Mt Whitney - Climbing the Mountaineer's Route 

Unfortunately people want the "Instagram moment" and hurt themselves or need rescue off the mountain making it harder to get permits for people who are experienced climbers

Yeah, that was dope.

Thank you for watching!

Thanks Erik! Have fun and stay safe out there!

Thanks Garrett!

Your channel is good stuff too. Always look forward to another upload from you.

rocky h smart to turn around. There is always next time.

Charlie Swearingen every peak is an adventure. It is all matter of perspective, being present and being prepared. Do it. Every mountain and hill are special and memorable. They always make you work for it.

Bruce Williams That’s very kind of you, thank you!

What was your ascending route

Winter Route, South Face, Lone Pine Peak 👍🏼

Thanks Shuping. Kevin, Danielle, and Aaron have some prior experience. I'm a mixed bag - I consider this to be my first true mountaineering route. Compared to hiking the Whitney Trail in the summer (with a 33lb pack), I felt that it was an easier effort overall. There will always be mountain hazards (that we cannot control), so I think everyone will do well to really focus on the human hazards that can be mostly mitigated. If you're concerned about the risk, there are many steps and data points you can collect that can help you assess the human factor.

what would be the human hazards you are referring to? carelessness? after watching this vid I really want to make attempt at this route. I think I will need to 1) find people that will go with me, 2) take some basic training like self arrest with ice axe. I suppose I can always practice myself in a hill that doesn't have obstacles. your gear review is very thorough. i bought the flex capacitor after watching yours and Andrew's vids.

Think of mountain hazards as things like: steep terrain, exposure, loose rock, ice, snow, weather, the list can go on. These are objective hazards - they exist whether or not you are there. Then you have subjective, or human, hazards. Fatigue, carelessness, overconfidence, insufficient skill, cognitive biases, etc. Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills is a good book to expand the scope of your thinking and help you achieve better outcomes, because it's very structured and comprehensive.

Shuping Yin, buy Freedom Of The Hills now. It is incredible. I am going to do a summit attempt August 11th-13th. Was planning on solo but I am evaluating possible additional members of the team.

Thanks. It's the Peak Design Capture Clip.

Excellent, thank you for the reply! I look forward to watching your next adventure :-)

Comfortably doing Mt Whitney via Main Trail (summer) + Mt Shasta via any route using crampons and ice axe is a good place to be for this fitness wise. There are never any guarantees though, it depends how you and your party are doing on the day and what conditions are like.

@@HikingNerd Thank you!

@@HikingNerd Tips on technical preparation for the final 400?

ya aught to see Whitney from Mt Russell. Rock climb the Fishhook Arete 5.8+ Lots of air. Getting "high" is what it's all about, above the maddening crowds

@@guyfaux1494 Mithral Dihedral 👍🏼

I like the wide mouth more than the narrow mouth of the SmartWater, and don't need to attach to a filter.

Yep, all of us were impacted to varying degrees. We live around sea level and spent night 1 at 8,800' and night 2 at 12,600'. During the hike from camp 1 to camp 2, at one point or another everyone experience some head throbbing. It's hard to isolate whether this was due to altitude, exposure, dehydration, or a combination of everything. Only three of us felt good enough to summit. For me personally, I tend to experience a delayed reaction that only starts when I'm coming down from the summit, which is not ideal. I think I tend to acclimatize pretty quickly overnight because I always feel good in the morning, but I'm also pretty good about hydrating once I make camp so that might play a part.

Not as comfortable as trail runners or even hiking boots but more comfortable than boots with a front toe welt.

This was the last weekend in April before the quota kicks in. Picked up permit from Eastern Sierra Interagency Center.

danny soper Both. The wider angle shots are from the GoPro.

Which iPhone? And which do you feel provides better quality?

Clandestine We summited the morning of April 23, 2018

This was the end of April 2018. If I forget to add the specific dates, you can find them in the gear list that is linked in the description of each video.

@@HikingNerd Awesome, so you didn't need a permit for that then? I've got Whitney on my list, but I have people coming form the midwest, so I might have to shoot for a lottery. The weather window you got is surely not common. Nice work on the video!

@@lorentracy006 We went out the last weekend before the quota went into effect :) Still need a permit but there's no limit before May 1. It was a lower snow year so I think conditions just happened to line up pretty well with our no-reservation plan.

Dirk Anderson Dirk how is your preparation going? I am planning to do Whitney attempt on August 11th-13th.

@@igoratwork I'm in a state of perpetual preparation, if I'm not hiking or rappeling I'm working on knots etc. This is a process no real set goal. Taken an interest in scrambling techniques with say a 30m rope. August, sounds like the traverse which I think I should be able to do as long as I stayed on the route. I am considering a section hike that would include Whitney and the other 14ers nearby, see how things go. Nothing is set in stone, I still have my Catalina Trail hike to do!

You sound like you have more experience and I really like your attitude toward preparation. Absolutely right, everything I do when I have set my eyes on a mountain is preparation. With 2 young kids and a household to run, I have to condition my body as I do various chores. I am even running when I play disc golf to get a little cardio in. Let me know if you would like to connect and talk further off RU-vid. My email is igor.koltunov@gmail.com. I am based in San Gabriel Valley of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Dirk Anderson my main goal is to summit attempt Whitney and those are days I have budgeted for this. But route and side objectives like another 14er sound amazing. Not sure if you would be interested in teaming up. I have wilderness first responders certification (expired) and good amount of weekend warrior backpacking experience as well as previous successful summit of Whitney via trail (two days) and a successful Shasta summit via avalanche gulch. My rope skills are minimal but I did use ice axe and practiced self arrest during that trip. I also managed to attached crampons to my hiking shoes but i should get mountaineering boots. Not in the budget for August. That’s why I am still not sure if i will just stick with trail. I really really really really want to try mountaineers route though too.

@@igoratwork Thanks for the offer I'm pretty much solo these days. I've done the Whitney one day up and down get a headache "Mule" trail a few times in my youth, long time ago. I did not fully embrace climbing in my youth, I think I was more into Scuba Diving. I'm sort of making up for it now. The Traverse in August, snow free, as long as you are on the route should be pretty straight forward. The other two scrambling routes you would want to be with younger more experienced climbers than me! I want to get back to that area, trying to learn the routes and possibilities hopefully avoid some of the red tape. I think it's called "the Whitney Zone" has good info. So far I have not found the greatest maps and apps for getting this dialed in.

Would've been even lower actually but a storm rolled through about two weeks prior, and there was a light dusting the day before we arrived. Definitely can't compare to last year heh.

Haha, definitely not! Yeah, that last storm was pretty decent. Just checked the snow report and the central sierras where I am at are 12-14% higher levels than the north and south regions. That's why I thought there'd be more. Good news for hikers, bad news for the drought!

Edward Bernard Assuming I ate this one while I slept, that means 7 more until I hit my lifetime quota!

@@HikingNerd I think the total was about 9 in a lifetime, right? Out of sight, out of mind. Still creepy as hell though. I bet someone somewhere out there has security footage of the event happening. Yikes.

Alien, I would like to do this strategy. I already have dates booked August 11th - 13th. Looking to go with someone who has done mountaineers route and no snow/ice exposure if I can help it.

@@igoratwork How did your hike go?

Alien Soup it was intense! I got hit with major AMS and could not keep anything down. I spend a night by iceberg lake and went back down the next morning. I am usually pretty good with altitude but not this time.

@@igoratwork Sorry to hear that. Did you have any previous high-altitude experience? Did you go to fast on the way up? I hiked the main trail 6 weeks prior to doing the M. route - plus a couple hikes in between - and I had much less altitude discomfort than when I did the main trail. It may be because I spent longer on the way up the M. route - 10 hrs. as apposed to 8. Actually I don't recall much altitude discomfort at all on the M. route - just basic muscular weakness. I was 49 at that time. I have summited the main trail 3 times and each time I felt worse than the previous hike. How was the rest of the hike in general? Did you have difficulty navigating? Ebersbacher ledges?

Alien Soup yeah, I been to the summit via the main trail. That trip went well. Navigation was tricky a bit but I was able to follow some folks on the way up and down which helped. E ledges were ok since I did a scouting trip to about 10,000 feet of the route before. I actually missed them on the way down and ended up below them having to backtrack a bit. They seem to be trickier on the way down for for me. The hike was humbling. I did some preparation hikes but they were at lower altitudes. I also drank a bunch of coffee which probably didn’t help hydration. I plan to come back next season.