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Does anyone have any recent beta on the East Ridge right now? I am looking to head up there Friday/Saturday of this week and wondering what the conditions on the route are? Also, does the approach to Russell-Carillion saddle from Clyde Meadow (not the Rockwell variation) have good snow coverage?

Two weeks ago, there was plenty of snow all of the way from Upper Boy Scout Lake to the saddle. Be safe up there. This route is not trivial in the winter. Prepare to climb some exposed 5th class if you need to avoid snow covered slabs

There are parts of this route that will be sketchy with the snow on it. There are downsloping slabs on a couple sections of this route that may be hard to avoid. Like Misha says go there expecting some harder 5th class climbing on a route that's normally exposed 3rd class.


This photo was taken on October 7, 2009 and shows one of the sections of downsloping slabs. There was a thin layer of ice on the route from a cold snap we had last fall.


This is a shot of Mt. Russell taken from the top of Whitney this past Saturday March 27. The East Ridge always looks fairly dry from the south side but the north side will no doubt still have snow on it.

Thanks for the info! I'm wondering how this week's snow will affect the ER? My guess is it will cause some ice to form?

On a side note, I imagine Carillon would be a great alternative? Doesn't look like there is much exposure there.

The ridge is a bit more sketchy with even light snow on it, but definitely doable; the thing to watch out for are rocks with thin ice or snow coverings that are right above those long ramps off the edge.
In case it helps any, we broke out the rope at one short section though near the east summit (some photos below). A panorama view is added in case it helps match general sierra conditions to conditions on the ridge. The north side is the best side to go on, and when we went on it at this time last year the south side looked dry as it did in the above photo.

http://img682.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=crw5736.jpg

Ice never seems to form on Sierra ridges; it's too dry and windy up there (the culprit is not the temperature). There will probably be a little snow on the ridge in places, but most will have been stripped by strong winds. If you have scrambled around with crampons on mixed ground, you'll probably feel comfortable sans rope, but having one is nice.

We've decided to postpone this. Cold temps and high winds are in the forecast. Not exactly the time to be climbing technical terrain. Better safe than sorry.

Smart decision

Ya - good decision to back off when weather (especially wind) is expected to be unfavorable! I encountered snow on the route as well - on a September attempt no less - and it definitely adds a bit more to the overall technical grade of it.

Vertigo soul wrote:Ya - good decision to back off when weather (especially wind) is expected to be unfavorable! I encountered snow on the route as well - on a September attempt no less - and it definitely adds a bit more to the overall technical grade of it.

Definitely, can you imagine climbing 5th class in this (12.6k point forecast):

Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 29. Wind chill values as low as -11. Windy, with a west northwest wind 31 to 34 mph decreasing to between 18 and 21 mph. Winds could gust as high as 50 mph.

Moreover, the atmosphere seems unstable. It would really, really suck to get caught in a snow storm high on the ridge

Def a wise decison. Seeing Kurt's pics of the icy slabs combined with the wind forecst was enough to dissuade me...

Several days of climbing on Joshua Tree in warm, sunny conditions sure made me forget about wanting to suffer on the East Ridge. I'm glad we changed our plans