while I don't know your experience or comfortably level, I hate to say that if I had gone solo, I probably would have been fine. I'm comfortable with small trails on steep slopes and the deep, slippery duff on the lower section was more of a pain in my lower section. Alone, I would probably have had much more time to recon when the switchbacks disappeared. I don't know.
I told my wife I never got the chance to really explore TV, so it's on my list again for sometime in the future, perhaps from South Lake, down to TV, then up to Palisades, Mather pass and upper basin, out Taboose pass. A nice shuttle on the same side of the hills. She doesn't want to talk about it right now and I don't blame her, so I'll park that one in my head along with the many others I want to do before I die.
