Hi I'm planning on climbing Mt. Sill from Elinore Lake and traversing to Polemonium. I'm wondering if anyone has climbed the east chute (?) route on Sill this season and if so did you utilize crampons at all? Thanks.

anyone?

I haven't personally, but would be quite interested to know what you find if no one else chimes in

Alright, leaving tomorrow so Ill report my findings

You mean the Palisade Glacier, or the L-shaped snowfield? Haven't been there specifically this year, but was in the next basin over a few weeks ago, had to cross the glacier or snowfield or whatever it was to get to the rock. Strap-on aluminum crampons worked fine, & an axe was nice to have for self-belays when things steepened up. If I were you, I'd personally bring at least some lightweight strap-on crampons; not sure if an axe would be warranted or not- if I were just doing the 4th class route, I might bring it. If doing a technical route I'd have to 'weigh' the option, as carrying all of the extra gear up that far is already a pain in the ass.

2 weeks ago, from the top of Cloudripper we could see that P-Glacier is huge and you will most likely need crampons to ascend Sill's couloir....quite a bit of snow still in that area.

To clarify I'm not going to be traveling on the main P-glacier. Sill glacier is on the east side of the mountain, on the other side of the Apex.

Heading out today, I'll let you know how it goes.

If anyone is interested this trip ended very anticlimactically... I wasn't able to find a safe way to cross the creeks feeding into Willow Lake - there's just too much water to do it right now. It's certainly possible that there is another way to get across further up the drainage, but I didn't have time to look. Unfortunately the dates for my whitney permit prevented me from waiting another day and looking for another route across

From a distance the Sill glacier looked pretty healthy - don't know if crampons would be required but I'd bring 'em just in case.