Read Mesa Rim Setter Doug’s trip report on hiking Mt. Whitney, the Mountaineer’s Route.
A Friday night in March, I gather my crampons, ice tools, and excitement and pile into my friends car to head north on interstate 15. Our plan is to climb the Mountaineer’s Route on Mt. Whitney – a class 3 snow gully approached by hiking 5 ½ miles up the N. Fork of Lone Pine Canyon. Almost two hours into the drive, we hit a piece of scrap metal and the back tire blows out as we barrel 70mph down the freeway. We manage to pull onto the shoulder of the freeway and proceed to swap the damaged wheel with a similarly dysfunctional spare tire. Unfortunately, the spare tire is low on air and we coast into the nearest service station. We quickly realize that both the spare tire has a leak and that at 8:20pm, most tire shops are closed on Friday nights. Luckily, we manage to find an auto store that stays open until 9. I request an Uber and within 15 minutes we are headed 12 miles back south to purchase a new tire. Luckily, everything worked out and by 10pm we were back on the road to Bishop.
Around 2am, we received another surprise as the gate that we expected to be closed was actually open! This meant that we would be able to start hiking from Whitney Portal at ~9000ft thereby saving a 3000 vertical foot slog up the paved road. Success! After snuggling into our sleeping bags in an empty parking lot at Whitney Portal, we quickly fell asleep.
The next morning we loaded up our packs and hit the trail. Despite dreaming of winter conditions, we wore running shoes for the first dry hour of the hike before switching to boots. We set up camp at Iceberg Lake that afternoon. In the morning after a quick bite of oatmeal and tea, we began hiking as first light appeared. After an hour and a half of trying to channel our inner Ueli Stecks on the low angle snow, we were standing on the summit. Since we had to get back to San Diego for work the next morning, we promptly turned around and were back at the car that afternoon.
It was a quick, but much appreciated excursion into the local mountains and I’m already excited to go back! Although hopefully with less road obstacles this time.
Doug Tomczik • Mesa Rim Setter
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