Temple Crag conditions

Has anyone seen the conditions at Temple Crag yet this year? How much snow and ice is around? What time does the sun start to hit the snowfield on the approach?

From June 9th...

Some snow on the approach to 2nd lake, casual.
Lots o snow at the base of Temple.
(Tried to upload a photo here, no joy, its on my insta jschwarz0)

https://www.sierrawave.net/inyo-sar-aids-hiker-on-temple-crag/

Based on the report sounds like its good-to-go as long as you bring proper snow gear for the approach and decent.

Alex.... thx for link. Happy they made it, OK.
One must be wary of the rock on that one.

JV..... the SRA is huge, one must be a sold simu-climber , soloist, rope trick artist and enjoy crap rock.

But... IMHO it is one of the must do climbs in CA. 

Ciara Kamahele wrote: Has anyone seen the conditions at Temple Crag yet this year? How much snow and ice is around? What time does the sun start to hit the snowfield on the approach?

Ciara - Contact Pass descent may require ice-axe and crampons.

You could also try here:

Jeremy R wrote: Yo Guy! Shuteye is all good to go.

Sorry for the thread drift, but thought you'd like to know.

Good to know.... hope you and Family are good, will let ya know when heading up.

JV..... the climber most likely fell off the side of a ridge. Up at the end you summit a tower then look across a large “draw bridge” deal of stone to the next tower... this goes on quite a ways .. maybe 9-10 pitches worth if you “Pitched it out”... one can’t spend hours on this. Unless you like spending nights out.
Don’t worry keep climbing and this all becomes clear. 

Hobo... you should go do it!!

To the op.... prep the snow climbing up to the start... fix ropes. Next dawn... you go up with rope safety in the big steps you kicked in.
Have fun- good luck 

JV, if you are concerned about simu-climbing being dangerous, you are correct. But if that is your mindset, you are also not ready to do it and should just stick to your level of comfort. I've done SRA, simul'ing a lot of it and I agree it is has a lot of easy climbing on a house of cards. That said, for those who aren't comfortable simul'ing it, then they are likely too slow to pitch it out as well. Kind of a catch-22, I suppose. Just pick a different climb that suits your ability and comfort level.

Personally, I want to tick Dark Star and then NEVER GO BACK!  ;)

EDIT: We used a 35m rope to do SRA and it worked beautifully. Though it was a bit short for the rappels.

i've soloed sun ribbon arrete-- it looked quite a bit more dangerous to simul climb it, because there is a lot of loose rock for a rope to snag on. If you wanted to simul climb it, I would advise an extremely short rope between the two climbers.  

Reports I've heard are that Sun Ribbon has the least amount of loose rock of the TC aretes.
Moon Goddess the worst, and Venusian with like a couple sections of bad stuff.
For sure there have accidents + deaths on MG and VB in the last 20-30 years.

Sun Ribbon we climbed in about ten normal-belay roped pitches. No simul-climbing. Easily got thru it with a pre-pre-dawn start. I guess some short-roping in other sections.
In our ~ ten normal-belay pitches, I noticed loose rock only on flat ledges where it gathered. Pretty normal on alpine routes.

Agree that simul-climbing is a great way to dis-lodge loose rock. Glad we did not do that on the easier parts. Anyway most American parties are so incompetent with alpine rope management, I doubt they save much time simul-climbing versus having a really competent alpine-experienced Leader, and confidence to solo the easier stuff.

Ken

Simul has its dangers. A bivi in the choss zone (where weather can roll in unannounced) does too. I’ve most often simul’d for simple convenience, but the simuling I did on Dark Star (also on Temple Crag) was mandatory to keep the climb below a day.

One of the precepts is you simul on terrain neither of you would typically fall on, so it is a solo with a modicum of safety.

If you aren’t comfortable with the idea of simuling, that’s fine, it’s a bit scary at first, but if you tackle long, moderate routes in the alpine you’d better tell your partner your views first because that will likely be a deal breaker.

Because most Americans don't get enough practice at simul-climbing.
Because they don't have mechanical lifts and asphalt roads up high into lots of serious mountains within three hours driving that easily take them up serious alpine routes.
The amazing _convenience_ of the Euro mountains changes the Euro climbing culture.

kenr wrote: Because most Americans don't get enough practice at simul-climbing.
Because they don't have mechanical lifts and asphalt roads up high into lots of serious mountains within three hours driving that easily take them up serious alpine routes.
The amazing _convenience_ of the Euro mountains changes the Euro climbing culture.

Didn't two Americans do the Nose in under 2 hours utilizing simul-climbing? I see folks simul-climbing in the High Sierra and Yose all the time.

Crampons/Axes still needed on descent?

Joey Jarrell wrote: Crampons/Axes still needed on descent?

As of 7/5:

No on crampons on the descent. I plunge-stepped down Contact Pass with a trekking pole w/o postholing. An ice axe (or hacky equivalent) would make for a faster glissade descent though.  

Climbed Sun Ribbon on 7/4, used ice axe and crampons on the approach and ditched them at the base of the route as we expected that the descent was fine without them (which it was, assuming you top out in daylight).

Two other items of note:
1) had a pretty wild experience on Sun Ribbon - got to the Tyrolean tower and while I was belaying up my second, felt the whole spire shake. Originally thought it was due to wind (which made me VERY concerned about the stability of the route in general) but upon getting back to cell service we realized the shaking was due to the 10:30 am July 4th Ridgecrest 6.4 magnitude earthquake... Pretty scary experience.
2) on our approach to Sun Ribbon we saw a fridge to car sized block fall from the top of the Dark Star buttress and bounce down the whole buttress just to the right of the Dark Star line. The block looked like it exploded on or at least very near the Dark Star start ledge, so I advise people being a bit cautious starting up Dark Star for a little while.