The Whitney icefall is located on the approach to the Mountaineer's Route at Mount Whitney. It is just below Upper Boy Scout Lake, at about 11000'. It is a 3-hour approach to get there and the icefall is usually in condition from the end of November till the beginning of June. It alternates sections of 50 degree ice and sections of vertical ice. Eric and I went there at the end of May 2000 to practice our ice climbing skills for our expedition in Bolivia. We applied the usual "Gonzalez-Wintenberger" team technique on vertical ice (i.e. one of us starts, puts a couple of screws then is tired and the over takes over...) and managed to get to the top. Then we toproped it a couple more times to train on vertical ice. It was getting hot and we noticed that the ice around our ice screws at the top was starting to melt over: time to change them...

    The Whitney Icefall on the way to the Mountaineer's route

    Eric getting ready to climb the icefall

    Javier in action, placing an icescrew

    Eric taking the lead on the vertical section

    Javier setting up a belay station

    Javier going down and removing the gear