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[TR] Dragontail Peak - Cotter-Bebie 1/26/2011


kurthicks

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Trip: Dragontail Peak - Cotter-Bebie

 

Date: 1/26/2011

 

Trip Report:

Given that the mid-winter's high pressure had settled in and I heard that snow conditions in the Stuart Range were great, my friend Rodney and I climbed the elusive Cotter-Bebie route on the NW Face of Dragontail yesterday. I've been wanting to climb this route for many years, having peered down into it from Backbone and Serpentine a number of times. We found the route to be in fantastic shape overall, except for half of one pitch to the right of the Fin (requiring scary aid moves off ice tools). Gear was a challenge to find at times and we had to simulclimb on some serious terrain in order to find decent protection and anchors.

 

The route is excellent and I highly recommend it. We counted 20 roped pitches (though we simuled about 8 of them), and would rate the route (as we did it) in its current condition grade IV, WI4, 5.7, A2.

 

We were a bit confused as to where the route finishes. According to Beckey (CAG, v1, p 285), we followed the Northwest Face route. Washington Ice says to finish in the corner to the right of the Fin, but that wasn't reasonable given the snow conditions. The gully we took proved to be the technical crux of the climb. I would consider finishing the route via the Third Couloir (by turning left at the Fin, and dropping onto the Gerber-Sink, then up into the Third Couloir) for a faster and more reasonable adventure.

 

The route took us about 12 hours on the face, about three of which were spent on the aforementioned aid pitch and cornice chopping.

 

Photos:

CotterBebie.jpg

The Cotter-Bebie as marked on a John Scurlock photo.

 

CotterBebie01.jpg

The north face of Dragontail.

 

CotterBebie03.jpg

Leading off on pitch 1.

 

CotterBebie04.jpg

Rodney on pitch 2. Pitch 4 is the visible ice above.

 

CotterBebie05.jpg

Pitch 6 traverse left to find an anchor. Backbone Ridge in the background.

 

CotterBebie06.jpg

Looking up the mixed corner on pitch 7.

 

CotterBebie07.jpg

Following pitch 7.

 

CotterBebie08.jpg

Traversing below the Fin.

 

CotterBebie09.jpg

Rodney at the right side of the Fin. We took the snowy gully on the right to join Serpentine Arete.

 

Sorry, but no photos of the crux since I had the camera and it was getting dark. BTW, every other route in the basin looks good-to-go.

 

Gear Notes:

8 screws, set of stoppers, 2 bugaboos, .5-3" camalots, 4" hex, 10 slings. 2 tools. I would recommend two ropes in case of retreat, although we only took one.

 

Approach Notes:

Excellent packed trail all the way to the lake. Crampons on from camp-to-camp.

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From your photo I believe I climbed part of this route in the summer of 2002. The popular Backbone and Serpintine routes had parties so my friend and I climbed the path of least resistance to the top of the 2nd snow field. The climbing was easy 3rd-5th unroped scrambling in summer. A roped pitch at around 5.10/ A1 brought us back up onto the Backbone below the fin and on to the top. The crux pitch found me nearly barfing with fear, but it worked out.

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Thanks everyone. We really enjoyed the route and climbing and wanted to share it with the cc.com crew.

 

Wayne - the approach is the standard 9 or so miles from the bottom of the road. we booted up the road, then snowshoed to the lake in a mellow 4.5 hours. The road is skiable, but no where near driveable even though there's not much snow on the ground.

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shit starts at the base of the route not the car...becuase you aided and were slow does not increase the grade of a route..you could say it is subjective but that is an excuse for being slow. you climbed a mtn good boy!!! but to lay out a grade designation for one repeat in marginal conditions does not make it so!!! enjoy!

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Bucketz, have you climbed the route? Much more steep climbing than the triple Cs. You climbed the easiest route on the face in 9 hours (didn't set any speed records yourself, but conditions vary) so it seems pretty logical that a harder route is a grade harder. From what I have seem Kurt is an efficient climber.

 

Good job guys, it was fun running into you up there. I seem to always run into friends at Colchuck Lake. Our second climb went well. Fun, full day. There was a party at the base of the triple C's yesterday before dawn so I think people have figured out that it's cool up there right now.

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