[pct-l] Whitney Question

[dude at fastmail.ca (dude)]

> I'm assuming they'll be exhausted after
> that 9 mile, 5500 climb and will need to camp before summiting
> Whitney the next day.

It depends on what kind of shape they are in and when they started.  
Its fairly easy to summit whitney and return to the portal in a day.  
my friend and i used to organize groups to summit whitney (before 
getting a permit was lottery-ized), and we had some pretty pittiful 
out-of-shape people that would still summit in a day.  

> Query 1: is camping allowed (or possible) at or near Trail Crest
> junction? If so, where would you suggest?

There is really no place *right next* to trail crest to camp.  Its 
just a trail with no place to pitch a tent or anything.  here is a 
360 degree quicktime of trailcrest to give you and idea of what i am 
saying:
http://www.virtualparks.org/scenes/Zvi3uyjb4JNXo6Bhwsy2v7g.html

I think its only 2.5 miles from trail crest to the summit.  once 
you've made it to trail crest, you might as well keep going unless 
the weather is ominous.   I've left my pack at trail crest and just 
walked to the summit and back in very short order.  I would not 
recommend camping at or near trail crest.


> Query 2: I'm told the last reliable water is the two tarns at
> 11,600 feet between Guitar Lake and Trail Crest.  How far is it
> from Guitar Lake to the tarns - or from the tarns to Trail Crest.
> It's a hell of an elevation gain from the lake to Trail Crest
> (3100 feet in only 2.9 miles).

I have climbed whitney from both sides but I do not recall how far it 
was from guitar lake to the tarns, but it seemed shorter from guitar 
lake to trail crest than from trail camp to trail crest on the east 
side of the mountain.  The climb from the west side (3100' in 2.9 
miles) also didnt seem very steep compared to the 99 switch-backs on 
the east side.  I don't know which one is actually steeper, but the 
east seems steeper to me.


> Query 3: Are there any other water sources at or closer to Trail
> Crest?

not that I am aware of.


peace,
dude

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