North Palisade, U-Notch 4/6/13

Went for a walkabout over the weekend to climb U-Notch or V-Notch. Needless to say we were very surprised!

ICE! 2 pitches of beautiful blue ice.

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Conditions of the ice were fantastic! I'll try to post better pics tonight. These were taken with my phone.

Nice work, way to get some. What was the snow level on your way in? Any more photos of snow coverage?

Did you look into Clyde couloir? An photos of it? Thank you for posting!

I was up there in Janruary. Didn't go any farther than the moraine a the start of the glacier. The snow was really unconsolidated when we went up and made the approach, via North Fork Trail, somewhat challenging. Had alot of fun though.

Is the U-Notch on the north side of Mt. Sill? I'm thinking of heading up there again in the next month or two.

Started seeing snow at the cabin on the North Fork Trail. Looking at a map, right around 9,500 ft. We slept below Sam Mack Meadows at the turn off of the main trail, 10,500 ft. From the turn off on, we were in the snow. We took snow shoes but did not need them for the hike in, the snow was hard enough at 0600. The hike out on the other hand... VERY glad we brought the snow shoes. Even with the shoes on we were finding holes up to our waist. I wouldn't even consider doing it with out snow shoes.

Clyde did have some ice but petered out of ice and snow about 2/3 the way up. It will be bone dry come this fall.

U-Notch, V-Notch, and Clyde Couloir are all north of Mt Sill

I do have some more pictures, ill post them tonight.

Please do post em up,and thanks in advance!

Awesome pics Josh! Can't wait to get up there myself.

Leaving work in 1 hour and heading up to the U Notch because of this status report. Can't wait to get out the city and onto the ice.

Brian Biancardi wrote:Awesome pics Josh! Can't wait to get up there myself.

Oh really now? Have tools, will travel.

Pat

Bump.
Let see them' pics!

I did not make it last weekend over the short weekend. We were post holing in our snow shoes. We ended up climbing the ice formation at the back of sam mack meadow instead. Hardly a consolation surprise so I guess the 19 miles round trip was a good work out in preparation for the upcoming sierra season.

X2 on seeing some more of that shiny blue ice in U-Notch.

Josh,
How many days did it take you and your wife?

randy88fj62 wrote:I did not make it last weekend over the short weekend. We were post holing in our snow shoes. We ended up climbing the ice formation at the back of sam mack meadow instead. Hardly a consolation surprise so I guess the 19 miles round trip was a good work out in preparation for the upcoming sierra season. X2 on seeing some more of that shiny blue ice in U-Notch. Josh, How many days did it take you and your wife?

Got to the trail head Friday at about 2pm. Hiked to the base of the switchbacks leading up to Sam Mack that first evening and camped there. Got up at 0530 Saturday and got to U-Notch by about 1030-1100. Topped out at about 1500. Back to camp at 2030. Hiked back to Trail head in the am and got back to the car around 1100 Sunday.

Total time car to car was about 45 hrs. Not bad when you add the 15 hours of drivinig.

I have off Friday through Monday this weekend. Anybody wanna else wanna go check it out? I climbed North Pal from Thunderbolt last summer so I'm a little familiar with the region. Message me or call 717-580-2536