Mount Whitney / Crooks Peak / Mount Muir
Ascents of Mount Whitney, Crooks Peak and Mount Muir, via the Whitney Trail (class 1), with Sven Feldmann, October 27, 2002
Timeline:
October 26, 2002. The Approach: Sven Feldmann and I left Whitney Portal at 9:30 and reached Trail Camp at 13:30, in time for a late lunch. In the afternoon I hiked up to the base of the East Buttress of Mount Muir to check it out, and we spent a leisurely afternoon in camp, witnessing the changing weather and the afternoon colors. People kept walking into camp throughout the afternoon. There were maybe 8 tents at Trail Camp that night. A lot of people were also coming down from Whitney. As far as we could tell only a couple made it to the summit that day. Most were not prepared for the weather. Some were wearing jeans and sneakers, and could not get past the ice on the 99 switchbacks.Â
October 27, 2002. Hike up Mount Whitney via the main trail: It snowed part of the night, and we woke up with a couple of inches of snow on our tent. We left camp at 8:00 and made our way up the 99 switchbacks in damp and cloudy weather. The fresh snow gave us good traction and we did not need crampons. We reached the summit of Mount Whitney at 11:30 and stayed for over an hour, having lunch and taking pictures. Shortly after we reached the summit the sun broke through the clouds and lifted them away. Surrounding peaks - Mount Russell, Mount Langley, the Kaweahs, the Great Western Divide and the Kings-Kern Divide - progressively emerged, and the cloudy weather gave way to a perfect day. By the time we were leaving the summit, only scattered clouds remained, mostly to the North. We made our way down the trail towards Crooks Peak.
Crooks Peak via the Whitney Trail: Crooks Peak (14,180ft) is a 10-minute class 1-2 scramble from the Whitney Trail. Not a very exciting climb, but the summit block is narrow and exposed, and the view of surrounding peaks (including Whitney) is spectacular. As far as we could tell there is no summit register on Crooks Peak. It was previously known as Day Needle, and was renamed in 1990.
Mount Muir via the Whitney Trail: Around 14:30, we hiked down the trail in search of the correct talus chute up Mount Muir. The tricky part is that it is hard to tell which pinnacle is the summit of Muir from the trail. We went too far and scrambled up the wrong chute. We found ourselves on a small pinnacle on the Whitney Ridge, in full view of the true summit of Mount Muir. Since much of the traverse from our small pinnacle to Mount Muir seemed exposed and difficult, we hiked back to the trail. By then Sven had had enough climbing for the day and decided to hike back to camp and pack it up. I decide to tag the summit of Muir on my own. I made my way back up the Whitney trail and located the correct chute. At 15:30 I started up the chute, then to the right to the base of the summit of Mount Muir, and proceeded to solo up the class 3 rock up to the summit. There was one useful cairn on the way. Above the talus in the chute the route has some sustained class 3 climbing, and class 4 if you get off route (which I managed to avoid). This was real class 3 climbing, especially in the late season when all the handholds were snow and ice covered. The summit block was covered with a thin coat of snow, which made it tricky. The point is that the standard descriptions of the way up Mount Muir is fine for the middle of summer, but understates the difficulty of the climb in semi-winter conditions. At 16:00 I was on the small summit of Muir, signed the summit register (there is a brand new notebook, and the last entry was from October 20), and at 16:30 I was hiking down the Whitney Trail towards trail crest, the switchbacks and camp...
The Return: The snow on the switchbacks had partially thawed and refrozen in the afternoon shade, so crampons came in handy for the descent. When I reached camp around 17:30, Sven had already packed up the tent and the gear. We were ready to go. After a granola bar we proceeded down the trail in the dusk. We took out our headlamps at Trailside Meadows, and reached Whitney Portal at 22:00. A quick dinner, and bed in the hiker's campground. The next day was a beautiful day, and we SUV'd our way through the Alabama Hills before indulging in a big breakfast in Lone Pine.