Is the Owen-Spalding dry?

I am headed up tomorrow to bivy and then climb Thursday. I will let all you all old heads know whats up on Friday when I reconnect to the internets the up to date conditions, and I'll try to trip a young whippersnapper for ya as well! You guys are awesome.

jon jugenheimer wrote:I am headed up tomorrow to bivy and then climb Thursday. I will let all you all old heads know whats up on Friday when I reconnect to the internets the up to date conditions, and I'll try to trip a young whippersnapper for ya as well! You guys are awesome.

Jaren Watson wrote:Be safe Jon. It's supposed to storm all afternoon.

Hiking Today, climbing tomorrow in the am with a zero % chance of storms and hopefully down before anything kicks up if it does. Just hiking in the rain today...

just got back to the car after an 8-hour solo mission on the O-S and here is a conditions report for the route:

There is an INSANE amount of snow, graupel and ice on the route right now. No way around it honestly. The crux of the entire route was an ice-choked Owens Chimney which was pretty spicy to solo (although had I been leading there wouldn't have been pro anyways because all of the cracks were lined with ice). There is a reason that all of the guides are bailing on the route right now. Also, in several areas there were deep drifts of graupel which concealed icy slabs underneath. Mandatory crampon terrain for sure. Overall, if you want a pretty full-on alpine experience, then the route is in! However, if you want to climb this as a rock route, then it might be a good idea to wait a week or two. Talked to some rangers who said that the high pressure window that's coming into Jackson this weekend, may help melt it all out. Hope this info helps!

Thanks Chris for the update - I have a couple weeks still - hope it gets better!

Thanks for the report. Not really what I wanted to hear but not surprising.

I have a little over 2 weeks before I plan to climb and am hoping it's clear and dry by then. Climbing the Exum, which I expect will be fine, but still have to descend the OS.
Weather forecast looks promising.

accuweather.com/en/us/jacks…

I got blown off the route I was after this am so I never saw the OS, but did see all the guided groups bail due to exactly what Chris said.

You make the top today Chris? Strong effort!

Yah, after all that talk about how bad the conditions are, I was still able to summit, so it's totally do-able. Also, descending the O-S right now wouldn't be bad, but it would be nice to have crampons. I heard from parties that the upper Exum is dry and good to go. Cheers!

Chris Dickson wrote:Yah, after all that talk about how bad the conditions are, I was still able to summit, so it's totally do-able. Also, descending the O-S right now wouldn't be bad, but it would be nice to have crampons. I heard from parties that the upper Exum is dry and good to go. Cheers!

"just got back to the car after an 8-hour solo mission on the O-S and here is a conditions report for the route:" >

You made it car to car in 8 hours under those conditions?
You are a beast!

Jim Fox wrote:"just got back to the car after an 8-hour solo mission on the O-S and here is a conditions report for the route:" > You made it car to car in 8 hours under those conditions? You are a beast!

I'm climbing the Upper Exum in a few weeks, will two 40m ropes be enough for the rappels descending the O-S? The guidebooks say the rappel is 120ft = 37 meters...

thanks!

Yes, two 40m ropes will definitely get you down (it's pretty standard fare for a lot of the guides). One 60m can get you down reasonably well with rope stretch and some down scrambling, particularly if you simul-rap to milk all the possible stretch out of the rope.

thanks.

A 60m rope gets you down just fine, so two 40's would definitely work. If you go down to the rappeller's right and end it as a free-hanging rappel, it can't be more than 100', despite what the book says.

Also, thanks Jim and Chris! But, still a long shot from these guys, haha: youtube.com/watch?v=Z_Z1-sm…

Climbed Full exum past monday. no snow/ice gear required for approach to lower saddle, full exum IS dry, OS is icy (raps/chimneys) and decent amount of graupel (as it stormed on the descent). ONe 70m skinny recommended for exum/rap icy OS. Excellent adventure.

Regarding the Durrance approach- NO ICE AXE OR PONS - what little snow is left is totally avoidable up the symmetry couloir.

Anyone been up there recently? I'm planning on climbing the Lower Exum middle of next week and was curious if the descent still requires crampons and axes.

I just climbed OS yesterday prior to this storm. The route was dry and any ice and snow was easily avoidable.
There was some ice in the chimneys but did not pose a problem. The routes, (black rock chimneys and
Idaho express) from the lower saddle to upper saddle are snow and ice free. Be aware of spontaneous rock fall.