Winter ‘22/‘23 Tahquitz Ice Report?

There’s not much ice up on the North side. Went up and messed around 2 nights ago. Most of the wall is covered in snow still and not ice. There’s some small stuff to pick out though if you’re desperate, it’s not thick though. The base of almost all routes obviously have drifts at the base of them, but there’s steps kicked in already on some of them 

One person's 'desperate' is another person's dry tooling nirvana...YMMV....

possibly some ice on Wed Feb 1

Any update on conditions? Are any routes climbable (without ice tools)? Looking to get on something this weekend. Friction descent ok?

Greg lwrote:

Any update on conditions? Are any routes climbable (without ice tools)? Looking to get on something this weekend. Friction descent ok?

I was thinking about where there might be dry rock today. You could probably climb on the sunshine face. Open book to ski tracks might be ok. All speculation though, as of Saturday (before the past minor storm) the sunshine face and left of it were dry. The Vampire was dry, but the approaches definitely aren’t. It’s been warm, there could be something 

Greg lwrote:

Any update on conditions? Are any routes climbable (without ice tools)? Looking to get on something this weekend. Friction descent ok?

There is plenty to climb, anything in the sun will be dry, but you might have to wade through some deep snow to get to start. Bring a couple pairs of dry socks along with you.

Tradibanwrote:

There is plenty to climb, anything in the sun will be dry, but you might have to wade through some deep snow to get to start. Bring a couple pairs of dry socks along with you.

Heard a couple guys wanted to climb the trough last weekend.. in rock shoes. Wonder how that went for them, probably didn’t make it far 

Nd actually, when we went up there was snow on the approach, but it was not wading. The snow was super firm, firm enough that we had hard time kicking steps with our hardboots, and almost put on crampons. YMMV 

Caleb Milnerwrote:

Heard a couple guys wanted to climb the trough last weekend.. in rock shoes. Wonder how that went for them, probably didn’t make it far 

Ha, Trough is a bad idea all winter, all wet.

Nd actually, when we went up there was snow on the approach, but it was not wading. The snow was super firm, firm enough that we had hard time kicking steps with our hardboots, and almost put on crampons. YMMV 

Yea, mostly hard snow I’m guessing, wading occurs at the base of the wall, from all the snow coming down off the wall.

Something is always climbable but you might get wet getting there, ergo the extra socks.

Today, from atop Suicide:

Alright, who’s been getting up there?

looks good for you ICE CLIMBERS, WI3?

but for ROCK CLIMBERS

TAHQUITZ IS CLOSED

HOLCOMB VALLEY IS OPEN

Cole Darbywrote:

TAHQUITZ IS CLOSED

HOLCOMB VALLEY IS OPEN

I hear Woodson is nice right now 

Caleb Milnerwrote:

I hear Woodson is nice right now

WOODSON is CLOSED

(Thursday through Monday currently)

The glacier has advanced. The gate is closed for the duration.

shitttt I committed to climbing in Jtree Saturday. Let me see if I can get up there Sunday

A few weeks ago. #localsonly

Now you see it…

Now you don’t!

Hopefully the upcoming storm can give a good resupply so I can actually get some on a weekend ugh. Weekend warrior problems.

Ours was in, Nice!!! good times.

Anyone have eyes on?