Colchuck and Dragontail Peaks

May 25, 2013

Our initial plan for the weekend involved a three-day assault on Rainier's Liberty Ridge, but with lots of new, wet snow and poor weather in the forecast, it was clear that we didn't want to be on that kind of route, so Goran and I called the audible to head to the Leavenworth area for hopefully clearer skies. We had our sights set on Colchuck and Dragontail Peaks via relatively technical routes.

Colchuck

After sleeping in the car at the trailhead on Friday night and slogging our way to Colchuck Lake in the morning, we dropped our camping gear near the lake and headed for the North Buttress Couloir on Colchuck. We passed debris from some wet slides on our way to the base of the couloir and quickly decided that it would be a bad idea to be in a steep snow gully in those conditions, so we traversed to the standard Colchuck Glacier Route (wading through waist-deep snow in places) until we found a boot-pack and started moving quickly again despite having way more gear than we needed for the moderate route.

The summit was in and out of the clouds and we were able to catch a little bit of a view before busting back down the deep snow to the lake. Our descent was super quick and afforded one of my favorite things in the mountains: an afternoon nap. The nap extended a bit due to a bit of a debt from the previous night and we roused briefly around 8pm to make dinner, drink some whiskey, and get back in the tent.

Dragontail

We rustled around 7am and heard rain pattering on the tent, which didn't sound like the conditions we'd hoped for, so we went back to bed for quite a while, finally getting up around 9am with the intention of packing up camp and heading down. After melting some snow, doming a "Sin Dawg" and packing up, the rain stopped and we looked at each other for a moment. We were on the same page. Dragontail Peak needed climbing.

We put our non-essential gear back in the tent and started charging the boulder field underneath Aasgard Pass. We passed a huge group of Russians in the boulders and on the lower slopes of the pass as we moved quickly with our much lighter setups than the previous day. It felt like taking the bar off after doing squats. Near the pass, we ran into a group of three guys who had been trying to find a way up Dragontail for two hours and had given up. We decided to give it a shot regardless.

I've experienced whiteouts before, but this was the most intense one I'd ever seen. We came up with a strategy based on compass headings and our topo map, then headed off into the white abyss. We had to pick up snow periodically and throw it in front of us to make sure we weren't about to hit dicey terrain. After heading a little too far South, we turned due West and across the side-slope to get to the saddle near Dragontail's summit. It wasn't until the last steep section that we could see rock outcroppings on either side.From the saddle, it was pretty quick and easy to the summit, though we could never see very far ahead. With no view, our celebration was short-lived.

We followed our breadcrumb footprints back to Aasgard and then plunge-stepped and glissaded down, reaching our tent within an hour of being on the summit. It almost felt like we'd teleported. After finishing the whiskey and packing up our gear, we hit the trail and floated our way down the 5 miles back out to a rainy and wet Leavenworth, knowing that we'd made the most of the weekend.

East Ridge on Eldorado Peak

May 4, 2013

Our original objective for the weekend had been Glacier Peak, but we did a little research and it sounded like the road was still washed out, requiring multiple days to rock an ascent. Since Cam was likely on the hook for daddy daycare on Sunday, we hit the road Friday night to snag a scarce few hours of sleep at the trailhead and fire Eldorado.

Our stop in Darrington to provision up with Starbucks Moca Frappuccinos could have been the smartest thing we did all weekend. We rolled into the trailhead at about midnight and set up our sleeping bags on the gravel next to the truck, then attempted to fall asleep until 2:45am. Some rest was had, but not much sleep, as a number of other parties rolled in over the next couple hours and broke the silence of our otherwise still, star-filled night.

2:45am was painful, but the cold Frappuccinos, cinnamon buns, and various other snacky items really pulled us through. We ate and slowly packed up, hitting the rough climber's trail at about 3:30am. In our sleepless stupor and with heavy, awkward skis on our backs, the section through the woods felt a bit like being a human pinball. The trail was pretty steep and let us make great upward progress. By the time we hit the snow, we'd gained around 3,000 feet of elevation from the trailhead.

With skis on, we made quick progress except for the few sections that were steep enough and icy enough that we slipped around quite a bit. Ski crampons would have been an awesome addition for sure. We ducked over the ridge at about 6,200 feet, had a quick boot pack down the far side, and then kept skinning up the long snow field until the crest and large bowl below the summt. Skinning up the long ridge to the summit wasn't too steep and things had started to loosen up a bit by then, so we ended up skinning to about 500 feet from the summit.

Right at the spot where we started to take off our skis and throw on our rope and crampons, we ran into another party of two—the only other party we saw that day. Turned out one of the guys was an old friend from Dartmouth who used to live two doors away during our Freshman year. What a small world, especially considering that he doesn't even live in Washington and that we were up near the summit around 9:00am.

The knife-edge ridge finish was much shorter than I would have expected and we quickly finished things up, enjoying the view on such a perfect day, and without a ton of wind. Our celebration was short-lived since we all wanted to get down as quickly as we could. Evidence of wet slides was everywhere on our ascent and we knew that temperatures were going to be exceptionally high.

The vast majority of our descent involved awesome skiing, never too steep and never too icy. A short skate across the basin got us to a long section of skiing down the snowfield which was fun enough that I let some whoops and hollers out, which is saying something for a guy who doesn't ski much. The short boot-pack section led us to mashed potato snow for the rest of the way out. Things were sloughing quite a bit and our knees were getting really tired, but we made it out safely and experienced the joy of removing our boots, but the pain of strapping them and our skis to our backs.

In not too long a time, we made it down the pinball section (things were a bit easier with daylight), and got back to the truck around 12:30pm. Celebratory beers with Ben and his partner were especially tasty and we were back in Seattle in no time (or at least it felt that way since I ate a ton of Ben & Jerry's and passed out. Thanks for driving, Cam!

Snow Creek Wall

April 28, 2013

Every classic climb list I've seen for Washington has included both Orbit and Outer Space, so, needless to say, they've both been on my to-do list since I moved out here. Leavenworth was a solid choice for the weekend, with enough warm days so far to melt most of the snow, but not good enough weather on the West side to climb a big volcano. Goran and I hit the road early on Saturday after a phenomenal night on the town in Seattle which left me slightly sleep-deprived and a bit hung over, but quite happy.

Orbit

We drove straight to the Snow Creek Trailhead on Saturday and made the approach in under an hour, just passing a group of three before the base of Orbit. We soloed up the bit to the gnarled tree and started firing pitches from there. Pitch 1 would have been an exercise in painful rope drag if climbed per the guidebook beta, so we broke it into two parts, with Goran taking the awkward chimney move and me taking the finger crack. From there, the route went pretty smoothly and quickly. We had plenty of daylight left at the top, so we decided to carry over the wall and hike directly down to the Pearly Gates. It turned out to be a bit of a chossy, bushwhacking adventure, but we found a trail eventually and made it to the crag. We got on Pearly Gates (5.10b) and No Room for Squares (5.8) before calling it a day and hiking out.

All that approaching and heinous descending made me incredibly ravenous and desiring of fried chicken. Unfortunately, Safeway was out, so we picked up beers and a whole roasted chicken, then headed to the campsite which Peter and Susan had graciously offered to share. I must have been asleep within a half hour after finishing my dinner.

Outer Space

The sabbath saw a leisurely morning with coffee and danish, then an approach back to the Snow Creek Wall to hit up Outer Space. Goran had been on the route before, so we decided to forego the forgettable first two pitches in favor of a spicier link-up start using Remorse and RPM. I led the first pitch of Remorse and was surprised at a couple of the moves, which likely meant that I'd taken a slightly wrong turn, but eventually made it to the bolted belay below the roof. From there, Goran grabbed the rest of the gear and headed up the roof. We'd seen a party on the route earlier in the day and noticed that they pulled over the roof to the left, which seemed like a good alternative to going straight up the 10b crack. Goran took this left turn on his lead and I followed the incredibly fun pitch with great exposure.

We arrived at Two Tree Ledge to find a party of three just starting the third pitch of Outer Space. Bummer. For nearly two hours, we hung out on the ledge in the sun, waiting for the party to clear off that ledge and the next belay. I took the crux pitch lead and had a blast swinging around from the flakes. From there, Goran brought us up the runout knobs to the base of the classic crack pitch where we waited for the party of three again. Things were starting to get pretty chilly at this point and we were bundled up in puffies and winter hats. I did the ice climbing warm-up dance quickly before taking the lead. It was nothing short of awesome, with great feet on knobs nearly the entire way and awesome hand jams that I actually made use of a bunch of times (big news for me as a total sportie...I could hear Dale saying "don't be afraid of the crack").

By the time we finally summited, the sun was starting to settle below the far ridges, so we busted a move on the descent to make it to the car before dark. I was highly motivated to get back to the leftover beers, danish, and chips. Victory tasted incredibly sweet.