Trip Report

The effects of California’s prolonged drought were evident on this trip to the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. There was very little snow in places where we expected it, like at Iceberg Lake at an elevation of 12,621’. Populations of rodents and fish seemed to be drastically reduced from when the leader visited the area 5 years ago. On a previous trip, marmots were everywhere at Upper Boy Scout Lake and we could see many 16 to 18-inch long rainbow trout in the shallows of the lake. On this trip we only saw 3 marmots and the largest fish in the lake appeared to be about 10 inches long. This was still beautiful country however and it seemed to be peak season for wildflowers everywhere we went, even at over 13,000’.
For our attempt of the Mt. Whitney Mountaineer’s Route, we began at the Whitney Portal trailhead where scales are conveniently located so climbers can weigh their packs. As Juli said, “No good can come from this!” We now understood how heavy our packs were and began to hike and scramble our way to Upper Boy Scout Lake to set up camp on Monday afternoon. At 11,345’, our camp was 95 feet higher than the summit of Mt. Hood and just taking a breath was hard work since we live so close to sea level. Tuesday was our “rest day”, when we had planned to acclimate to the altitude. Instead of resting much, we set out to climb 14,094’ Mt. Russell (California’s 7th highest peak), just north of Mt. Whitney. After a long scree slope and a slog to the east ridge, we reached the east false summit. The final few hundred feet of our ascent would include scrambling over a knife-edge ridge with a 2,000’ vertical drop-off on the south side, and up to the west summit. With storm clouds brewing around us, we did not want to be caught on the exposed rock if lighting struck so we turned around and headed back to camp. On Wednesday, we awoke at 3:30 AM to see a spectacular lightning display over Death Valley to the east. Although the storm appeared to be headed our way, we hiked to Iceberg Lake and the beginning of the chute leading to the final scramble to Whitney’s summit. Roy had a detailed weather forecasting app on his phone and just as it predicted, the storm soon closed in on us and forced us back down to our camp. After a short rest, we packed our wet gear and hiked out to the trailhead. On our drive home, we stopped to camp near Bishop and on Thursday morning, we visited the South Tufa tower formations at Mono Lake before eating breakfast at Whoa Nellie Deli in Lee Vining. Although we did not reach either summit, it was a great trip and we’ll try those peaks again.