above the rock band the snow was fairly ideal for kicking steps. Most of it was well consolodated and took several kicks to form a good step. Toward the top and steepest section it turned soft and I began to get a bit concerned. It wasn't supporting my weight as well and I began to wonder if this powder at the top would all just slide off under my weight. It also seemed a lot steeper here than I remembered. Fortunately it held. I reached the summit shortly before 1pm. Though still breezy it was nice and sunny and I soaked up what warmth I could get. While I didn't feel terribly pressed for time I knew I couldn't stay long. There were five names signed into the register since Richard Piotrowski and I had last made the summit in December. I signed in and then headed to the top of the chute. Dropping back down into the chute was a little tricky. I wanted to avoid as much of the soft snow as possible but the alternative was a section of loose rocks and some clear ice. It looked steep. I hesitated. I remembered the two climbers that lost their lives here last year. I considered my options carefully and finally opted to drop down on some cleaner rock before entering the chute. I then carefully retraced my steps on the way down. I took the far right side of the rock band which had more secure holds. I was relieved to get back down to the notch safely. Now it was simply a matter of getting down the chute to Iceberg Lake. With crampons on this went fairly well. About halfway down I decided to take my crampons off and glissade the rest. Remembering all the soft stuff I went through on the way up I figured this would be safe enough. Unfortunately the sections of hard smooth crust I passed over on the way up were larger than I remembered. I soon hit one of these crusty sections where the handle of my ice axe could no longer penetrate. I had to swtich to self arrest. The pick of my ice axe carved through the crust like a saw through styrofoam. At first this didn't slow me down. My ice axe squeeled as it cut through the crust like finger nails on a chalkboard but eventually I slowed down and came to a stop. The crust here was too hard to kick steps into. I had to continue in partial self-arrest mode until I could work my way to the side of the chute where the soft snow was. Once I did so I found the soft snow generally too soft to glissade. Talk about two extremes. It would have been easier if I had just left my crampons on and walked down. It was just before 3pm when I got back down to Iceberg Lake and put my crampons back on. The remainder of my descent was fairly uneventful and I made good time. I picked up my snowshoes and contemplated whether it would be easier to continue on crampons or to use the snowshoes. I'm still not sure what would have worked best but I decided to continue on crampons. In the softer snow this worked pretty well and I got some good plunge stepping. I reached LBSL just after 4:30pm and managed to get down to the trailhead a few minutes before dark at 5:46pm. I then packed up my bivy gear and hiked down to my car. It had been another extremely strenuous day but I was pleased. For February I probably couldn't have asked for a better day.