By:
Submission
Trail Camp may be the most popular camping site to tackle the Mt. Whitney summit on a two-day hike. It sits just below the famous 99-switchbacks, puts Whitney summit within a reasonable distance of a morning summit, leaving enough time to descend all 11 miles back to Whitney Portal. It is rocky and desolate, but the surrounding mountains are incredible. The marmots are super aggressive--you need your food in the bear canister because if you don't, they will take it the moment you turn away. It is a bit of a walk to get to the water, but not too bad. It is cold, exposed, and windy but there are some sites situated in the granite in a way that they get some shelter. It is at over 12,000 feet, so you won't have the most comfortable night sleep.
Great camp, but it can get crowded. It's a good place to overnight pack into Whitney, then take daypacks up the 99 switchbacks and along the ridge to the peak. I will say there are a lot of marmots, so keep your food in a bear canister.
Started my hike at 7am and made it here at 11:45am
Didn't come prepared and wasn't expecting to make it this far. Only reason why I made it was due to getting caught in the moment and getting lost in the beauty.
From what I understand is that the 99 Switchbacks were next leading up to Mt. Whitney. I arrived with little to no knowledge of the layout so from this point I had no clue where to go.
I'll definitely come prepared next time as well with camping equipment in order to savor all of what Mt. Whitney has to offer!!!
Safe travels!!
My Friend and I started at the Whitney portal trailhead and Backpacked at Trail Camp. Trail camp is roughly about 6miles from the Trailhead. It gets a little crowded during the peak season. But the camp has pretty good camping spots marked. The spots are not reserved and will be occupied as available. The Wag bags are provided at the start of the trail and the poop has to be packed out at all times on the trail. There are Human waste disposal bins at the Trailhead to dispose at the end of your hike. Please be respectful of the nature and pack out all the trash you bring on the hike. There is a lake nearby and the water is pretty decent with any filter. We took Life straw peak series filter to fill our Water bladders and Nalgene. The views are amazing from here and this resides at 12000ft elevation which makes camping here helpful to acclimatize if you are from sea level. We spent a night at Lone pine and a night at Trail Camp which helped us get acclimated. If you are camping here you have an early head start to the Summit to watch Sunrise. You can leave your tent and backpack as is and start to the Summit. Please make sure you leave your bear canister at least 100ft away from your tent. There is marmot problem rather than the bears so please make sure to pack your stuff appropriately. As the camp is at higher altitudes, it might get quite windy. Be sure to leave some rocks in the tent or something so the gear doesn’t fly away. From the trail camp to the summit is 4miles which makes it easier the following day on the descent.
