Mt Whitney — The Cables
Mt Whitney Trail · Inyo NF · near Lone Pine · Sierra Nevada / Yosemite
Via Ferrata
At a glance
- Route type
- cable-route
- Cost
- lottery
- Difficulty
- expert
- Best season
- July–September for the least ice; the cables section holds snow and ice well into summer
What is here
- Amenities
- Cable protects the only exposed trail step · Trail Camp water source below · Whitney Portal Store burgers after · Summit hut at 14,505 ft
- Best for
- The iron moment on the Lower 48's highest trail
- Features
- Highest summit in the contiguous US · The cables guard an icy ledge traverse · 97–99 switchbacks of granite engineering · Lottery permit is the real crux
Worth knowing
- Hazards
- Ice lingers at the cables into July — traction & judgment required · Altitude illness is the #1 turnaround cause · 22-mile day; most start 2–3am · Afternoon lightning above treeline
- Family friendly
- No
Via Ferrata detail
- Nickname
- Iron on the 99 switchbacks
- Hardware
- cable
- Exposure
- 2
- Iron notes
- A short but famous cable-railing section partway up the 99 switchbacks above Trail Camp — steel cable and stanchions guarding an icy, exposed ledge traverse on the trail to the highest summit in the Lower 48
- Logistics note
- Mt Whitney Trail lottery (applications Feb 1 – Mar 15 on Recreation.gov; ~$6 application + $15/person when awarded); 22 mi round-trip, ~6,100 ft gain to 14,505 ft
- No lottery
- No
- Intl tip
- A short, storied cable-protected traverse on the 99 switchbacks of the Mt Whitney Trail — the route to the highest summit in the contiguous US (14,505 ft). The full day is 22 miles and ~6,100 ft of gain, permits go by lottery each Feb–Mar, and the cables hold ice into July. A pilgrimage hike where the iron is brief but the day is enormous.
The guide
The Mount Whitney Trail's famous cable section is only a couple hundred feet of iron, but it earns its place in any survey of C…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Mt Whitney — The Cables — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 36.5646, -118.262