After a long drought, I finally made an alpine summit again. The last time was last August - The Grand Teton. This Winter I pretty much got skunked by weather, work, vacation to Mexico, lack of partners. The usual suspects. A few weeks ago we made an attempt on the Sandy Headwall on Mt. Hood in a really good weather window, but ended up bailing due to high winds and slow progress getting to the route. Despite a brief threat of cancelling due to warm temps, this Mounties Intermediate Ice climb went. This was a route that was on my radar for skiing in the late Spring. But it's a pretty gnarly ski, and requires the perfect window, and being willing to do the long approach on skis when the road to the Colchuck Lake TH is closed. Climbing it during this time period, the first weekend of the open road, ended up being a really good choice.
Friday night Jacqueline threw me a big party at our place. Let's just say I had a really good time, and when the 8am Saturday rendez-vous at the 65th P&R arrived, I was not my usual chipper self. I rallied, however, and managed to survive the ride to Leavenworth and the 4-mile approach with a heavy pack. I was feeling quite sad not to be home chilling out with my wife, but perfect sun, awesome mountains, and the possibility of completing a cool route kept me going.
There were 6 of us on the climb, led by Jessica Todd and Geoff Georges. Those guys are awesome. Super experienced, and really good climbers. They brought a lot of stoke. We left the Colchuck Lake TH around noon and took our time on the approach, which after about a mile was mostly snow with minimal post-holing. We were greeted along the way with happy but exhausted climbers and skiers coming out from successful adventures in the area. Then we were blessed by some killer views of Dragontail and Colchuck Peaks.
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| Dragontail looms large over Colchuck Lake |
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| Zach Burr and Andrew Baker drool over Dragontail's many routes |
We arrived at camp at the far end of Colchuck Lake around 3pm and settled in for a leisurely afternoon. We basked in the sun, set up camp, cooked, ate, and hit the sack around 7pm. Given my depleted state, this was no problem for me, and I got the most sleep pre-alpine start I've ever gotten. We set our alarms for 4am, intending to be climbing by 4:30am in order to beat incoming weather with a 30% chance of precipitation at 11am. The route climbs the North Buttress Couloir, or NBC, on Colchuck Peak, 8,705ft. It is a grade III+ snow/ice climb, with slopes averaging 50 degrees.
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| The NBC route on Colchuck |
We made quick work of the approach up the Colchuck Glacier in the morning to the base of the couloir and geared up. We climbed in three teams of two, with two pickets each, a small rock rack, and two ice screws each. I climbed with Zach, and led off up a runnel, and took a break past the first constriction to get out the second tool and rack up the pickets. The climbing was really fun - solid neve with occasional short alpine ice sections, with sustained 50-degree slopes. We simul-climbed the entire route, mostly protecting the route with ample rock pro.
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| We did sling a small ice pillar, but never placed any ice screws on route |
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| Rock pro was abundant - mostly medium-sized cams |
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| Zach brings me up to an alcove to rerack |
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| Me leading, Zach following |
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| Zach and Colchuck Lake below |
Once we reached the notch, we took a break and waited. The third team, Ed and Andrew, had somehow dropped two pickets in the couloir, and had to downclimb a long way to retrieve them. This put them about 45 minutes behind. We ate and enjoyed views of the North Face routes on Mt. Stuart, and Mt. Daniel. The weather was still pretty good at this point, but clouds were starting to roll in over Stuart and Dragontail, so we knew we needed to get moving to avoid a whiteout on top.
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| Zach and Mt. Stuart from the notch |
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| Sweet cloud fingers rolling over Stuart |
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| Our leaders, Geoff and Jessica, discuss tactics at the notch. |
Geoff and Jessica decided to take off from the notch and punch out the last 700ft of climbing to the top to figure out the route. It seemed pretty straightforward, so Zach and I decided to wait until Ed and Andrew were close to the notch before departing ourselves. The top section of the route on the face was more steep snow climbing. A few rock moves at the top put us at the summit around 9am, approximately 4.5 hrs after departing camp.
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| Zach leads the upper slopes |
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| I arrive at the summit and reel Zach in |
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| Zach arrives at the top, and the last glimpse of the sun we'll see before camp |
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| Topping out |
At this point some pretty crappy weather rolled in. Light snow became steady snow and strong winds. We hunkered down and waited out the final rope team. A few years ago I would have been getting pretty nervous at this point, but I had this strange calm about me. Maybe it's that we're getting more experienced. We just knew that the route down was not complicated, and that despite the snow, the conditions were still stable.
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| Zach and I chill on top |
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| Geoff heads down to scope out the route down to the Colchuck Glacier |
About halfway from the summit down to the col at the top of the Colchuck Glacier, Geoff informs us that he and the final twosome are turning around, because Ed has lost a crampon. It was not his day. This is the same guy that dropped the two pickets earlier. Oh well. Jessica, Zach and I descended to the col and found a sheltered spot to wait. Thirty minutes later they arrived, but without the missing crampon. They had gone all the way back to the summit, and never found it. The rest of the descent was uneventful, as was the hike out, thankfully. From the col we made it back to camp at Colchuck Lake in about 15 minutes, thanks to an awesome glissade!
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| Heading down the Colchuck Glacier |
We made a quick turnaround at the lake, and had packed up camp and were hiking out within 45 minutes. By 2:30 pm we were at the cars.
The whole trip Jessica couldn't stop talking about how much fun Triple Couloirs is on Dragontail, and how similar that route is to the NBC. I've always obsessed about that route. But this trip sealed the deal for me. In the past I've been a bit worried that I'm not ready for it. Now I know, I am. I had a brief moment at the lake on Saturday when I seriously thought about convicing someone in the group to switch objectives and do TC with me. But I decided to wait for better conditions. Reportedly, the runnels on Triple Couloirs are real thin right now. If I wait until next Spring, I can nail it on an even better weather window, and I'll be that much more prepared to crush that route!
