Mt Whitney Onion Valley trip

[dhr18]

Its been awhile since I spent any real time in the mountains and am hoping to get back into some trips. I am shooting for Mt Whitney via Onion Valley summer of 2023. Looking at about 4 days through hike ending at Whitney portal. I have had some issues with altitude in the pass around the 10-11k mark. It seems that this route while being easier to get a permit for will also help with altitude spending a few days hiking at some altitude. Is this a good route/option for that? I live at about 3k feet. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[steevo]

Onion Valley trail head and campground are at 10k. If you have time while you are there you should spend a night or two at the campground to get used to be being up that high. The hike over Kearsarge is amazing and the Rae lakes area is amazing. I would try to spend a bit of time at Onion valley or even the whitney portal campground (like 8k). You can hike up to lone pine lake from WP without a a permit, etc. If you are driving and time is not a huge issue, you could also go to death valley beforehand and hike up telescope (10K) or wild rose (8k?) and camp at a campground that above 6 for free. Just my suggestions...

[jrbren_vt]

I did this hike about a dozen years ago where I joined a couple of friends who who doing the whole JMT from Yosemite. It took me a week (6 days ?). I lived in Vermont at the time at about 100' elevation. The day before I met my party, did an acclimatization hike up to Mt Gould. The summit block was California class 3, so I skipped the actual summit, but it was a great hike to get used to the altitude (climb High sleep low). I spent that night at Onion Valley if memory serves. By far the hardest part of the trip was about 2-3 days in the JMT goes over a 13K' foot pass at the Sequoia/Kings canyon park boundary, the name of the pass escapes me. I was sucking wind on that climb. A couple days later Whitney was pretty straightforward by comparison. This was a great way to climb Whitney for me, I wouldn't have it any other way. There are numerous other great peaks along that route, hopefully you can give your self more time to take advantage.

[geneseejen]

Agree with the previous comments re: acclimatization; everyone’s different. We’re heading over Kearsarge Pass from OV to WP in a couple of weeks. Kearsarge is the first big climb (around 2600 ft) but the bigger climb (other than Whitney summit) is up to Forester Pass at around 13.2K. We’ve trained above 11K most of the summer so altitude is not a big issue (just being kinda old is - we're seniors). (We may snag 14er Tyndall (but not Williamson) along the way, depending on conditions.) BTW permits for exiting at WP are pretty hard to get (15 per day for 6-mo in advance) if you enter through the Inyo, though they open up additional permits closer to the entry date. Good luck!

[dhr18]

After summiting Whitney are the only two real options for coming out through Whitney portal or back along onion valley? I was looking at entering through onion valley to make permits easier and extend my trip a bit. Would I be better justgoing in and out through the portal?

[nyker]

If you have time on your trip try to head over to White Mountain Peak and spend a day or two there; you can get to 14K and acclimatize on an easy walk-up.

Or you can head a little north and get Boundary Peak and state high point and a cool climb in itself.

As jrbren_vt mentioned 13er Mount Gould is also a good option off Kearsarge. You can search my past trip reports for Whitney/Eastern Sierra area to see what that hike looks like and summit block. One difference in the Sierra versus Colorado is the air is drier in the Sierra on average and seems in my limited experience anyway to climb higher all things equal.

[painless4u2]

We loved going to Whitney via a backpack starting at Onion Valley. Our exit was with a car drop at New Army Pass/Cottonwood Lakes area. By the time we arrived at Whitney, we were fully acclimatized for the summit feeling pretty good while most everyone crawling up from the Portal were looking miserable.

[dhr18]

I was hoping to be able and get in Boundary Peak on the same trip as Whitney, but really depends on how long I spend on Whitney. Hoping to keep the total trip under a week. Starting off there is probably the smarter option. Thanks for all the responses.

[steevo]

Yeah if you do not get an exit permit you can head toward Crabtree/ new army and leave that way and summit Langley on the way. New Army/Whitney Portal/onion valley are the access points from S to N