August 8-10, 2000

February 2000 

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Mount Whitney

August 8-10, 2000

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The East Face of Mt. Whitney
At the end of July, Michael Brody called me (Brian, that is) and said that he had a permit for Mt. Whitney and no partner and asked if I was interested. Well, of course I was interested, but also a bit nervous since it would be the most committing route that I had climbed to date. He proposed the classic East Face route (5.6-5.4 depending on your guide book) and I couldn't help but say "heck yeah". Michael was in Tuolumne already so we met in Lone Pine the day before our permit started to get groceries, shake out our gear, and eat a huge pizza. After a night at the Whitney Portal campground, we set off up the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek. The trail soon disappeared and we found ourselves bushwhacking through dense willows and alders until we hit a Forest Service sign that directed us from the south side of the creek to the north side and up onto the "Ebersbacher Ledges", which were at least more obvious to follow than the choked river canyon. The trail and cairns led us past the Boy Scout Lakes, and Clyde Meadow, over sand and talus, and up to a moraine at the base of the massive East Face of Mt. Whitney. We were so drawn to t he expanse of granite that we missed the northward turn up the slope and ledges to Iceberg Lake and had to do some unwelcome backtracking, but we easily found the trail again and got to Iceberg Lake in plenty of time to set up camp and have dinner before it got too dark. The next day we woke up early to blasts of wind that howled past the lake and over the east face and ridge. I'm not sure how hard the gusts were, but Michael and I decided that it would be safer to wait out this clear but potentially cold and nasty day and gamble on a clear and less windy tomorrow. A couple that we had camped next to in the Portal campground went up the East Buttress that day and said that the wind wasn't too bad, but that they were wearing all the clothes that they had. Based on our discussions with them they seemed like a pair of pretty hard nuts, so I wasn't surprised that they enjoyed themselves and raved about the route. We spent the day lounging and reading (glad we brought our chairs) and Michael taught me to play cribbage. After eating a small dinner to conserve food, we had some mint tea and went to bed with high expectations. I was surprised at how well I slept considering that I was still a little nervous. My spirits were boosted by the extra day at altitude (I had come from sea level to Whitney Portal) and that the wind had died down considerably by the time we went to bed. 
 
Michael climbing the "Washboard".

We woke up at 5:30 am on Thursday and had coffee and breakfast and got ourselves ready for the long day. We forgot to look at the watch when we started hiking, but I bet it was just after 7 am. No one else was setting out from Iceberg Lake that day to do the face (or the buttress) so we were glad to have the mountain to ourselves. We hiked up the gully between the two towers and found the obvious roping up place in the notch. Michael set off on the first lead, the 5.3 "Tower Traverse". He got about 20ft out when I heard a climber below me. It turned out to be Dave, who I had met the past winter in Bishop at an avalanche awareness course at Sierra Mountain Center. He was soloing the route from the car and back in a day so he could scope out the Mountaineer's Route which he was guiding in a few days. He passed Michael, and his only comment, moving the whole time, was "pretty sketchy for 5.4, huh." Michael cruised along then brought me up. The traverse was interesting with our pack that had our water and food and rain jackets and shoes in it. Later I named it "the pig" since it felt more like climbing with a pig on my back than a day pack.
 
Michael looks for the "Fresh Air Traverse".

The next few pitches were up an easy, relatively clean ramp called "The Washboard" which ends on a sand and loose block covered ledge. We took a left turn into a notch, where we looked down and right to some ledges, which we assumed to be the start of the famous "Fresh Air Traverse". Michael led out onto the ledges and looked in vain for the start of the traverse. Turns out that we were jumping the gun by quite a bit. The ledges are at least an entire pitch on their own as far as we could tell. The KEY BETA, for those who want it, is that you need to follow these ledges up and down and across the face (south) until you CANNOT go any farther on ledges. As far as we could tell, that is where the "Fresh Air Traverse" starts, and that is where we made our only real mistake of the climb. Michael stopped on the last big ledge and neither of us could figure out where the damn traverse was, especially since our topo from "Sierra Classics" said that the ledges and traverse was only one pitch. The climbing straight up looked easy, but there was an intimidating head wall farther up, but after much discussion neither of us could come up with a solution that made sense beside going up, so I lead up the broken, easy section. 
 
A view of the high sierra from the top of Mt. Whitney

I got to the headwall and set an anchor since I didn't want to have to climb the headwall way out on the end of the rope mainly for mental reasons. Just before Michael got to my belay I figured out where we were. We had gone up BEFORE the traverse, and were on the 5.7 variation that climbed something called "Shaky Leg Crack". Michael agreed with me and we examined the 2 cracks that looked like they could be climbed. The right hand one looked like easier climbing, especially after a bulge at the start, but it was WIDE and there was little hope of getting any gear at all into it. The left hand one was more bulging at the bottom and slick but had the possibility of some pro, so we decided on that one. Michael heroically took the lead and I'm glad that he did because his greater experience won the day for us. After a short but nasty section of A1 with our only gear that would fit the crack (a #4 Camalot, and a #11 Hex). Michael turned the crack and set a belay. Hoisting the pig onto my back, I headed up that crack and had to grunt, hang and pull on gear to finally gasp my way past the hard part of the crack. I don't think I would have had the coconuts to lead that pitch, Michael is still my personal hero for doing it with such determination. As Michael would say, it was a bonecrusher. All I can say is, 5.7 my butt. 
 
Michael (left) and Brian mug on the summit.

We were now on the "Giant (or Grand) Staircase", which was really a treadmill of sand and loose blocks. We negotiated the Staircase which ends at a headwall that has a 5.6 squeeze chimney on it's left side. It looked a bit spooky from below but as I approached it, it looked more protectable, with a lot of parallel and horizontal cracks. I led up the chimney and I thought it was the cleanest, most fun pitch on the whole climb. Then we swung a few leads on 4th and 3rd class heading to the right (north) from the top of the chimney. We started seeing cairns and followed them for about 500ft to just below the top, where we saw people above (one almost spit on Michael, why do nice, relatively normal people have to throw crap and spit off the top of mountains?). I abdicated the last lead to Michael figuring that he really deserved to mantle onto the summit since he was such a stud. He thought it was kind of anti-climactic, but we both enjoyed our short time on the summit and then started heading for the Mountaineer's Route, which was our descent. 
 
Michael starts down the Mountaineer's Route.

The Mountaineer's Route still had some ice on it, but by staying to the far right and down climbing ledges we were able to avoid the ice and get to the notch. Going on the advice of the couple who had climbed "The Butt" the day before we kept right the whole way down the gully and after much sand and talus we reached the lake. Michael and I agreed that the Mountaineer's Route seemed like a nasty way to come up the mountain but a lot of people do it. Once we reached the lake many of the climbers that had reached the lake that day and the day before began asking us questions about the route, a luxury that we had not been afforded, but we tried to do our best while we got water and cooked dinner since we were very thirsty and hungry. Later as the tide of weekend warriors became more oppressive, Michael was prompted to comment that he was sick of talking about the route. We gave away our topos and our advice to all that asked "How was the Fresh Air Traverse?", we ate our dinner and started to relax. We also thanked Earl for the beautiful, clear, almost windless weather that we had enjoyed all day long (ask Michael about Earl). Originally we had hoped to climb and hike all or part way out in the same day, but these plans were shot by the amount of time it took us to do the route. It was 12 hours tent to tent. This is because of our Shaky Leg variation and that I wanted to say tied in the whole way. I slowed us down, but this time I was glad for it. Next time, I don't know. 
 
 
 
 
 
Mt. Russell looking very tempting from the top of Whitney.

The hike out was uneventful. We found the trail much more easily through the willows and down climbing the ledges was much easier than we thought it would be. There was a steady tide of people headed up canyon, including several large groups. We were very glad to be there midweek and have the mountain essentially to ourselves, especially considering the amount of sand and loose rock and the potentially scary prospect of having several other large parties on the route ahead or behind. Overall, the route had some clean and interesting climbing on it, but also had a lot of sand and loose rock. A helmet is ESSENTIAL. It was exhilarating and wildly exposed in places, but the climbing was never too hard (presumably not ever hard if you stay on route). I think if I was to contemplate another route on Mt. Whitney, it would be the East Buttress because of its more aesthetic and clean reputation. However, the east face was fun once.

Useful sources of information are "Climbing Mt. Whitney", by Walt Wheelock and Wynne Benti from Spotted Dog Press (very comprehensive), "Sierra Classsics" by John Moynier and Claude Fiddler from Chockstone Press (less than detailed topo), and "The High Sierra" by R.J. Secor from he Mountaineers. We also passed some guys on the approach that had a route guide to the Mountaineer's Route that they said they got at the Whitney Portal store which looked pretty detailed. That store also has ok food and showers and were nice enough to give Michael a garbage bag for free.