Mt. Whitney E. Face?

[ChocChick]

Anyone done the E. Face of Whitney? Tell me all! Thinking of doing it, but no one I know has done it. A little beta would be appreciated. Even just an opinion would be nice.

[tyree]

dude that is a sweet route. i climbed it my first year of trad climbing. infact i had to lead every pich because my more experienced partner was freaking out. killer route that has good exposure in spots and great rock that climbs an integral feature of whitney. my advice is to acclimitize. we had been climbing in Toulome meadows for a month previous so we were honed. we were up there in oct, had perfect weather. go for it /c

[rock-ice]

Not that I know anything, but which route? Aren't there four or more on the E face?

[Chriznitch]

the "East Face" is the classic...currently rated a 5.7 I believe after years as a 5.3 or so.

Many opt for the east buttress as a less crowded option. There must be a dozen routes up the east side of the whitney group.

[Maestro]

On the down-side, permits for the "Mt. Whitney Zone" are even harder to come by than the Enchantments.

 

If you don't have one already, apply NOW!!

[Ed_Hobbick]

Both the East Face and the East Ridge are totally primo if for different reasons. They are just amazingly moderate and airy. Definite classis of super high quality.

[ChocChick]

Right now I am just gathering beta. We are puting the classic 5.6 route on the E. Face on the wish list. I taught my boyfriend to climb last summer - but he has only done sport routes so far. The 2 trad routes, Super Slab & Spiderman at Smiffy, that I took him up as an intro to trad, were kinda freaky to him so I want to do a nice easy route up Whitney. I haven't gotten a guidebook yet and was hoping to get some good info from folks who may have climbed it. I love exposure, so for me that's not a problem. However, I wasn't sure how many pitches the easy route has or if you could even do it in a day. I guess I will just pick up a guidebook to get the info I need. But I always like to get info first from fellow climbers.

 

[MtnHigh]

 

I climbed the adjacent E Butt route a couple of years ago. The rock on Whitney's E face is super friendly meaning, lots of cracks and features for building anchors and a variety of ways to climb the routes. The E Butt is .7 or .8, but IMO due to such high quality rock and all the features to play with, the climbing is easier than the rating.

 

The E Face route only has a couple of class 5 pitches. Most of the climb is class 4. Once you reach Upper Boy Scout lake you can make out the route on the face.

 

I'm heading back to Whitney Portal in late June. When are you guys gonna be there?

[ChocChick]

we haven't decided yet when we are going to go. We also want to do trips to City of Rocks and The Needles, so who knows when we could get on Whitney.

[larrythellama]

if your b/f thought that spiderman was scary then you might want to rethink your trip to the needles.

[cj001f]

Trad climb 3 at 14k?

[ncascademtns]

Classic Climb but not technical. We stayed roped up the whole time but there were spots that we scrambled. Did the entire climb in my mountaineering boots.

At the Fresh Air Travese we were surprised by Peter Croft who ran by us in tennys with an invisible climbing partner and rope. For him it was a car to car outing in just one day.

50 Classic so worth doing.

[ChocChick]

Trad climb 3 at 14k?

 

We probably won't get to do this route until next year. By then, he will have done many trad routes. His first trad route was last summer. Since then we've done a lot more stuff. I'm not worried - he's taken to climbing completely and is quite the natural.

[Szyjakowski]

if your b/f thought that spiderman was scary then you might want to rethink your trip to the needles.

yeah, just climb at the portal. lots of white granitic rock to scare yerself silly......