Planning to check it out in about 3 weeks. Any suggestions for route choice? I'm up for anything up to 5.9. I'll be doing it as part of a pre-conditioning program for a month in Europe later in the summer, so I'm looking for something well-protected and not too scary.

i wonder if the snow will be melted out by then. Hopefully I'll have an opportunity to do it later this year.

I got maybe 2 pitches shy of the summit on the S face (Steck et al)- there are mad chickenheads on this route above the chimney, & felt much harder than the 5.6(?) assigned to it. Not quite as classic but still fun is the N face, put up by Salathe et al- I put up a route page on it.

I would honestly have to imagine access to be by far the limiting factor right now though. Even if you can get to the trailhead by car (questionable- check into it), I'd imagine there to be a ton of snow up there right now. Even if you wanted to ski it, this would make route finding on the approach 'challenging.'

Good luck if you try it, though- it's a fantastic area & a beautiful formation!

A friend went there in 2006 over Labor Day weekend and climbed a bunch of routes on it -- Rock Solid, Handle with Care, and Los Pollos Locos. He said it was great. I keep meaning to check it out. If you want I can PM you his email address.. not sure how the pro was, or the "not too scary" factor

re: access -- pulled this off the Sierra NF website -

http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sierra/recreati ... ndex.shtml

Really? I would have thought that most of the snow would be gone below 9k by mid-June. I went to Banner Peak at the same time last year and there was no snow cover until 9-10k. I guess this was a heavier snow year, but still...

Tom Fralich wrote:Really? I would have thought that most of the snow would be gone below 9k by mid-June. I went to Banner Peak at the same time last year and there was no snow cover until 9-10k. I guess this was a heavier snow year, but still...

In three weeks, I think you are probably correct, at least for the vast majority of your approach.

This thread has some current conditions for the area:
http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=53247