Mt. Whitney From Cottonwood Lakes

Some trail can be seen below Mt. Muir. Hitchcock Lake is to the right. Keeler Needle is among the pointy rock formations on the left.

Mt. Muir

Mt. Whitney Trip from Cottonwood Lakes Trailhead. June 2000.

The trail leveled out a bit after the summit came into view and ran into a huge football field sized snowdrift. It was early enough in the day to be too hard to navigate, but a use trail had built up over the years that ruggedly bypassed the snow. It climbed like some tortured staircase and met the main trail. Here I met two German guys who had spent the night on Mt. Whitney. Dave talked to them, and they told him they did not get much sleep due to the altitude, but on the bright side, "no mosquitoes!"