The premier moderate route in the Whitney Area.

Day 1 Hike to Iceberg Lake. Day 2 Do climb. Day 3 Hike back to Whitney Portal.

Eleven fairly consistent pitches on excellent rock. The route starts up a scree slope where you head to left-facing corner on the right side of the "second tower", which is directly on the east buttress.

It's pretty easy to stay on route - don't stray far from the true buttress. If it's obviously harder than 5.7, look around and get back on route.

p1. Easy climbing up the corner. 5.5-5.6

p2. Nice face climbing. 5.6-5.7.

p3-5. wander around the buttress taking whatever line looks best. Head for the right side of "the peewee" - a huge roof/block that looks rather ominous. 4th-5.6

p6. up the right side of the peewee. usually dark and cold. Feels good to get on top of it. 5.6

p7-11. cracks and blocks that generally trend left. The more left you go, the sooner you'll hit a talus field and start walking to the top. Climbing stays easy right on the buttress, with a few boulder problems to overcome.

Top out, dazzle the crowd that hiked up the Whitney Trail and listen to their cell phone calls (golly gee honey - you won't believe where I'm calling from...).

East Buttress

From Iceberg Lake, scramble up to the notch just above the First Tower.  Gear up.

Make the Tower Traverse across the south face of the Second Tower, and climb a short chimney (5.4-5.5) to the first belay.

Scramble or simul climb up three pitches of 4th - easy 5th to the top of the Washboard.  Climb left up and over a tower/chimney (5.2-5.5) to a large ledge, and traverse to the base of the Fresh Air Traverse.

The Fresh Air Traverse pitch (5.5) climbs easy ground up then left to three fixed pitons.  Enter and belay in a chimney.  The traverse is exposed and fun.  From the ledge, do not traverse directly left.  Climb up blocky ground first.

Once in the chimney, climb up the Grand Staircase for 3 pitches, to the 5.6-5.7 offwidth pitch(es).  This is the crux, then its easy ground up and right to the summit.

Be quick, efficient, and be careful of your rope - watch rockfall, for your team and others.

East Face

Variety of techniques to use on very interesting rock structures, with big exposure "out on the edge" -- but not committing.

Idea is to climb on the edge of the top of the vertical wall which faces SouthEast from the summit mass.

. . Nice "add-on" for parties that finish one of the classic climbing routes or Mountaineers route to the summit and have some extra energy. Or for climbers who for social/family reasons find themselves joined into a team hiking up the Mt Whitney Trail.

. . Could be done at 4th class, but get more exposure and entertaining moves if solid to at least 5.4. Not yet known how it protects, so maybe best if comfortable soloing up to 5.6 on positive holds. The farther stay back from the edge, the more toward 4th class (? or 3rd class ?) ->

See the route SouthWest Ridge

.

Can start by going down into the notch to help get into perceiving "the edge" above. Lower part is scrambling on slopy stuff just

above

the edge. Later the holds get more positive out on the edge, and then

below

the edge. Choose as much exposure as you want, the rest of the way to the summit.

. . (about +360 vertical feet upward).

Even after pop out on the flat summit area in view of the building, can still look farther right for a place (or two) where can climb down and do another interesting very exposed sequence below the edge.

Of course which rocks to stand on or grab hold of is an important sequence of choices, with a multi-hundred-foot free fall as a possible consequence.

SouthWest Edge

Climb from near Trail Crest roughly north to near the summit of Mt Whitney, mostly along the east edge of the slanted Whitney high plateau. This "edge" is also the top of a very steep often vertical wall hundreds of feet high, the most spectacular alpine rock wall in North America.

Many fun scrambling moves on interesting fractured granite at the 3rd class some 4th class difficulty level. Very sustained: 7000 feet (2100 meters) of climbing is a real lot.

"Fractured" means that sometimes a chunk of rock might move or fall (or break). So always test each rock and hold before committing a move (and test again if you've chosen to try a move with serious exposure).

Commitment

: Not much "commitment" because the well-designed John Muir Trail for hikers is not far away.

Exposure

of two kinds: There are many sub-peaks (with or without names) on the route with narrow summits with exposure on two or three sides. And

all along the route there is "one-sided" exposure, because it follows along the edge. Each individual climber can choose where and how often to look down over the edge -- and when and where to make climbing moves right at the edge (or sometimes over the edge).

Why this route?

: For an experienced outdoor climber who wants to reach the highest summit of the main 48 states, by a route that includes some fun interesting climbing -- but not carry the weight of protection+rope, and not need to coordinate with a partner for one of the alpine rock routes on Mt Whitney.

. (Arguably the Happy Cowboy has lots more fun climbing and lots less scree than

the Mountaineer's Route

).

. (or could do

both

, especially those Mountaineers climbers who understandably also want to also tick Mt Muir).

Three short sections with their sub-peaks are usually skipped (taken more west away from the "edge") because their difficulty is much greater than 4th class:

a) the first 100 yards north from Trail Crest at the start.

b) down-climbing the N+NW side of Mt Muir (intimidating and tricky to find the route on down-climb, and with two 5.6 moves).

c) a short ways north after Mt Muir, for about 200 yards at around (lat long N36.5673 W118.2924).

Crux of this route as normally done is ...

Getting the required permit to travel in the section of the Mt Whitney Zone which includes the Mt W Trail.

more

? The Happy Cowboy could also be included in a much longer traverse of the Whitney Basin, starting much farther south and/or finishing much farther north.

Directions

: From Trail Crest, walk north down the Mount Whitney Trail about a hundred yards - (if you reach the junction with the John Muir Trail you've gone too far). Scramble up east steeply on (loose) scree and talus to reach the edge. Optionally make a side-trip to the sub-peak to the south. Then turn north and follow the crest of the ridge (the "edge").

. . . (more to be added) . . .

Mt Muir (lat long N36.56469 W118.29144) (alt 14218ft / 4270m) is a much-desired peak on this route: Going up the south ridge is too difficult for this traverse, so instead start a ways NW from that on the right side of its west face and follow these instructions:

the Normal west side route from the hiking trail

.

Descend the same way -- because down-climbing the north ridge is intimidating and tricky routefinding, with a couple of moves too difficult for this traverse.

. (Variation - much more difficult + intimidating: Down-climb

the W + N ridge route

).

. (Variation: After down-climbing

the Normal west side route

, have fun climbing

up

the remarkable sculpted granite of the bottom section of

the W + N ridge route

).

. . . (more to be added) . . .

Descent

: Take the John Muir Trail south from the Mt Whitney summit to meet the Mount Whitney Trail. Next a little south on that to reach the Trail Crest col. Then mainly East a long long ways down to Whitney Portal trailhead parking.

Statistics

:

Approach hike from Whitney Portal up to Trail Crest is something like +5500 vertical feet of uphill over 8.5 miles (+1670m over 13.5km)

Typical time for a "normal" hiker might be 10 hours. An athletic climber with good acclimatization to altitude might hope to get up to Trail Crest in 5-6 hours. For those doing it as an overnight, it is something like +3700 vertical feet over 6.3 miles distance (+1125m over 10.1km) to Trail Camp, a popular camping spot (with the highest reliable source of water).

climbing route -- For doing the Happy Cowboy on "the edge" between Trail Crest and the summit of Mt Whitney, it is difficult to estimate vertical and distance, because it depends on which and how many high points visited along the way, and how aggressive the "shortcutting" around skipped points. The John Muir Trail is said by some authorities to take 2.5 miles (4.0 km) distance for this. The difference in altitudes is about +825ft (+250m). Of course the "edge traverse" has much more total uphill than that. And it would be surprising if the "edge traverse" had less distance than the main trail.

. (Anyway every climber's speed in scrambling over 4th and 3rd class terrain will be different, so even if we knew vertical and distance, it's not simple to estimate time. And since escape is easy at several points along the way, estimating time is not so critical).

Happy Cowboy (Whitney Edge Traverse)

Scrambling route for the final push to the Mt Whitney summit. More direct and interesting than finishing on the hiking trail.

. . Could be nice for climbers who for social/family reasons find themselves joined into a team hiking up the Mt Whitney Trail.

. . Or whose partners are doing the SouthWest Edge route but want to avoid the exposure.

. . Perhaps could be done while keeping the difficulty as low as 3rd class, but likely more fun and quicker if plan on some 4th class moves.

. . If along the way decide to go for more difficulty or exposure, could move right, closer to the edge of the top of the vertical wall faces SouthEast on the Mt Whitney summit mass ->

See the route SouthWest Edge

.

Leave the main hiking trail next to the notch between Mt Whitney and Keeler Needle, and head more or less Northeast up and up until reach the flat summit area.

SouthWest Ridge

Hairline tackles the line of highest resistance up the steepest portion of Mt Whitney's full East Face. Brutus of Wyde claimed this was his "proudest first ascent", but even with these grand accolades the route has seen little traffic since the late 80's FA. The logistics of technical big-walling at 14,000' and the heavy aid rack have likely kept many potential suitors at bay. The topo does an excellent job of describing the route, so I will keep things minimal to preserve the adventure. 2 pitches of free climbing lead to the crux of the route - 3 pitches of dramatically and continuously overhanging clean aid. Above P5, sustained and quality crack climbing are the name of the game. The route crosses the standard East Face line at the end of P9, and there is some rockfall hazard below that point from parties above. The route was rebolted by the ASCA in 2004 during the second ascent. Additional info here -

http://www.summitpost.org/hairline/163476

Hairline

The "other way" up Mt Whitney. A bit more challenging, far more interesting, and very direct, this is the path for those wishing to escape the crowds and embrace a little alpine adventure. The Route has been climbed countless times and in all conditions - at times it's a low-angle ice climb with a horrendously long and snowy approach, at others it's a scorching scree-slog - and is only becoming more popular as years go by. Perhaps the best time to go is late spring/early summer (depending on snow levels and conditions):  if you're lucky, you can catch warm and calm weather, a dry approach, plenty of water and perfectly firm, stable snow all at the same time! Though often climbed car-to-car in a long-ish day, most parties will elect to pull a camping permit for one of the Boy Scout Lakes and enjoy a multi-day excursion in the Whitney Zone.

Permit details here.

Current conditions, other info here.

The Mountaineer's Route

The crux starts after a traverse along ledges above the Mountaineer's Rt. At the steepest section of the North Face, ascend an obvious thin hands 5.8 (approx. rating) splitter for a few short pitches to the large recess below the summit. The number of pitches will vary since I free soloed all but the crux section.

North Face

Proud route up a monster, iconic face that no one seems to climb. Maybe not as classic as Hairline, but a good option for a quick, free way up the east face. This line holds a notorious splitter offwidth on the right face of a beautiful dihedral halfway up.

3 moderate pitches lead to a belay behind an obvious giant flake.

Next pitch is the crux. Reasonable 11a fingers in a corner leads to a ledge out left where you can belay or keep going. The crack off of this ledge was ridiculously hard for a few moves and seemed impossible with the giant bush growing out of it. Get past this and keep going up some nice splitters to a traverse back out right and a belay.

One more pitch up some steep and scary quartz leads to a marginal belay below the offwidth.

Offwidth is long and sustained. You'd expect, being the high sierra and all, you could mostly cheat the thing. This is true to an extent, but it's also real deal in parts. Overall, I'd say it's not too soft (imho) like

David says on supertopo

. but maybe not 10+ either, at least compared to something like generator. but that's probably not a fair comparison

After some more moderate pitches we followed the east face route to the top.

Left Wing Extremist

This worthwhile route climbs the right most dihedral system.

P1: varied cracks 5.8,

P2: right leaning crack system up toward corner, switch to higher of two cracks midway then up to ledge with 2 piton belay- 10a.

P3: unusual double cracks at 90 degrees inside corner (side by side foot jams and bilateral gaston)- 5.9 belay on small pillar with gear,

P4: steep flared hands with poor flaky feet 11- to chimney and ledge on right. This cruxy pitch could be avoided by staying in corner to the right at probably 5.9

P5: varied cracks to chimney to big ledge- long pitch 5.8

P6: step right from ledge then up steep clean corner (small gear), then hand traverse right to next corner to small roof/ledge then up final chimney to summit 10b.

Descend off the north side - easy 5th and 4th class downclimbing to ledges and scree the contour around to Whitney-Russell col.

Description

Protection

Routes in Mt. Whitney