lone peak conditions

Snow seems to be going fast up there this year. What are people's predictions/expectations for how long water will last up there? Is there still water even after all visible snow is melted? Would love to get up there mid July if possible.

Was up there Wed/Thursday of this previous week. Not tons of snow, but water was plentiful. We went up the south from Alpine not sure how much longer melt water will continue on that side. The cirque still had a decent amount of snow and I would guess that there will be water there through mid July.

How deep is the snow? Thinking of climbing the lowe route and triple overhangs this week. Wondering on hiking shoe choice :)

you should be good with yer norml trainers .. was up in the cirque last weeknd an was fine with out boots .. but on the snow crosing over to the sumet wall i was griped... make sure yer foot waer is comfy as the hike in blows hard..

Cool, about what I was hoping/expecting. Thanks for the reply!

bring 2 pairs of socks!

Snow wasn't deep. My socks didnt get wet but I think that's bc I lead the first pitch. My partners socks did tho, so an extra pair for the belayer on pitch 1.

Oh and if you hop on triple overhangs or will you look at the base of the summit wall for a size 0 dmm demon cam? Its blue. Also 2 nuts weren't able to get out either. There's beers waiting for you if you are able to get them back to me (and if you dont drink beer we can find something else).

Cheers! Awesome route!

HAHA, will do Nathan! Was the cam left behind at the base or dropped? I'll take a gander.. and will see about pulling the stoppers.

There wasnt' much snow up there. only one or two short snow fieled crossings depending on what wall you are going to.

Didn't see your cam and there was one nut stuck on the 1st pitch (if you link one and 2) of Vertical Smile that was finagled in such a way that it will be difficult to navigate the thing out. There was another nut below the last roof of Triple O that is stuck really good. Did someone fall on it? The gear was nice to clip though! Looks like Vertical Smile is becoming a fixed gear route! ;)

The nut on the 1st pitch was there when I did it. That wasn't ours. The large nut below the last roof was my partners. He took on it but didnt fall. Sorry, dont mean to make fixed gear. Thanks for looking!

Small snow crossing.

View from above.

To be accurate those pics are from 6/15.

We are hoping to make our first ever trip into the cirque around July 5th. I have several questions:

• water in the cirque: will there be easily available snow melt in the cirque early July?
• approach: I've read everything I could find on this topic and am now thoroughly confused. My best understanding of the current situation is the following:

* the traditional climber's approach appears to be from Alpine; that "trail" is reputed to be very loose and unpleasant (is it?). But it is supposed to have reliable water (can we rely on that?) which would be the main reason to pick it (?).
* it appears that an alternative is Jacob's ladder, from a trailhead on the Draper Canyon road, 2.6 miles past a gate. The trailhead is apparently now referred to as Ghost Falls Trailhead. Recent information I found on some site said that the gate is now open during the summer (is it?). Sounds like this might be a more pleasant trail, with about the same elevation gain (?), but no water (did I get this right?).

Overall, which approach do climbers use most and why? Are there other alternatives I have missed? What is the current situation with water availability on the different approaches? Which one would you recommend?

THANKS A BUNCH!!!

Eric,
The gate in Draper opens each morning and closes at night from my experience.
Either trail isn't "great". You will be able to find water at a spring on the far side of the second hamagog going up the alpine side. As you leave the hamagog (meadow) you will cross a small stream bed. Drop your pack and hike down the stream bed about 30 feet. I have also found water on the Jacob's ladder side, it is just a little harder to find but it is there.
Have fun it is a beautiful place.
Dallen

3 standard approaches
Jacobs ladder
Draper Ridge
Alpine(hammagog)

I personally believe the jacobs ladder trail is the "standard" climbers approach, but maybe because I have only used that approach. The jacobs ladder trail is NOT the ghost falls trail, but the parking area for ghost falls is just 100 yards below the jacobs ladder trailhead, so that is where you park. The start is easy to find as it is signed. The jacobs ladder approach has no water at all until you reach the first meadow, which is about 2 hours up the ridiculously steep trail. Not fun at all. The trail is pretty easy to follow in the light, but also hot. My advice would be to start about 4 am or so, that way its getting light when you hit the trickier sections of trail, and you hike the bottom hell section in cooler temps. The other plus side of this approach is you can see the cirque as you approach it, which is not the case with the Alpine side, thus getting you psyched and giving you direction.
My initial post was to find out how fast people feel the snow is disappearing as once the snow is gone, water is difficult to find. Should still be plenty on your trip early july based on the photos posted.

What are the bugs like up there these days? Headed up Saturday. Also, do most people filter the snow melt or is it safe to drink straight from the source?

Is there cell service up in the cirque? In case of emergency.

Andrewprime1 wrote:Is there cell service up in the cirque? In case of emergency.

The short answer is yes. You can probably update your FB status and such. But I have to ask, with that kind of attitude, how would you ever climb in, say, elephant's perch, the needles in CA, etc, etc??

Shiho wrote: The short answer is yes. You can probably update your FB status and such. But I have to ask, with that kind of attitude, how would you ever climb in, say, elephant's perch, the needles in CA, etc, etc??

Why, with a sat. phone, of course!

Just got back from four days up at the cirque--plenty of snow up there, a nice compliment of mosquitos in the evening, and of course, excellent climbing.

There is cell phone service in the cirque, but don't count on updating your FB status (sorry Shiho!) The only reason we found that out was because a member of our party had an overprotective girlfriend who wanted text updates on a nightly basis--it seemed like he could fire off a text, but not much else. Live Twitter feeds are unfortunately going to have to wait until the SkiLink gets finished..

I was going to post this in a new thread, but since there's already an active discussion here, I was wondering if anybody could help us figure this out. On Saturday, we climbed a variation to the first 2(3?) pitches of Triple Overhangs that started roughly 20 feet to the left of the base of the first pitch-- pitch one was a left leaning crack system with a distinctly gritty crux underneath a small roof before pulling onto a face that led to a ledge with a single piton. Pitch two followed a relatively clean handcrack (with one pin) up to a small ledge, and from there, we climbed up and traversed right through thin face moves to the base of the triple overhangs.

Can anyone help us figure out what we climbed? P1 felt tough, but we weren't sure if that was due to the bad rock quality, relatively poor protection, or just the moves themselves.

A while back I climbed a variation about 25 to 35 feet to the left of the start of the standard triple overhangs. The climbing was mostly clean hand and finger cracks, with one loose section. The climbing was about 5.7 to 5.8. We found some very old fixed pins on the route. We thought the variation was quite good.