This is mostly my snow report and a brief TR:
Last Thursday (10/13) the ranger at Lone Pine told me the snow cover was partially covering the North Fork of Big Pine Creek Trail at around 7 thousand feet and the ranger at Bishop said around 9 to 10k feet. In actuality the trail is nearly completely clear until around 11 thousand something feet. At that point I found the trail heading to the glacier to be very easy to follow because of all the previous foot traffic. The snow is soft and slushy in the afternoon and post- holes knee high. Some of this can be avoided by boulder hopping.
Although we planned on climbing the Swiss Arete, we only made it to just shy of the lake at the base of the glacier. My climbing partner is moderately experienced at Yosemite rock, but has never been to altitude above El Cap. Unfortunately he got some AMS at 10k feet that turned into a disabling headache and perpetual vomiting above 11k feet (no good!). Although we spent our first night at the TH (7k something feet), I think we moved to fast with too heavy of a load. We decided to bail and head down to the 3rd lake for the night (10k feet?) and he slowly improved and was able to take some soup. By the next morning he was much better, but we didn't have time to complete our objective and decided to head home. Our plan for next time is to have more days to acclimate better. Somehow I seem to be doing fairly well with altitude this year, but have gotten quite sick in the past. Weather permitting, I want to try and finish my goal of the 14ers this year. I only have Sill and Split left and the Swiss Arete on Sill looks fun!
