Tahquitz conditions currently

I'm planning a climbing trip Dec 25th - Jan 30th. I'm considering Tahquitz but with this storm coming through currently, curious if it would just be covered in snow. What do you locals think?

This is the man you want to follow for firsthand, up to date conditions on San Jacinto area: sanjacjon.com/

We went up North Gully to the summit this past Tuesday. It was dry and the rock too.

Looking out from our deck this morning, there is no snow on Tahquitz Peak. But the storm is not over yet. The temps are somewhat high, if this continues, there will be little or no snow on the rock.

Brandon welcome. You might get a few windows of good weather. The key to climbing is going when the weather settles down between storms.
We have a pattern- storm front moving through, then a few days of windy days (back side of storm) then sometimes we get calm, stable days. You know it’s calm when we get foggy days out in the inland empire (Redlands, Chino, Ontario). Really thick fog equals good sunshine above the fog. I have driven there through thick fog that turned to drizzle up in the mountains, through town and at the parking (humbler park) only to have the sun show up at the end of the hike. This is quite a sight to see! The entire LA basin covered in clouds with the Mt Tops sticking through. These can be pretty good climbing days

If you have a car and can get to Josh or any of the Hi desert spots you can climb and watch the weather report and the traffic reports.

Good luck 

The storm has moved east. This morning at 5,200' (lower Idyllwild), temps were 38 degrees at 7 AM. The base of the rock has some dusting of snow, higher up (cc 8,000') there is a bit of snow cover. 

Thank you everyone for the awesome condition reports. Leaving Tucson tomorrow to hopefully spend a solid week climbing at Suicide and Tahquitz. It looks so good!

Brandon Gottung wrote:

Thank you everyone for the awesome condition reports. Leaving Tucson tomorrow to hopefully spend a solid week climbing at Suicide and Tahquitz. It looks so good!

What’s friction descent lookin like?

Tahquitz Rock today. Looks promising!

Alois…. Nice photo! 

Thanks Guy

There might be some "real" ice forming. All depends on temps this week.

How are you my friend. Any adventures? How is life?

Be well, A.

Alois Smrz wrote:

Thanks Guy

There might be some "real" ice forming. All depends on temps this week.

How are you my friend. Any adventures? How is life?

Be well, A.

Doing well! Thanks. Regaining my ability to walk after big bad back surgery 3 years ago. I can now face “out” when walking down steep hills/rock and I can motor along for about 3 miles before the legs give up. I get out climbing with a little help from my friends who get the gear and the rope up for me.

The ICE might return, with cold temps and more moisture coming next week it might form up. I know a lot of people are chomping at the bit to experience it.

I hope you and Penelope are doing well.

Keep the information flowing. You are the source. 

I feel for you, bro. So many of us old timers are dealing with back issues. It's a badge of honor for our years of activity on the rock and in the mountains. 

Thanks for the good wishes, we are ok. Penelope is much better than me. She is healthy, strong, no issues. She hikes, scrambles and bikes around here with gusto. I was out  6 months with badly injured knee. It took for ever to recover.

Just started to hike around in all this snow. At my age, it takes a "few days, weeks, months" to feel better. 

We are heading to Utah to ski so I will not be able to report much on the conditions past this weekend. 

But if the temps stay below 70 in LA,  and/or if there is another snow next weekend, there should be ice on Tahquitz. 

Some other locals might chime in as well.

Waaaay too warm in Idy for ice to form on Tahquitz…forecast for the incoming storms is in the 40’s-50’s  through much of next week. El Niño esta aqui…

Anyone been up this week?  Are the west face / south face accessible / climbable?  Looks like going to be warm, tempted to head out.  

There was a fair amount of precipitation from the last storm- snow level was pretty high, though, up around Tahquitz Peak- more is supposed to be coming in Mon-Tues. Definitely not ‘warm’ though- it’s still winter up here.West and south routes may be do-able, depending on your tolerance for scrappy conditions.

How’s it looking up there these days? 

Caleb Milner wrote:

How’s it looking up there these days? 

Well, we went up on Feb 25, temp wise was pretty nice. The approach and descent was kinda crappy, super slushy but rather shallow snow. Honestly would have been a good day for climbing all around if I had worn more appropriate footwear (just had on non waterproof approach shoes) 

The rock definitely still had some snow and ice up there so had to pick out route carefully. The angels fright final slab was definitely made quite a bit sketchier by the fact it was covered by melting ice water, but honestly I would take it just to sneak a day climbing in. Friction descent was fine, little bit of snow in the slides but otherwise easy to handle. 

When we got to the top, the trough was full of snow still so my best guess is any route north of that would be not doable. The south side completely good to climb though. 

I will say all of this is PRE- the storm we just had this weekend. I don’t know what idy got but i know the san gabriel’s got slammed so Id have to imagine the conditions changed a bit.

Idy got more precip out of the last storm than was forecasted, but it was all rain down in town- pretty warm. It cleared today, and looks like snow level was just above Tahquitz. Prolly pretty wet up there right now, but for some people that just adds to the fun.

any current updates for conditions up there?

Last few days included light snow, then light rain. Chilly and partly cloudy right now. Tahquitz & Suicide have snow down below the base. I'd guess pretty wet conditions up there today, but might improve over the next week or so.