Anyone have any ideas on the current conditions of U-notch or V-notch?
Ice/snow/rock?

Is the bergschrund going to be epic?

snowey wrote:Is the bergschrund going to be epic?

Only as "epic" as you want it to be.

Oh, I want it to be epic.

http://youtu.be/vlaBehEZDEg?t=47s

I looked at the couliors last week from the old Glacier Lodge site; still some neve but evidence of rockfall in the U notch about halfway up. The shrunds are definitely open but did not look "epic". The snowfield near the summit of North Pal showed a lot of old ice. Rapid melting going on; in a few weeks maybe lots of bare ice.

The U-Notch is absolutely obliterated. The schrund was somewhat epic, amazed we even found a way around it. Climbed 5 pitches this weekend and almost got whacked several time by massive bombs (baseball to basketball going as fast as 50mph). There's basically a tiny stream running down the entire thing eroding from the top. Thunderstorm rolled in on us as well. Quite stupid.

Don't even think about going up it.

The V-Notch is somewhat clean but is entirely ice. I wouldn't trust anything up there but Sill right now.

What time did you start climbing ?

Not that it mattered since it was falling all day (even before the sun was really hitting it), but around 6:30. It was incredibly slow because of the conditions.

aermotor wrote:The U-Notch is absolutely obliterated. The schrund was somewhat epic, amazed we even found a way around it. Climbed 5 pitches this weekend and almost got whacked several time by massive bombs (baseball to basketball going as fast as 50mph). There's basically a tiny stream running down the entire thing eroding from the top. Thunderstorm rolled in on us as well. Quite stupid.

Don't even think about going up it.

The V-Notch is somewhat clean but is entirely ice. I wouldn't trust anything up there but Sill right now.

That sounds about right for a dry season.

Bombs away baby!!!

We climbed the V-notch on Aug 5. No snow left from this year so it's all great ice. Went over the bergshrund towards the left side, crux was about 10 feet of 80 degrees. 5 full pitches of ice, and then one of loose dirt, rocks & a little ice. I guess we were a little lucky there was no rockfall that day. There are some big crevasses in the glacier below the V-notch.

If your still interested I took this pic from above Green Lake on Friday 8/3/12. I uploaded the fullsized pic so you can get a closer look.

Nice pic! The 2 black streaks in the V-notch are not dirt, they are just dark water ice.

Interesting to see that Clyde still has snow/ice in it pretty much most of the way.

A5RP wrote:Interesting to see that Clyde still has snow/ice in it pretty much most of the way.

Where do you see that? Incidentally, I wouldn't go near the Clyde the rest of this season - watched a little too much rock come out of it at 4am a couple weeks back from the mouth of the U-notch couloir.

So, assuming that pretty much all the couloirs are too crappy or too dangerous for someone not willing to risk a rock shower, what might be the best bet to get up to either N. Palisade, Starlight, or Thunderbolt from the north side, preferably with at least some degree of aesthetic climbing? Starlight buttress? I'm concerned about the start though.

Or do we just call it a season here and come up the southwest chutes?