Mount Whitney - Mountaineer's Route

May 14, 2025

This was the start of my month long Cascade volcano climbing journey. Although not a volcano, I thought that climbing Mount Whitney would be a great way to start my trip. Little did I know that this would be one of the hardest climbs. I was originally planning to summit via the hiker's route. However, when I arrived I saw an awesome looking couloir and found out that it was part of the mountaineer's route up to the summit, which I had just found out existed.

So I took the chance and strapped my skis to my bag and set off at 2am. Unfortunately, I had to turn around after a few kilometres due to the intense wind and was winded out the next day as well. On the third day, the wind died down, and it was now or never.

I set off once again at 2am, making my way up the mountain. The trail became less obvious, and I soon found out that I had missed the window for skinning up, and it was now scrambling season up to the alpine. Scrambling 3rd class with skis on my back and route finding complex terrain in the moonless night was definitely one of the hardest things I have done.

After 3.5 gruelling hours, I finally arrived at Boy Scout Lake just as the sun began to rise. To my delight, I was greeted with enough snow to transition to skis. I skinned to the base of the couloir, and from there followed an established boot pack up to the 'final 400' foot section. I was able to find some holds with my ice axes, however in hindsight it probably would have been easier to just use my hands, but I wanted the practice.

Skiing down the couloir was not the most ideal. The snow was an icy mess, but I did not have time to wait and see if it would soften up, as I still had a long way to go back to my car. Eventually I got some nice turns in.

Total stats: 21.45km, 2154m elevation gain, 14h16m

Check out the rest of my 2025 Cascade Volcano trip: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSUflgOA1nEQxjqjocDra7kr4kcN2w_mk

Видео Mount Whitney - Mountaineer's Route канала Goatman's Mountain Adventures