Routes in Mt. Whitney Area

South Face Left Side.

Begins in left facing corner just left of the mountaineers route. Mountaineers route is the only real option to descend back to iceberg lake. No bail options without leaving gear.

In close proximity to The Mountaineers Route, this route is the low-grade alternative when the couloir of the Mountaineers Route is physically unclimbable (too much snow, compact ice, etc).

Start as for The Mountaineers Route, and immediately move onto the rocks on the north side of the Couloir, following this in a long rising traverse (rising above the couloir - following the line/features of least resistance) to join the Northeast Ridge about 100m from the notch. Following the ridge to the notch, and continue up the summit coulour to the south to gain the summit.

The northern-most (right hand, facing the mountain) of the 3 mighty ridge-lines that sweep down from the summit of Lone Pine Peak into the Owen's River Valley 7000' below.

Only a short top section of the ridge is commonly done, after hiking up the Meysan Lakes trail from Whitney Portal and traversing onto the ridge at around 11,000' ASL. This route can also be done from the valley floor however, turning it into a 7,000' grade VI alpine monster like its siblings to the left.

The middle of the 3 major ridges. Several thousand feet of scree down low leads to mostly 3rd and 4th class rock on the ridge itself, with some mandatory low 5th class pitches, including 2 pitches of unprotectable decomposing gritty slabs fairly early on, immediately after a prominent notch. Up higher the easiest terrain is found on the right hand side of the ridge, which eventually leads to the exit gully (the right, less steep of the two obvious gullies).

People can and do complete the route in a single behemoth push, but most ascents take 2 full days (in addition to being over 7,000' tall, the ridge is almost 3 miles long). There's a good midway bivy spot on a major ledge system at around half height - this is about the last relatively good place to bivy on the route.

The southern-most (left hand, when facing the mountain) of the 3 major ridges. Mostly 4th class until a slabby traverse right into a gully near the top.

Corners to face climbing, bolted on some of the face.

Pitches:

1. 5.7. Gear. Gear anchors.

2. 5.7. Gear. Gear anchor.

3. 5.9. Gear & bolts. Bolted anchor.

4. 5.10a Bolts. Bolted anchor.

5. 5.10b bolts, to gear.

6. (optional) scramble/climb up and right, then walk-off.

Start as for "Beckey Route", but instead of stepping right above first roof, continue up and left.

Near the front of the buttress is a smaller buttress with bushes and a ledge on top. Start up either side of this buttress:

1. Climb a grovelly corner to a ledge. Up past more bushes to a an awesome crack in a corner. Stay left of the first obvious roof, pull up, step right, and belay at a tree and huge knobs. 5.7.

2. Look up at the huge roof. Step up and right to the arete, then up the exposed arete bypassing the huge roof to the right. Pull a small roof (crux) and then belay at good cracks. 5.9

3. Up thin face/slabs/intermittent cracks above with occasional dykes, until a bolt anchor appears to the left. 5.8

4. Run-out bolts up slab thin face and intermittent cracks and seams to another bolted anchor.

5. Up 200ft of mixed 4th class and easy 5th to the summit, generally trending rightwards.

1. 5.9

2. 5.9

3. 5.9

4. 5.6

7 bolts per pitch. Can do a single 70m rappel to ground from top anchor. Or two shorter raps .

1. 5.11c, 9 bolts, 35m.

2. 5.10b, 5 bolts, 35m.