Whitney late may

imported
#1

I’m planning to start at Campo early april, i should be near mount Whitney late may, do you think i need an ice axe?

I could send it to myself at KM

Maybe Crampons would be lighter?

Thanks!

french bob

#2

For what it’s worth - I live in Ridgecrest, just southeast of the southern Sierra Crest. Two days of heavy rain have coated the eastern slopes with more snow than I’ve seen in years. The PCT - particularly in the upper Kern near Forrester Pass should be covered with a LOT of snow. It’ll depend on how fast it melts.

North of Chicken Springs Lake the PCT is pretty steep over Guyot Saddle, then up out of Crabtree, but the real test is the southern side of Forrester Pass.

Booger

#3

We were there around June 5 on a low/moderate snow year and were very happy to have our ice axes. We picked up the axes at Kennedy Meadows, though given the conditions we found we probably could have waited until Lone Pine, three days later. We had snow at most of the passes from Forester to Sonora Pass. If this is, as predicted, a high snow year, you may well run into snow before. We had snow at Fuller Ridge and again on Baden Powell, but it wasn’t too bad for us. We were able to glissade down fairly easily. Some years it can be a hazard well before the Sierras for early season hikers. You definitely will need your axe over Forester, if you are there before mid-June.

Ginny

#4

In fact , i already did the sections from Walker Pass to Echo Lake last summer, i started july 17 and had very few snow on forester and Whithney, but as i’m planning to do the desert sections on early april 2005,Whitney will be my end this time:tongue
Do you think i’ll need water caches that early in the season?

french bob

#5

There’s a great website that tracks Snow Water Content for various sites throughout the Sierra: http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/current/PlotSWC
You really can’t tell how the early June snow will be in the Sierra until late spring. If you look at last years data most areas were average or above average until mid-March when an early heat wave accelerated melting and the snow water content was well below normal by May.

Padre