Williamson / Tyndall Beta

Once you are over Shepherd Pass, the easiest way to tag both Tyndall and Williamson would be to hit the west face of Williamson (Bolton Brown route), ski down that, head over to camp next to the lake at ~13000′ near the base of Tyndall’s north face, skin up that in the morning, descent, head over to the top of the Superbowl, descend to Mahogany Flats, then hump it out. Minimum 3 days unless you are a beast. If you are a monster maybe 2 days for both. One or the other could go down in a day (the Mammoth Mountaineering crew has pulled off Big Willy in a day) but not both.

According to Dave Braun you can ski down the west face of Williamson to Williamson Lakes, but that’s Dave Braun. I have no idea if a mortal can do so, nor what the snow conditions are like on the west face right now.

My experience is that you can make it to Shepherd Pass in a day (and beyond, if you push hard) from the Symmes Creek trailhead, though you may want to camp elsewhere if it is windy (and it will get really, really windy on the crest if a storm is coming). Getting to the base of Williamson or Tyndall from Shep’s Pass is at most a couple hours. I’ve been stormed off of Tyndall once, and underestimated the time to get over Shep’s Pass on a previous attempt, but I intend to bag at least Tyndall (and more likely, both, in a 3-day weekend) before the season is out.

It is a long, long slog to get up there. Don’t underestimate it.

Hire some Nepalese porters. Damn, I wish I was in shape 🙁 . If you pull either off your my hero.

There are some albums here: http://billhenry.smugmug.com/Skiing%20and%20Hiking/140189

The answer to the first question – west chute – is yes, you can. The photos of that climb and descent are here: http://billhenry.smugmug.com/gallery/1048842

Getting up North Fork of Bairs creek is anything but easy. My attempt was foiled by low snow and poor skinning and booting conditions. That album is here: http://billhenry.smugmug.com/gallery/1134153

You can not easily get to that couloir from the summit plateau. It is guarded by the West Horn. This is the view from the summit plateau

There is a nice chute going down that intersects with the one you were looking at in the other photo. It’s obvious in your 3d image above. But you can not easily access that chute from the Summit.

Hope that helps.

@jimw wrote:

Nice pics on your links. I gotta say, I love this self-belay downclimbing technique:

Looks a little steep. 😯

So where is this Giant’s Steps couloir in relation to the west chute that you climbed up?

That’s Dave Braun demonstrating his technique. When I told him I posted pictures online, he asked me not to disclose details of how to get the Giant’s Steps. Out of respect for his request, I’ll have to refrain.

I will say this, as big as the North Face is, it is relatively easy to find the main North Face coulouirs once you are there; provided you studied the North face while on approach up Shepherd’s pass. You get a good view of the North Face from Symmes Saddle. That’s a good location to get familiar with the NF.

Given the difficulty of the approach drainages (Symmes, Williamson, NF Bairs, SF Bairs, and George) I doubt there will ever be a rush to go ski them. But I did give my word to Dave not to publish details. I hope you can respect that. Sorry.

Hey, no problem. I know I have heard this couloir mentioned somewhere before but I can’t remember where. Not that I’ll be doing it anytime soon based on the description, and the entrance exam… 🙂