Freestanding tent advice

Are you thinking about pitching the tarp at Trailcamp?

i have seen folks pitch tarps at Trailcamp. You just bring enough cord to create "deadmen" out of the rocks and your hiking poles, You might want to get there a bit early to have greater selection of sites.

I climbed the East Face of Whitney in September. I had a Golite Shangri-La 2. We camped at Upper Boy Scout Lake. It was only marginally tricky to find an appropriate site. I used loops of guyline girth-hitched to rocks for anchor points. That worked fine, even through a wind and hail storm. No need for a free-standing shelter, IMO.

As Bruce stated, you are likely to be camping at Trail Camp, 12,000'. There is not a lot of nice ground to camp on. A good deal of it is solid rock, and a good deal is loose sandy gravel. So, stakes might be a problem. There are enough football size rocks laying around that you should be able to string up enough cord for anchors. You aren't allowed to camp next to the trail or next to the small pond. If you get too far back, you will be into a talus field. There isn't much privacy.

There are few good reasons why you want to camp there. It is the highest place to camp, and it has the last water. Actually, the water is coming from about Switchback number 23 until mid-season. It has a view of the summit. There are some isolated spots to camp just below there, and at Consultation Lake.

–B.G.–