Whitney Portal Buttress. One of the most overlooked rock-climbing challenges of the Sierra seemed to lie at the end of the Whitney Portal road, above Lone Pine. Facing south, an elegant white buttress rises from a few hundred feet above the horse trail in a solitary sweep of about 1200 feet to a minor summit which fronts still higher ridges to the north. The scale is deceiving: I had estimated this climb to be about 600 feet and well within the limits of a day. This proved very wrong. Pat Callis and I left the road early on May 21 and started toward a system of cracks that merged on the buttress crest and wove into the one and only crack that led upwards. Beyond the third pitch, route-finding was no problem. Pat led the first pitch, an awkward jam-crack that had F7 and 8 moves. Then I worked up a pitch on aid, climbing a small overhang and nailing around a ceiling. This took time in the hot sun. Both the fifth and seventh leads, which were Pat’s, had very tricky friction, the nature of which I think future parties will admire. Three bolts were placed on a flawless wall, one while he stood on minute nubbins. Night found us at the end of the eighth lead in a makeshift bivouac with little extra clothing. In the morning, however, the heat soon came—Lone Pine, 5000 feet lower, registered 106° that day. Three pitches of exacting aid climbing completed the difficulties by noon. Slabs and scrambling traverses took us to the highest point; happily we discovered some snow to quench our thirst. In all the climb was judged Grade V; we used 104 pitons and 6 bolts.

Fred Beckey