Does anyone have any pictures of the diamond taken within the last week? The latest I've seen is this one dated June 14, 2011.

Diamond. Submitted By: Tim Banfield on Jun 17, 2011

Who's got some recent pictures?

I'm pretty sure there was open water on the east outlet of chasm lake. There is certainly plenty of flowing water up there as of June 24 AM. I don't think I got a picture of the diamond but maybe my partner did. He said there was significantly less snow on broadway than a week ago but the snow on the ledges is still clearly visible.

I climbed the Casual route last weekend. There was open water at Chasm Lake on the outlet side. The north chimney has one pitch of loose M3 terrain that is doable with one tool and crampons. Here's some pictures.

The Window on Long's looking good on 6-18-11. Photo by Andy Grauch. Submitted By: Chris Sheridan on Jun 19, 2011

Following the 'mushroom' pitch on an early season ascent of The Casual Route. Photo by Andy Grauch, 6-18-11. Submitted By: Chris Sheridan on Jun 19, 2011

Thanks for the info Chris and Chris. Mr Sheridan, those pictures are great, looks like you got the casual route in truly alpine conditions.

David, I was just up there today....

Approach. A little sketch. Saw a girl about to go for it in sandals. Prob 75 yards long, 70 degree slope. Submitted By: Mark Wyss on Jun 24, 2011

Talked to a guy that said Broadway was like slush by 6 am. Submitted By: Mark Wyss on Jun 24, 2011

Chasm Lake. Submitted By: Mark Wyss on Jun 24, 2011

Thank you to those that posted pictures, especially Chris S.

We bivied Sat night and got up at around 4 am. We simulclimbed the north chimney and traversed broadway from about 5-7am. The north Chimney had some loose snow and a few short mixed cruxes. We switched to rock shoes and climbed Pervertical Sanctuary.

The first three pitches went great and we started the exhausting crux 4th pitch around 10am. I hung my way up it, feeling the altitude and getting pumped every 10 ft. Next time I'll try to send in style. The 5th pitch was fun, and didn't seem as hard as the thin hands crux, although it went on forever. On this pitch my partner grunted in the offwidth and the rack of large nuts went sailing into the void. I watched them land on broadway and slide down the snow to perch precariously above the steep slabs below.

The 6th pitch to Table Ledge was actually very fun and not as short as we expected. We got to Table Ledge around 2 pm and six raps later we were at Broadway again. I switched back into ice gear and carefully made my way to retrieve the dropped nuts.

After my partner switch into snow gear, we traversed to the Crack of Delight and rapped off. Neat waterfalls were pouring off broadway onto the lower slabs. As expected, our ropes got thoroughly soaked in stream flowing down the crack of delight. Fortunately the last rappel bolts were at the snow line, so were able to skip the last rappel and pull our ropes over clean slabs, avoiding where I have caught the ropes before in the dirty crack near the bottom of the rappels.

5 pm found us tired and thirsty at our packs near our bivy site. The hike out was torture on the feet as usual, but all in all it was a great day out and a difficult and technical alpine endeavor.

Here are some pictures:

Approaching North Chimney Submitted By: David Appelhans on Jun 27, 2011

Traversing Broadway to the base of the climb. Submitted By: David Appelhans on Jun 27, 2011

Cisco starting the first real pitch. Submitted By: David Appelhans on Jun 27, 2011

Cisco leading the 3rd pitch. Submitted By: David Appelhans on Jun 27, 2011

Cisco following the crux thin hands and thin air pitch. The chockstone in this photo shifted a couple feet when a foothold broke and Cisco lurched onto it. We couldn't get it to trundle but it wobbles. Be careful, it would fall directly on your belayer. Submitted By: David Appelhans on Jun 27, 2011

Chasm View raps are pretty well covered in snow. Submitted By: David Appelhans on Jun 27, 2011

Did u get a good look at d7?

David,

Thanks for posting this information about your trip last week. Carolyn Davidson and I climbed Pervertical yesterday with the ENTIRE Diamond to ourselves. Everything went great aside from moving a bit slow on the climbing. Good thing the weather held up. Oh and my #4 Camelot is stuck near the top of the off width crack.

As of yesterday your approach beta is about the same. First half of north chimney is a steep snow climb and the rest can be climbed as mixed or with rock shoes. You still need to cross snow on Broadway to get to the base of the routes.

Cheers

Looking up the top section of the North Chimney. Just above where the snow ends. Submitted By: Drew McLean on Jul 4, 2011

Chasm Lake melting away quickly. Be careful if you choose to take the left side approach. The glacier broke off in the narrow section near the lake on my way out. Submitted By: Drew McLean on Jul 4, 2011

Someone should bring a shovel up and clear out the Hilton! Submitted By: Drew McLean on Jul 4, 2011

We saw a party of 4 heading up the Lamb's Slide yesterday. Also saw 2 skier tracks at the end of the day. Submitted By: Drew McLean on Jul 4, 2011

Left side of Chasm Lake snow approach allows bypassing boulders on the right. It's melting away quick though and a bit sketchy near the lake. Submitted By: Drew McLean on Jul 4, 2011

The route is dry! Carolyn cruising up the sustained 5.9 pitches above the Mitten. Submitted By: Drew McLean on Jul 4, 2011

Ship's Prow and surrounding area. Submitted By: Drew McLean on Jul 4, 2011

Diamond from Mill's Glacier. Submitted By: Drew McLean on Jul 4, 2011

Thanks for all the info People posted. Does anyone have any info/pic's on Spearhead? Is that going to be the same story or is it dry to rock climb? I don't have any ice/mixed gear, just a pair of hiking boots.
Cheers

Hey Ben,

Took these photos yesterday:

The mental crux was getting to the base of the climb. If you slipped you'd slide about 400 feet.

Spearhead conditions 7-4-11. Submitted By: Phil Lauffen on Jul 5, 2011

Black Lake. Submitted By: Phil Lauffen on Jul 5, 2011

Hey does anyone have any info on the snow conditions in the Notch Couloir? Slush, snice or ice??

Curt- Climbed the Notch on Saturday, approach was good and we were able to skirt around the left side of the lake to lambslide. Broadway was a mix of snow and dry terrain. The "boulder" move was dry enough. The notch was a little soft. At the constriction we moved right onto the rock because the snow started to look very soft and climbed some mixed terrain. The rock above that was dry and it was easy goig to the top. Pretty much simuled the whole route. We rappelled the NF and it was WET. The bolts have running water over them. If you happen to take the same variation as us could you look for some gear after moving from the notch proper to the rock. Couple pins, and few other things. One of my partners trundled two HUGE boulders one of which cut the rope between us and the other trapped him til we could move it using our pickets as levers. Scary few minutes but luckily everyone was ok. I have never seen anything quite like that before. Let me know if you want some pictures of conditions I would be more then happy to send you some. Safe travels.

Whoa! scary shit Ben! Glad you made it unscathed If you have any Pics of the N face (cables or otherwise) I'd love to see them.

Thanks, John

Thanks for the info Ben... Crazy about the boulders. So glad no one got smashed.

John- Sorry, no pictures of the north face. We had to cut off my partners boot to get him out from under the rock so we were sort of in a hurry. We descended a wet snow snow field to the eye bolts (only two of which are exposed) as we got closer to the bolts the snow became more wet and you could hear water running under it. There was water running over the exposed bolts which made for a short but wet rappel down to the next snow field. The lower snowfield above the boulder field was even more wet and slushy. This was in the afternoon so I would expect morning conditions to be much more consolidated if you were thinking about an ascent.

Ben

Thanks Phill, hey what ever became of the plastic wires and the review you did?

As of 7-10-11:

https://picasaweb.google.com/103989096901399803426/LongsConditionsJul102011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCODHioies6zkCA&feat=directlink

Notch looked good, continuous anyway.

Loft was in ok condition, if a little soft from the recent heat/rain.

I'd say we're done skirting Chasm Lake on the left... unless you bring water wings.

@ George: Good running into you two yesterday on the Loft ledges. Hope you enjoyed the glissade down!

Jason

Any updates after this weekend?

We went back up to try D7 on Saturday. The snow field still creeps a good ways up the North Chimney. Crampons and an axe were nice to have. The snow gear was not required on Broadway or once you get onto the rock in the chimney.

We climbed the first 2 pitches up D7 to find that it is seeping wet in the 10a section. Likely wet up higher as well considering it is one crack system. We bailed before finding out. Still cool to go up there and check it out though.

There was a party on Casual Route the same day and they appeared to top out when when we were heading out.

What were conditions this past weekend? Still need ice gear for the chimney? Sounds like a lot of people were up there.

Bump. Anyone got pictures/reports from this weekend?

Did the casual yesterday. It was dry, got some occasional spray from higher drips with the wind, but nothing major.

Many of the routes over to the left looked like they had some seepage.

Didn't bring axe/crampons/etc...getting up mills was a little exciting in approach shoes, but the chimney was fine, and there is barely any snow on broadway till far climbers left where it gets steep. Upper Keiner's was totally dry and snow free.

Had the rock to ourselves. Go get some!