Thought I would give a quick conditions update. Last time I did this was about five years ago with substantial more snow. This time quite the opposite. Personal preferrence would be for more snow rather than less.
Cache Col: straight forward, we didnt rope up but had axes and crampons. Little move from snow to rock at top, no big deal. Snow free from col to just below red ledge.
Red Ledge: healthy patch of exposed ice leading up to ledge. The snow is cut away from rock, may suggest going beneath ice, then directly up to vertical crack which then transitions to actual ledge. We traversed in, jumped over top between snow and rock, then wiggled our way through. Mostly just obnoxious. There is some pro set at the top of the vertical crack/shoot that looked good if someone wanted to belay others up to it.
Snow free from red ledge to about 6800' via rock onto middle cascade glacier. Glacier fairly broken up with some proper man eaters towards top. May suggest hugging to left side gaining "top" and then doing long traverse to spider-formidable col. We spent too much time setting running belays with pickets etc. Took some time probing to find adequate snow bridges.
Spider-Formidable col: steep, crappy snow was slow going with more running belays with pickets. Once on apron, easy snow travel that petered out about half way around bowl before beginning decent into yang yang.
Day three: gained ridge above yang yang lakes. Began traversing under Le Conte peak. We scrutinized Le Conte glacier and it looks to be heavily broken up with crevasses running to the rock. Having only basic glacier gear we elected to abandon route. We had two choices: head back the way we came, or drop down to Le Conte lakes and then to primary drainage (flat creek) to eventually pick up trail that would make a big loop back to cascade pass. We choose the latter.
HUGE MISTAKE. The schwacking down from the lakes turned more epic the further we went. It culminated in the thickest slide alder on VERY steep slopes that cliffed us out at about 3800' (we stayed on the south side of the river). We were required to use the slide alder as vegetative belays. The river from about 4400' on down to the valley floor is a water fall. So at about 6pm, we decided to turn back around and made it to the large "flat" landing at 4800' for the night. Day from hell (did I mention the black flies were equally epic?). The north side on the topo looks slightly better but there is a very steep scree field with a smooth rock shoulder coming down. Didnt look any better.
Day four: started early. Made our way back up to Le Conte Lakes and then the standard route below Le Conte Peak. Got back to Yang Yang at about 2:30pm. Coming up from Le Conte lakes I twisted my knee which got worse with time.
Day five: after a good rest we had ambitions of covering most, if not all, of the distance back to cascade pass. Starting the steep ascent up to the spider-formidable col, my knee totally shut down. Severe shooting pains, couldnt flex or put weight on it. VERY luckily, my friend bought an emergency transponder the night before we left. Set that off and about 6 hours later heli got us (forced to leave pack, orange home made pack, has my name and number). If you happen upon it, while I would be very impressed if you could bring back any of the gear, if you could grab the camera, or at least the memory card, I would be incredibly grateful. There is a flask of good rye whiskey and a nice gerber knife for your troubles.
Key Points: Le Conte glacier heavily broken up with large swathes of ice showing. Also appeared to be a large slump in the ice about 1/3 of the way up. I believe this is passable with ice gear, dual axes/tools etc.
Escaping via main drainage (flat creek) out of valley a no-go (or for what we could tell). If you have questions or comments please let me know. All said and done this is still my favorite route bar none. Hope to be back next summer with a working knee.
