April 29-30, Mt. Whitney Mountaineer's Route
4/15/06
3896
3
When you have the kind of friend that proposes to his girlfriend on the summit of Everest (link to photo), you know the bachelor party is going to be an adventure. It didnt disappoint. Our team of five summited Mt. Whitney (14,500ft) via the Mountaineers Route and skied the 45 degree 2,000 foot couloir starting from 14,300.
* For a very skiable line down such a classic mountain, I was surprised at how little beta I was able to find online. Hope this is helpful to someone looking to do this in the future.*
Approach Day - We left the Whitney portal trailhead on Sat morning. Warm weather had caused several slides to come down through the approach path; not a place that I would want to be late in the day. We set up camp at Lower Boyscout Lake (~10,000 ft) a few hours after leaving the car and then set out for some quick, warm-up skiing down the 500 ft face in front of camp.
Summit Day Left camp at 5am. We skinned to ~12,000 ft before switching to crampons and ice axes. After passing Iceberg Lake (elevation 12,600 ft), the goal was within sight. The couloir quickly steepened to a fairly sustained 45 degrees. Two hours later, we reached the notch at 14,300 ft. We stashed our skis and made the 200 ft scramble to the summit up a 55 degree, exposed, Class 3 face. (Ive read that this has been skied, but a fall would take you over a 1,000+ ft cliff.)
Back at the notch, we strapped on our skis and looked down the couloir. The highlight of the trip was when Greg informed me that he was a little scared, not a word that I thought was in his vocabulary. As we made our first turns, the snow was somewhat softer and slushier than we had hoped for (the west-facing couloir had been in the sun for a few hours at this point). The couloir was most narrow at the top, and the combination of altitude, day packs, heavy snow and jump turns was fairly taxing on the legs. As the couloir started to open up, we were able to let our skis rip a little more. By the bottom of the couloir, we were making wide, sweeping turns. We built up enough speed to fly past the other climbers who had camped at Iceberg Lake. They looked-on envious of our skis as they faced a slushy 4,000 post-holing descent with heavy packs. The skiing from Iceberg back to camp was awesome. It was a series of rolling bowls and faces with opportunities to shoot between rocks at points.
We made it summit to car in four hours and back to LAX by 8pm in time for my 9:45pm flight to Seattle. All in all ¦ an amazing adventure ¦ great line down a classic mountain.
(I'll try to post some pictures shortly.)
* For a very skiable line down such a classic mountain, I was surprised at how little beta I was able to find online. Hope this is helpful to someone looking to do this in the future.*
Approach Day - We left the Whitney portal trailhead on Sat morning. Warm weather had caused several slides to come down through the approach path; not a place that I would want to be late in the day. We set up camp at Lower Boyscout Lake (~10,000 ft) a few hours after leaving the car and then set out for some quick, warm-up skiing down the 500 ft face in front of camp.
Summit Day Left camp at 5am. We skinned to ~12,000 ft before switching to crampons and ice axes. After passing Iceberg Lake (elevation 12,600 ft), the goal was within sight. The couloir quickly steepened to a fairly sustained 45 degrees. Two hours later, we reached the notch at 14,300 ft. We stashed our skis and made the 200 ft scramble to the summit up a 55 degree, exposed, Class 3 face. (Ive read that this has been skied, but a fall would take you over a 1,000+ ft cliff.)
Back at the notch, we strapped on our skis and looked down the couloir. The highlight of the trip was when Greg informed me that he was a little scared, not a word that I thought was in his vocabulary. As we made our first turns, the snow was somewhat softer and slushier than we had hoped for (the west-facing couloir had been in the sun for a few hours at this point). The couloir was most narrow at the top, and the combination of altitude, day packs, heavy snow and jump turns was fairly taxing on the legs. As the couloir started to open up, we were able to let our skis rip a little more. By the bottom of the couloir, we were making wide, sweeping turns. We built up enough speed to fly past the other climbers who had camped at Iceberg Lake. They looked-on envious of our skis as they faced a slushy 4,000 post-holing descent with heavy packs. The skiing from Iceberg back to camp was awesome. It was a series of rolling bowls and faces with opportunities to shoot between rocks at points.
We made it summit to car in four hours and back to LAX by 8pm in time for my 9:45pm flight to Seattle. All in all ¦ an amazing adventure ¦ great line down a classic mountain.
(I'll try to post some pictures shortly.)
Some pictures ...
Ken and Protz skinning up to Iceberg with Whitney looming above
The Mountaineer's Route couloir (a Google image search will give you a ton of detailed shots if you're interested)
Greg skiing the couloir
Ken and Protz skinning up to Iceberg with Whitney looming above
The Mountaineer's Route couloir (a Google image search will give you a ton of detailed shots if you're interested)
Greg skiing the couloir
Nice Job!!! Many people are unaware that Whitney is the highest peak in the US outside Alaska. I would like to ski the route you skied sometime in my future. Thanks much for your report!
Nice trip and photos. I could feel "the burn" in the quads on those jump turns in the upper couloir. ;)
We're near Mammoth and heading south.
Zap
We're near Mammoth and heading south.
Zap
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