In September, 1971, I soloed Mt Whitney via an excellent route involving a couple of pitches of perfect 5.8 straight-in hand cracks on a nearly vertical section of the North Face, and have frequently wondered if it might be a FA. The plan was to travel light, so I left the ice axe, hammer, pitons and crampons at home, carried about a dozen nuts and a 9mm 150' rope, three prussik loops and a swami belt. Around 5 am the weather looked superb as I headed up the trail.
Some of the approach near the benches was a bit daunting, but it was a warm day and I hoped for the best.Originally, the plan was to climb the East Face, however as I approached the point where that route leaves the buttress, the persistent lure of the unknown became irresistible. This is a view of approximately the point where I traversed right to the North side.I self belayed with a prussik, then after about 70', set anchors, rapped down to the pack, cleaned the pitch and kept climbing on several short pitches of typical solid high Sierra granite until I reached the large snow and ice-filled recess near the summit.

This is where the climbing became somewhat frightening. Without any ice tools, I scraped the hard snow and ice from the ledges with my fingers all the while muttering under my breath "wish I had some type of scraping tool!!" Coincidentally, about half way up the section in the picture below, I was amazed to find a 1"x10" metal rod (guy stake?) protruding from the snow! It worked great!!You can just see my footprints in the lower center of the photo and follow them down to the point where I unroped above the rock face and committed to free soloing the remainder of the climb. The edge of Iceberg Lake can be seen also. It was a great adventure, got to the summit around 1 pm, didn't see anyone on the climb, nor the summit nor on the trail down. Was so happy that I had my picture taken when I returned home.
I haven't seen many views of this side of the mountain. The first photo showing the route is somewhere here on Supertopo, but I haven't been able to re-locate it yet for permission-hope its usage will be allowed. So to whomever it belongs, thank you in advance! Wondering if many have ventured to this less-traveled side of Whitney.

KL