Mt. Whitney East Face / Buttress Conditions - Late April

Hey guys - I might be in the Whitney area in late April (right before quota season) and am contemplating doing a trip up either the East Face or East Buttress route. Can anyone comment on how long these routes might hold snow? I mean that both in terms of (a) in general how late into the season it holds snow, e.g. "it's reliably snow covered until June, your odds of decent climbing conditions are super low", as well as (b) if it's more dependent on how recently it's seen significant snow, how long does it tend to hold snow in that case, e.g. "if it's April / May and hasn't seen significant snowfall in a couple of weeks, there's a decent chance it'll be dry".  Hope that makes sense. Reason I'm asking is that I've reviewed ticks on these routes going back a couple of years and it looks like it was quiet in the spring last year (makes sense given the heavy snow year in the Sierras) but earlier years you can find some spring ticks - so I'm wondering if this is generally season dependent, or if there are certain features that really take until summer to melt out (e.g. "most of the route dries quickly but there's a north-facing corner that holds snow until july, and you'd have to do a 5.11 variation to get around it"). 

I've spent a lot of time climbing in the alpine in Colorado and elsewhere so I know the answer is "it depends". I'm just looking to hear people's experiences with early season attempts and what the conditions were like. I'd also be interested for any beta on how the approach is likely to be this time of year. 

Appreciate any info you can share! 

From what I’ve read it seems like late April will most likely have snow, at least at the base. Made an attempt late May 2022, which from my memory was a fairly dry year. The routes themselves looked snow-free and they do get great sun this time of year, but we needed ice axes and crampons on the approach to the base of the route- and the Mountaineer’s route (the descent) looked pretty intimidating. I’ve scrambled down the Mountaineer’s Route on a totally dry day and was still pretty spooked by how loose it was. However none of us had any real snow/ice experience so maybe you’d fare better? We just bailed on climbing and had a fun morning glissading from the base of Whitney back to Iceberg Lake. Consider your experience and judge for yourself, you can see the East Buttress from the first photo:

Glissading is fun as hell but be prepared to look like a silly rabbit to anyone more experienced watching from base camp:

Good luck with whatever you end up doing! Tons of other fun things on the Eastern Sierras even Whitney doesn’t go.

Thanks for the pics / info, Ally! Yea, I'm expecting snow at the base and we're good with taking crampons and axes for the approach. And we'd be open to hiking down the standard route rather than the Mountaineer's route if necessary - do you know off the top of your head how major of a detour that is if we're camping below the east face rather than doing a one day car2car? (if not, no worries, I can pull out a map and research it myself). 

Still interested in other people's experiences, if anyone else wants to chime in! 

MichaelW Goff wrote:

Thanks for the pics / info, Ally! Yea, I'm expecting snow at the base and we're good with taking crampons and axes for the approach. And we'd be open to hiking down the standard route rather than the Mountaineer's route if necessary - do you know off the top of your head how major of a detour that is if we're camping below the east face rather than doing a one day car2car? (if not, no worries, I can pull out a map and research it myself). 

Still interested in other people's experiences, if anyone else wants to chime in! 

Hmm. If you’re camping I’m assuming you’re bringing bivy gear, and unless you got some crazy ultralight stuff with you that’s gonna be a pain to climb up the route with! It’s cold as hell at Iceberg and I wouldn’t recommend anything lighter than a 20° sleeping bag. If you’re planning on leaving it all at the base, I believe it’s an 11 mile (although grade is pretty decent) hike on the standard trail back to Whitney Portal, then you gotta do the strenuous hike back up the Mountaineer’s route (~4k ft over 4 miles) to grab your stuff then back down. Kinda heinous. I haven’t done it myself, but a couple of friends this past summer had an epic doing East Buttress and that same exact situation happened. They got to the summit at sundown and didn’t get back to the Whitney portal via the standard hike until like 2am. Then they had to wake up a couple hours later to grab their gear. They were toast by the time they got back to the car the second time. Was feeling a bit jealous when I got left out of that excursion…not so much after I heard about what happened.

Edit: Tanner I just read your post. Clearly there are competent people…then there’s me and my merry band of shenanigans. So I dunno what to tell ya Michael :). Look at me and Tanner’s ticks on a sliding scale and compare your experience level.

I’ve done the east buttress several times and I’ve never done it later than May in the year because I refuse to go during quota season. I went up in February two or three years ago and it was cold but mostly all dry rock. The EB only holds snow on a few spots but is easy to circumnavigate. EF holds snow longer because it has more prominent ledges including the traverse. Both get lots of sun though so unless it’s dumped in the last week you’re going to be totally fine. Definitely recommend the MR to EB up and the Whitney trail down! One of the best routes in the world. Enjoy!

when we did it last it was early March I believe, this pic is from the hike down the Whitney trail that afternoon and I don’t remember having to deal with any snow on route 

Thanks Tanner, that’s really awesome beta. Looks like doing it in a day is probably the move, based on Ally’s response about backtracking up the mountaineers route. Sounds like you did that too? What was your c2c time like? (I know it’s subjective, just curious how much slower the snow on the approach might make it.)

MichaelW Goff wrote:

Thanks Tanner, that’s really awesome beta. Looks like doing it in a day is probably the move, based on Ally’s response about backtracking up the mountaineers route. Sounds like you did that too? What was your c2c time like? (I know it’s subjective, just curious how much slower the snow on the approach might make it.)

We were around 10 hours but we soloed the route and jogged down the Whitney trail about half of the way. If the snow is firm and tracked it’s actually faster in the winter I think because it turns into a snow sidewalk to the top 

Thanks, dude! Last question - is the snow on the approach steep enough to warrant crampons or can you get by with spikes and an axe? Would love to be able to do it in approach shoes if that's reasonable. 

(Randomly I was just looking at Lizard Head and noticed you posted a pic from it - small world! I'll have to pick your brain on that sometime too)

One thing to keep an eye out for, is that Whitney Portal Rd will be under construction this spring. Sounds like they will have a detour in place, but I think they usually close a gate a couple miles from the summer trailhead as well. That road took a major hit last year. The lower trail was also avalanched over beneath the Ebersbacher Ledges with quaking aspen branches everywhere. A couple new crossings on the fallen branches to negotiate.

I would say Tanner's beta is great for those of very high physical fitness, super stronk.

April/May are usually a wonderful time to be on the snow in the High Sierra. Crunchy neve conditions on hopefully a cooler day when you decide to head up. Approach shoes sounds like cold/wet feet to me. I break out stiff/waterproof hiking boots with Petzl Leopards crampons for this type of thing. Mountaineer's route is a much quicker descent, and a good option for confident travelers with boots/axe, however that upper section can get icy and wind-scoured at any time. 

Ironically I’m typing this from Whitney portal road right now. I’d be looking at the EB but it’s cloudy! Last time I went up in the spring (March) I wore the gortex high top tx4s and did most of the approach while the snow was still frozen and in micro spikes. It’s certainly possible but as soon as the snow starts to soften it can get weird quickly. The only steep section of required snow if you’re doing the EB will be the final approach from iceberg. I am typically not the beacon of safety and risk mitigation so take that with a huge grain of salt, I bring a single axe up always in the winter as a nice safety net. If you can time your ascent is here it’s been a few weeks since the last dump and you get some nice freeze thaw cycles in from sunny days and let the path get nice and tracked out then you can get away with a gortex shoe for sure but it’s condition dependent for sure.

JT is spot on about the rock gate being closed, likely later this spring than normal. It adds an additional 3 ish miles each way of road walking and it’s honestly a steep dick dragger but besides the extra 6 ish miles round trip it doesn’t change logistics too much. Shoot me a message if you have any more specific questions 

Tanner James wrote:

Ironically I’m typing this from Whitney portal road right now..

Street cred confirmed  

Approximately right now. Windy morning!

315 720 2592 im interested and will be coming to climb in yos late april/ early may

Hey Michael. Warm-weather, low-lander here. I was wondering if about what you eventually committed to in terms of gear, camping, and approach, descent since me and a buddy were considering a similar time window. I’m fairly familiar with Tanner’s (awesome to hear about your 4-crown) freakish fitness so the scale function is quite non-linear. Trying to gather more data points in the curve before the exponential rise. 

Adrian Fontanilla wrote:

Hey Michael. Warm-weather, low-lander here. I was wondering if about what you eventually committed to in terms of gear, camping, and approach, descent since me and a buddy were considering a similar time window. I’m fairly familiar with Tanner’s (awesome to hear about your 4-crown) freakish fitness so the scale function is quite non-linear. Trying to gather more data points in the curve before the exponential rise. 

Brother Adrian, good to see your name on here it’s been a while! Shoot me a text if you want any beta for this I’m happy to help! Hope you’re well!

I've attempted it in mid-april before and was caught in a legit blizzard at upper boy scout lake and had to turn around. Major respect to you crazies that enjoy snow and ice. As the great Austin Powers famously said, "this sort of thing ain't my bag, baby".