High Sierra Topix

My wife and I are planning to leave on 6/19/2014 from Cottonwood Lakes TH. I am 64 and she is in her mid fifties. We are planning to have our first layover day at Crabtree Lks. (on the third day) to do some fishing and exploring. The following day we would like to do a day hike to summit Whitney and back down to our camp. I'm wondering if it would be better to hike over to Guitar Lake first, drop our packs and then hike up to Whitney? How direct would the route be to Guitar Lake from Crabtree Lakes? After Whitney we are heading to Wallace Lake to do some more fishing and hope to have a layover day there as well. From Wallace we are off to Wright Lakes and again we are planning to do a layover day in that basin. We plan to hike out from Wright Lakes to the trailhead in one day. We are experienced hikers with cross country experience but we avoid anything that is technically beyond our skill ( level 3). We chose these dates because last year we went from Duck Pass to Yosemite Valley in late July and the availability of water was barely adequate. I'm wondering if we are leaving too soon for this trip? Is the trail beyond Shepard's Pass doable? I know it's a crap shoot but does anyone have a guess if the lakes we plan to visit will be thawed? I have been to all of these areas north of Whitney before so I am somewhat familiar with the area. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks, js hill

You have layover days that could be used to travel if snow slows things down. However, if you have your heart set on those layover days for fishing, you may want to do the trip a bit later. Down side of later is more likely will be more mosquitoes. I doubt you will have severe water shortage conditions until August. You may have more fishing problems with frozen lakes. There are big fish in the uppermost Wrights Lake, but it may still be frozen over. I assume you plan on going over Rockwell Pass to reach Shepherd Pass. North side may be snowy. I definitely would be prepared for snow. I have always done fine by walking on the snow just after it thaws enough not to be icy and before it turns to mush.

I have gone cross-country (traverse) directly from the Whitney trail to Crabtree Lake, but it hardly was worth the effort. I came back on the trail and it was about the same time and easier.

I have been looking at the NWS website (for a trip I am doing next week) and temperatures this next week are forecast to be quite cool- still freezing hard at night from 9000 feet - 10,000 and daytime highs only in the low 50's. Too cool to drastically change the snow or ice conditions.

It's most likely nearly impossible to get a Whitney permit for another day; I have heard second hand that there is an unprecedented demand for permits this year on all the popular trails, including 2000 PCT hikers.