Southfork Pass

[maverick]

Has anyone used Southfork Pass in a low snow year like this one?
What were the conditions like?
I have heard of people going over without ice axe or crampons
during drought years.

[langenbacher]

I don't know if 1972 was a low snow year, but I went from West to east over the lower (southern) notch at Southfork, without ice axe or crampons, solo. I count that as one of the riskiest descents I ever made. As I was sliding down some scree at the top of the chute, suddenly I couldn't stop because there was ice under the dirt. Fortunately, I hit "solid dirt" in a few seconds and stopped. I had to kick steps in the hard snow and cling to the steep wall with my hands to get down to where I could glissade - then I fell into the bergschrund, which was only 4 feet deep at the side, rather than 20 feet deep at the center, where I would have ended up if I couldn't stop sliding earlier.

In 2002 I returned to Southfork pass from the west with my brother. We checked out both notches, but he refused to descend either one, even though we had crampons. He's gotten a little more risk averse in his old age than I Instead, we camped back at Upper Palisade Lake, and hiked out 23 miles through Bishop Pass to South Lake trailhead the next day, just to avoid those chutes.

[maverick]

Thanks Langenbacher.