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About this time two years ago I found the “official/original/custom” Sierra Club register box at Finger Lake. I packed it out, because I believed it needed repair, and returned it the Sierra Clubs register guy, Harry Langenbacher, within a couple days. Apparently it had been missing for years. I’m saddened to think it might have disappeared again.

I'm going to bring the axe and my lightweight aluminum crampons. The crampons are only about a pound; so it's no big deal to haul them and not use them.

KathyW wrote:I'm going to bring the axe and my lightweight aluminum crampons. The crampons are only about a pound; so it's no big deal to haul them and not use them.

I'm guessing the need partly depends on the route. The snow was soft enough when I went, that I just kicked steps on the one traverse across a low-angle slope to the "red band." The fellow who went to the left, up a mini-bergschrund, hit much higher-angle snow. You can avoid much of the actual Palisade "glacier" by just skirting south around to the snowfields on the moraine.

...but nowadays I might pack the Al crampons and a whippet. I guess that change of attitude happened after flying 400' down a couloir.

This might be a good time to try out my Kahtoola Microspikes, which weigh only 12 ounces per pair.

I recommend a pair of these -

mrchad9 wrote:

ARosenthal wrote:Nah you don't need any of that stuff, the glacier is easy enough to climb up and down without them.

Is this sarcasm or not?

Bigger glaciers than this in the Sierra you don't need these things for, and I was considering a trip out there sometime. So just asking...

For the record this was not sarcasm. I just did the climb without crampons or ice axe and had no problem whatsoever. The only place where I even thought they would be useful is where you transition from the glacier to the rock, and like I said it wasn't difficult without them. Not worth bringing them up there for that, IMO.

Edit: I should add that I'm wearing mountaineering boots... Not that it would have made a big difference on this particular climb, but obviously it CAN make a difference.

MLCkills, thanks for the update. When did you climb Middle Palisade?

Mescalito345 wrote:MLCkills, thanks for the update. When did you climb Middle Palisade?

I think that was the time squishy went, maybe 2007 or 2008? The now-departed squishy had a nice trip report about that climb, but the TR was deleted when he left. "MLCkills" seems to be another toxo avatar. Judging by the look of Finger Lake, it was probably a fairly dry year.

Our local "club" has sent a lot of people there in summers, and I don't think anyone has ever taken an ice axe -- but we all took helmets. The snowy "glacier" area gets a lot of sun.

Yep, I think MLCKills will always be "disappoint."

MLCkills wrote:

MoapaPk wrote:"MLCkills" seems to be another toxo avatar.

Wow, how did you figure that out, genius?

By the combination of good information and anger.

MoapaPk wrote:I think that was the time squishy went, maybe 2007 or 2008?

It was in 2008. And yes, the stretch of snow was rather short.
Little known fact: I used to edit the dyslexia out of squishy's SP TRs.

Interesting, because his posts were generally not dyslexic; perhaps he had a good spell-checker. I am dysgraphic, and must read aloud everything I type, but still I make mistakes.