Conditions on Grand/Cathedral Traverse

Hoping to do Cathedral traverse, or Grand traverse if time allows next open weather window. Was wondering how mandatory axe and crampons are between teewinot, owen and grand? Have been up high scouting, but still not sure what I can get away with. Any other conditions updates would be awesome. Thanks

You can probably do it without anything if you are super comfortable on snow. I'd say definitely can leave the crampons at home at this point. Did it about a month ago and used crampons for literally 20 yards. Axe could still be nice on the Koven snowfield as well as the Koven couloir crossing.

You can do the Grand Traverse with just shoes. I have a partner that did most of it. Let me know if you want his info. I talked to two other guys this weekend when I was on the Grand that did it solo without crampons or ice axe. It looks like a long day. Good luck!

Dave Schultz wrote:...I'd be curious about your conditions.

Hopfully headed up this weekend. I'll keep u guys posted.

Any updates on the smoke situation/snow conditions? thanks

I was up there last week and it was DRY. I would skip the axe and crampons for sure.

Smoke was pretty annoying as it killed the views, but one day a breeze and high pressure pushed it out for while. It's very much day-to-day as far as visibility.

Thanks so much, Auto-X.

-Michelle

Update from the weekend. The 1 Sep storm dumped 2" of snow at the higher elevations and according to Exum guides, as of the afternoon of 2 Sep the colder temps/wind meant that the N Ridge of the Grand was not yet melted out. I opted not to go between this and the wind gusts up to 35 mph since I was soloing. Maybe it's melted out by now.