Mt Whitney - East buttress

I had an overnight permit for the north fork of Lone Pine creek, I was itching to climb the East Buttress of Mt. Whitney (14,405', III, 5.7). Its a classic moderate Sierra route which I have not done! I found myself a partner on Mountainproject, and off I we went.

My partner was an interesting guy, a former Israeli counter-terrorism officer from the NDF. He had never trad climbed, or done a technical peak, but was psyched to get out.

We zipped up to iceberg lake and made a camp. I didn't take many pictures on this trip, so this will be a short blog post!

Thor falls, on the approach to Whitney

Heading up toward Upper bouyscout lake

We woke up just before dawn and headed up to the buttress. I led all 11 pitches, since my partner was inexperienced with alpine rock. The climbing was really easy, and went really fast. 

East buttress (right hand sky kine of the peak) of Whitney at dawn

We summited in a few hours, and made our way down, back to the camp, packed up, and drove back to Fresno, all in the same day! 

Fun easy climb.!

Michael on the summit. Not bad for a first Sierra alpine experience!