I'm heading up Big Willy and Tyndall on the 5th and 6th and I am trying to pack accordingly. Does anyone have any recent photos of the mountains and the pass?

Here's Tyndall from the pass, a week ago Thursday. I'll be up there on the 5th as well (dayhiking Tyndall).

Four of us will be climbing Williamson and Tyndall on July 11-13. I'm bringing an ice axe for sure, but would it be possible to substitute Kahtoola microspikes for crampons, to reduce pack weight?

I was up there for July 2-5 and would be willing to share info and picts. We climbed both Williamson and Tyndall. Email me at spearcenca@yahoo.com for specifics.

Dwayne

I dayhiked Williamson last Thursday (7-15). Shepherd Pass still had snow, but there were steps that made it easy without crampons or ice axe. I bypassed the snow on Williamson by climbing some class 3 rock. The weather persuaded me to skip Tyndall, but the rib didn't appear to have enough snow to get in the way. I carried gaiters and never used them.

bobpickering wrote:I dayhiked Williamson last Thursday (7-15). Shepherd Pass still had snow, but there were steps that made it easy without crampons or ice axe. I bypassed the snow on Williamson by climbing some class 3 rock. The weather persuaded me to skip Tyndall, but the rib didn't appear to have enough snow to get in the way. I carried gaiters and never used them.

Wow Bob, you are going to establish yourself as the Williamson expert! If I remember correctly I bumped into you last year at the trailhead just after you had dayhiked the pair.

And I believe your advice then was to leave the ice axe behind. I was glad I did.

On July 12, there was some hard-pack snow in the steep chute leading to Williamson. Like Bob mentioned, you could bypass the snow by climbing Class 3 rock to the right of the snow. On July 13, the North Rib on Tyndall was mostly snow-free, so we left the ice axes at our campsite.