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[TR] Eldorado, Guye, Snoqualmie, Sloan - S Gully, NY Gully, West Face (FA attempt) 3/10/2017


Marcus Russi

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Trip: Eldorado, Guye, Snoqualmie, Sloan - S Gully, NY Gully, West Face (FA attempt)

 

Date: 3/10/2017

 

Trip Report:

My friend and frequent partner-in-crime Riley and I met up in the Cascades from March 10-24th for our second season together learning how to climb winter routes. We were much more successful this year than last, managing to succeed 2 for 4 versus 0 for 2.

 

Riley wrote up a great TR of our experience here, including our sleeping-in-the-shitter, floating-in-a-tent, getting-towed-out Epic Failure on Eldorado: http://rjrice.com/cascades-take-two/

 

I want to advertise that the West Face of Sloan has ENORMOUS untapped winter route potential. Two lines have already been completed on the northern end of the face, but if you keep hiking farther south several great looking ice lines reveal themselves, all connecting on the upper half of the face to funnel into what looks to be a moderate snow gully which intersects the North Ridge. If was on this part of the face that we began our climb. If our line was a little fatter, I have no doubt that our route would go and be a pretty classic climb. If anyone else has been on this part of the face in winter I would love to hear about your experience. The approach only took us 3.5 hours including 1.5mi of skiing on the road, making access comparable to other great Cascades winter faces like Dragontail and the NW Face of Snoqualmie.

 

TN8JKw4.jpg

Red is us, green was where we wanted to head. Photo: John Scurlock

 

WnNmiOV.jpg

The hanging dagger was absolutely massive. Photo: Marcus Russi

 

Gear Notes:

Sloan: singles to 2", nuts, 3 pins, 9 screws, 1 picket, 8.7mm+6mm tagline

 

Approach Notes:

Sloan: Easy by winter cascades standards

Edited by Marcus Russi
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

in official winter there will be a gate about a mile before big 4, unless its an unusual dry warm winter, so its a full day (or more) of road skinning to get to the summer trailhead. although snowmobiles are allowed here. if not into this, maybe wait till early spring(but still winterish up high)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Tried to car to car this route a couple years back. We ran into the same situation on where you guys backed off. Continued up the pitch with some m5 moves on a good piece that led to a full 70 meter pitch of unprotectable 1-2" thick AI4+ to below the dagger. Ended up digging for quite awhile to even find something to resemble an anchor. My partner busted off the snice while seconding and took a little TR whipper.

 

Ended up making some time killer mistakes and had to bail. Good potential, but expect tricky protection and anchors on this face as well as some very thin sections. I was hoping a later season would improve conditions on the pitch you guys opted out of.

 

The dagger was twice the size when we were there and looks pretty devious when the sun hits it... By the looks of your photos, it's probably on the fatter side then usual, although the dagger looks to have broke.

Edited by Ryan Hoover
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