Just came back from an aborted Palisades traverse. We climbed the Swiss Arete and made it to Polemonium when the thunder and hail rolled in. Bivied at the U notch for the night, so experienced the conditions first hand for hours. The next day, we were in whiteout conditions and the weather looked unstable, so we bailed down the back (West) side of the U notch to Palisade basin.
DO NOT CLIMB OR RAPPEL THE U-NOTCH. Unless you have a gambling problem and like it that way, or just love Russian roulette. The rockfall was echoing regularly through the night, and you can see the debris on the glacier below. There is ice coverage, but it's brown from all the melt and dirt. The brown patches and streaks that you see in the couloir are dirty ice, not dry ground.
The V-notch looks better, with continuous coverage to the top, although it's thin in places, but also looks like dirty ice (especially the bottom half). The V-notch also doesn't have the "bowl" with loose rock on top that the U-notch has, so chances of rockfall are lower in my view, but I still wouldn't do it. It's been a low snow year, and things are unstable.
The Clyde couloir looks like death trap as well. Keep clear. The Underhill is completely dry except for the bergschrund.
2 photos here (look at largest size and zoom in):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98501575@N00/7975281948/http://www.flickr.com/photos/98501575@N00/7975283720/And a quick video showing the top of the V-notch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy1BoSWMlNIIncidentally, if anyone makes it to Glacier lake and you find a pair of hiking poles, two slices of pizza and some trash under the rocks, they're ours. Feel free to take your booty (and pizza if you wish), but please clean up the trash - we never made it back to that side of the mountain after bailing.