The ice is nice and the approach fast. With all the nice weather we've been having in the Sierra, the snow in LVC is hard, making the approach easy. This was my first time to LVC and first time climbing ice this year (a bit of an embarrassment, but true). Given that it was California ice I didn't have high expectations; but I must say that I was impressed with the amount of ice, its quality, and the routes.

We climbed on January 29th & 31st, 2011. We did some rock down south because of the light storm on the 30th. There was not much accumulation nor avalanche danger in LVC the following day.

We spent two days getting a feel for the conditions and back into the swing of things (stupid pun intended). We did "Main Line", the lower half of "Plumb Line", and "Spiral Staircase". The following site I found very useful as a guide to the routes there...
http://www.aboutmyadventure.com/directories/shared_photos/lee_vining/72-75.htm