Looking for CA 14'er hiking partners out of SoCal Area

[jaleutious]

Hey everyone, I'm graduating this May from GWU in DC and will be coming home for several months before I start working around August.

This June and July, I'm looking to to dayhike:

White Mountain
Mt Langley
Mt Muir
Mt Split

and maybe 3-day backpack:

Mt Williamson/Tyndall

Is anyone else on here from the southern California area interested in climbing any of these over weekends this June or July? Ideally, I'm looking for people with some 14'er experience. Feel free to check out my profile and trip reports if you're interested in seeing what I've done so far.

[peter303]

Muir is in the same access valley as Whitney, so you need one of the challenging to obtain permits. Permit lottery opens soon:
http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/inyo/pass ... rdb5150055
Might as well climb Whitney the same trip if you got the permit.

White Mountain has a road up most of the way. Thats more of a warm-up, acclimatization mountain perhaps done first.

[jaleutious]

Doing white mountain first is my plan, maybe as early as the end of May- Langley and Muir would follow after. I have already successfully climbed Mt Whitney (day hike) and also attempted Williamson last summer but got turned around from choking smoke from the fires up there. I would be totally down to give Williamson/Tyndal another shot this summer with better conditions.

[mtn_nut]

The road up white mountain is probably not open all the way in may.

Im looking at climbing Langley via Tuttle Creek in late April. If you have snow climbing experience, or at least the physical fitness to handle a big snow climb, send me a PM.

[jaleutious]

That sounds really cool, but I won't be back in California until mid-late May. I've just got the gym and pool here to work with in the meantime. The road to White should be clear by early June, I'll just have to keep in contact with the local Forest Service to see as to exactly when. Had it been the low-tide conditions we saw last year, I would have easily been able to do it in May- this year will probably be a different story.

[mtn_nut]

Even with low snow, the raod wasnt opened up past the patriarch grove until mid june last year.

[wineguy]

The road up white mountain is probably not open all the way in may.

Here's a photo from May 17, 2015, 4 miles from TH. Recall flooding in San Diego, a late spring storm ended up in the Sierras and White Mtn. Snow had drifted over a foot on the road at some places. I considered hiking from here to the trailhead, but good sense prevailed, 8 extra round-trip miles in nasty weather did not sound like fun.

WhiteMtn.jpg (63.93 KiB) Viewed 3363 times

PS. Thanks to Tallgrass tech support.

[jaleutious]

Yikes, I got bad info- thanks for setting me straight! I guess I'll need to push off white until mid/late June then, maybe even later this year!

[jaleutious]

Between:

White Mountain
Mt Langley
Mt Muir
Mt Split

Which can be day-hiked earliest in the season and how early can they be done? Late June/early July this year because of snow?

[mtn_nut]

Between:

White Mountain
Mt Langley
Mt Muir
Mt Split

Which can be day-hiked earliest in the season and how early can they be done? Late June/early July this year because of snow?

Langleys early route is Tuttle Creek. You can access it in the winter if you want, just pay attention to avy signs.

Muirs is accessible from the standard Whitney route. I'm not 100% sure when the Whitney portal road opens, but you can always hike it from the road closure.

White can be hiked from the road closure, but it might be a very long hike.

Split can also be hiked from the road closure, if it even exists. The road to red lake th isn't very good. I've heard snow coverage makes the climb better as it covers the loose scree.

[Monster5]

Split can also be hiked from the road closure, if it even exists. The road to red lake th isn't very good. I've heard snow coverage makes the climb better as it covers the loose scree.

Agreed above on the other peaks.

For Split - We took the shorter direct road to the TH and made it in a POS rental Hyundai Tucson with rental tires. It was slow going and one person went ahead to move rocks.

In late April of a low snow year, we went up St Jean and down the standard route. The standard route was low-moderate snow. It would make a pretty reasonable day trip, provided you don't get lost on the approach (the best trail ascends up the hill from the TH for 500 ft or so before traversing the side of the valley).

[jaleutious]

So how about for standard/most popular routes? When do we expect most portions of the trails to be clear of snow/manageable to follow this year? Aside from Whitney, I understand most Ca 14'er trails are not as well-maintained so I definitely am not looking to go up any of the alternate/more difficult routes since the walk-ups on most of these are so long anyway.