Beta request on the West face with this year's snow coverage. I'll be looking to protect the 3rd class chimmey and was wondering if someone would care to share if just some slings would get the job done or should I brings some larges nuts/midsized cams. Thanks in advance.
- aaron

I recall lots of big rocks near the top. It's at most 100'.

Bascuela,

If anyone in your group is comfortable on class 3 rock it's an easy 100 feet through the chimney. Once over the top the leader will be in a secure position to belay the others up. If you wanted you could tie a loop around around one of the big rocks on top to anchor the belayer. We did it that way for two of our five person group and didn't set any pieces of pro.

When are you headed out, Bascuela? Dave and I will be on Long Twisting Rib in 3 weeks. 8O I'd like to hear some terrain beta as well.

Just driving south on 395 now, epic trip. Day #1 buddy and I drove from Fresno to TH and motored up to anvil camp. Day 2 moved on up to the saddle below Tnydall's northrib. It was only 10 in the morning so we decided to go for it. Crossing the bowl sucked, no otherway to put that. The "stain" was in full effect from the snow melt in the chute. It was slow going up the chute and the chimney was indeed class 3 and fun.

On a side note - we debated hauling all the addition weight of our gear for what every guide book and some dude at the TH had said was no ropes required. We just didn't want to go all that way on to get turned around towards the top. Well as it turns out - never need any gear - big surpize there. Still we're glad we brought them and lession learned.

With our late start we got back to our camp by headlight, makeing for a pretty long day. We crashed and packed up this morning. Lazy start and down Shepards pass back on the trail and out. That was my first time up the Shepards pass trail - great scenery!

Deb - I took a million pics, when I get home I'll short and would be happy to share.

Hi Bascuela,
Thanks for the beta. We are headed up there July9th. Not looking forward to post-holing!
What time did you guys start from the TH ?
Please post your trip Pictures...

looking forward to pictures when you can post them bascuela, did you experience a lot of post-holing?

Hi everyone,

My brother and I are hoping to do Mt Williamson's West Face as a LONG day hike from the Shepherd Pass TH on Mon 7/10. I'm wondering:

1) How full is Shepherd Creek right now? Can you boulder-hop the 4 crossings or do you have to take your shoes off?? If "shoes off", I'm considering wearing reef-walkers from the TH until the 4th crossing, then putting on my nice dry socks+shoes, and leaving the reef-walkers by the 4th crossing until we're on our way down - to save the time and energy expense of 4 cycles of shoes-off-and-on...

2) Are crampons and ice axe still needed at this point - either for the pass or up the chute to the chimney??

THANKS!
eyedoc

Sorry been out on the road. Will post pics this Saturday when I get home.

As for the Four creek crossing they are completly doable with shoes off. The 2nd crossing could be done by hopping rocks. That was as of Saturday.

Thanks Bascuela,

Did you need crampons/axe?

EyeDoc wrote:Thanks Bascuela,

Did you need crampons/axe?

Yes we did. The pass has icy snow coverage requiring crampons. However, anything past 10 in the morning becomes slushy and thus crampons are useless. On the west face of Williamson, the chute had snow but again is soft and can be bypassed on the rock.
My buddy and I left anvail camp at 5:00 am making for good snow up and over the pass. However, I would pass on the additional weight of crampons/ice axe.

anyone been up the west face route recently and have beta? heading up this weekend and would love to shed those extra lbs as bascuela mentioned...

GreenMountainBoy wrote:looking forward to pictures when you can post them bascuela, did you experience a lot of post-holing?

Our trip was last week June 23-25th. All these photos are from our epic 17 hour second day. We loaded up our packs from Anvil Camp and moved them to them to the saddle between Shepherds Pass and the Williamson Bowl. From there we headed up the west face of Williamson and back to our camp. The last day was a lazy start and hike out back to the trailhead.

I would guess with the high summer temps that the snow is melting at a rather furious pace. We found that the snow on Shepherds Pass was soft enough to kick steps (or enlarge the steps already kicked) by 10:00am. However, it doesn't take too long after the sun goes behind the hill for the snow to freeze back up. We had to put our crampons back on just to climb back out of the Williamson bowl around 8:00 pm.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bascuela/5898301295/ - The Stain
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bascuela/5898299441/ - The Chute
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bascuela/5898869334/ - Inside the chute
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bascuela/5898305085/ - Chimney
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bascuela/5898863472/ - The Bowl

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bascuela/5898861470/ - Tyndall - North Rib
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bascuela/5898293401/ - Very top of Shepherds Pass
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bascuela/5898291503/ - Lower Shepherds Pass
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bascuela/5898289547/ - The middle section of the pass
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bascuela/5898287759/ - Shepherds Pass
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bascuela/5898851922/ - The Pothole

I went over Shepherd Pass on the way to Barnard this weekend. I hadn't been up the Shepherd Pass trail since 4th of July weekend in 2005 when we did Williamson. Conditions were almost exactly the same on Shepherd Pass as they were on the same weekend in 2005. I didn't look into Williamson Bowl.

Creek crossings aren't too bad east of the pass, but you have to get wet to cross them including the one at Anvil Camp. Creek Crossings along the PCT at Tyndall Creek and Wright Creek are really dangerous. There's a sign at Tyndall Creek that you can cross about a mile upstream (I was going south; so I didn't need to cross). At Wright Creek, I was heading upstream along the creek and was able to cross upstream in the meadow where the creek splits but I still got the bottom of my pack wet going across. I was only on the PCT for about 4 miles; so that's all I saw.

It's sloppy out there; so don't forget the extra socks.

Reminder: Please don't obliterate the uphill boot track by glissading down where the track is. We're supposed to make the track better for the next climber, not ruin it for them.

Crampons: 1 or 2 pounds depending on if they are aluminum or steel - shouldn't be a big deal - if you're not sure if you'll need them or not, bring them. If you don't use them, they'll be good training weight.

Not that you can see much of Williamson, but here she is as seen from Barnard on 7/5/11:



I think that was about 10:20 am; the storms rolled in early this week.