[pct-l] Whitney and one's pack?

[mardav at charter.net (Marion Davison)]

Robert Ellinwood wrote:

>Given these conditions:
>
>Bear boxes at Crabtree Mdws and Ranger Station are full, either with other's
>packs or garbage...
>Bear-bagging in Ranger station vicinity no longer recommended (as I did 20
>yrs ago)...
>You camped at Guitar Lake or slightly higher...
>Marmots (attacking your pack, either singly or in squadrons) are an issue...
>
>WHAT did you folks do with your packs while you climbed Whitney?????????
>
>Surely you didn't climb with a full pack?  Or did you?
>With all the people these days, is theft an issue during the day?
>
>Bury it under a pile of rocks off to the side somewhere and pray the marmots
>attacked someone else's pack?
>
>What have you folks in recent times done with your packs while you climbed?
>Have most of you carried everything up with you to the summit?  (Pant,
>pant...)
>
>Dr Bob
>  
>
We carried our full packs on all four of our summit trips to Whitney.  
We did leave 25 pounds of food in the Crabtree bear box on one of those 
trips, as we were headed north from Johnsondale to Yosemite and Whitney 
was a side trip.
We saw a lot of packs lying by the trail near Trail Crest and near the 
junction down to Guitar Lake, but we also noticed the Marmots were 
really thick.  I wouldn't trust the little beggars.
However, we did a side scramble up Mt Muir on one trip, left our packs 
near the trail for an hour or so, no problems. 
Marion