Mount Whitney, California, USA (14,494 ft / 4418 m): failed attempt via the Mountaineer's route

November 10-11, 2001

Brief report:

I was familiar with Whitney's mountaineer's route from an earlier solo trip back on July 2001 (click here for that report). This time I wanted to do it in mid Fall.
My observations:

1. Whitney Portal trailhead: I got to the trailhead parking lot, Friday afternoon, about 4:00pm. I put my food away in the metal boxes. I walked around the area 'til it was dark (about 5:00pm). I slept inside my car. Woke up at 5:30am and started walking by 6:00am, Saturday, November 10, 2001 from the trailhead (8365 ft). No snow here.
2. Lower Boy Scout Lake: reached Lower Boy Scout lake at about 9:00am. Here I rested for fifteen minutes. There was some snow on the ground, but still can see quite a bit of dirt (mostly frozen) and rock. Lower Boy Scout lake partially frozen (only 1-inch on top). Also, there still was water flowing by mid-morning.
3. Section from Lower Boy Scout to Upper Boy Scout: the waterfall, by the slabs you see from Lower Boy Scout lake, was mostly frozen (not much water flowing by mid-morning). A few icy sections by the willows and water ice frozen to the granite slabs approaching Upper Boy Scout.
4. Upper Boy Scout Lake: all liquid, nothing frozen. I arrived here at 10:00am and decided to have lunch and take a rest.
5. Section from Upper Boy Scout to Iceberg Lake: some icy sections just as you ascended a few hundred feet from the Upper Boy Scout area. Left Upper Boy Scout at 10:45am heading to my base camp: Iceberg lake.
6. Iceberg Lake: all liquid, nothing frozen. Some amount of snow, knee-deep at some places. Got to Iceberg at 12:30pm with fatigue setting in. I camped here Saturday night (Nov. 10th) and had a small snowfall/flurries overnight. Night time temperatures at Iceberg lake hovered around 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
7. Mountaineer's gully: Summit day: I planned it for Sunday, November 11. A fair amount of snow in the gully. I only climbed it up to 13,100 ft because I was climbing on waist deep powdery snow (chest deep even at times; I'm 5'8" tall). I turned around at 13,100 because I was making very slow progress with the deep powdery snow, so I did not summit Whitney this past weekend. I wanted to start climbing the gully at 5:00am Sunday morning, however, it snowed until 7:00am or so. With the slow progress and the short daylight, I, along with two other climbing groups I met at Iceberg lake, all decided to go back down to the trailhead on Sunday, Nov. 11th.