Customer Reviews

Climbing Whitney in Winter: The Mountaineer's Route

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This 37 minute video is well done at a comfortable pace and is designed for those comfortable with mountains, snow, low-level (4th class) climbing and backpacking. This is an introduction and a cursory overview. Entertaining, yes. Detailed, no. The objective is to briefly describe and show a winter, sunny, nonstorm, casual ascent of Mt. Whitney (4420 meters) via the Mountaineer's Route on the east face. There are many generalized cautionary comments regarding safety and prudent climbing.

Use of inch-pound and lack of US SI (metric) units detracts and dates the production. There is much more history and historic still photographs that could have been included that would greatly add to the production. No quantitative mention of winter or summer air temperature change with altitude (adiabatic rate) is mentioned, although a wealth of literature is available back to the 1880s. Reference to measured summer and winter temperature extremes would provide a greater sense of weather and climate on the mountain and what observers should be prepared for. There is no mention of wind, expected wind chill factors or frequency and intensity of winter storms - a major omission. Viewers will do well to visit the White Mountains Summit web site, www.wrcc.dri.edu/weather/wmtn.html, obtain objective, measured access to winter temperatures and wind conditions above 4,000 meters.

John Muir (1838-1914) made the first ascent of the Mountaineer's Route in 1873. Today, Mt. Whitney is heavily visited, especially during July through Labor Day weekend, on the foot trail that approaches from the south. Mt. Whitney is so heavily visited that the use of backcountry composting toilets was pioneered here and continue in use today.

There is no mention of atmospheric pressure other than altitude. Only brief mention is made of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) or how to prevent and deal with it. Because winter walking-climbing can be more challenging and people are apt to become dehydrated more readily in cold, arid air, prevention and treatment of AMS should receive greater discussion.

Crampons and ski poles are shown in use. A snow shovel and ice axe are shown briefly, but never shown in use. Climbers - walkers shown in the video are never shown on rope, giving those unfamilar with winter mountaineering a false sense of security. This is a good entertaining introduction to winter walking under ideal conditions.