SmilingWhiteKnuckles Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 (edited) Climb: Colfax Peak-Cosley-Houston route Date of Climb: 12/11/2005 Trip Report: Mark and I climbed the Cosley-Houston route yesterday. Have to agree with dberdinka's assessment of this route from this March. It's really cool. We found similar conditions on the route as he describes in March. And we were able to get to about 2800' on the road--a key bit as skiing up (or down for that matter) the road could be a rather serious endeavor. Seems like this is a good one to hit in the fall or spring. We skied the trail up on Saturday, but ended up hiking back down it (it melted out too much). There was a crazy temperature inversion going on. In the town of Glacier, it was well below freezing and hiking up past the Kulshan cabin site, it was downright balmy and the snow coverage was minimal. Going up the trail, Mark said that the good thing about temperature inversions, is that its usually really still. By the time we got up onto the hogsback, the spindrift flying and the plumes off of Colfax and the Black Buttes lit up in the afternoon sunlight. We camped on the big table about 5800' and did some soloing around on a good ice flow nearby. The wind kept up in long gusts through the night and the whole next day. Skiing up to the base of the route took us a good long time, but finally we got on the route and it was in great shape similar to the conditions described in March. We traversed left after the final ice step, topping out above the Polish Lamb Sausage route. We got to the top just before the light faded. Thankfully, the descent down the east ridge was pretty straightforward. The moonlight was awesome all the way down!! Polish Lamb Sausage looks rad by the way for all you hardcores... Gear Notes: 1 50m rope small rock rack (tricams!!) 5 ice screws 3 pitons (didn't use) 1 picket (didn't use, could have but...) Edited December 12, 2005 by SmilingWhiteKnuckles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skykilo Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 Way to go get it fella. Good to see Mt Baker is still 'open'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshK Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 Looks fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RocNoggin Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 how far up the road to the trailhead were you able to drive? what were the ski conditions like? great job on the route, nice pics too! thanks for posting. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dberdinka Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Sweet! The pillar looks fat, sounds like more perfect conditions this coming weekend. Any chance you've got a good photo of the Polish Route? How was the glacier travel? Thanks Darin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marko Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 The Sube made it to within 1 mile of the trailhead (snow machine packed the whole way). Skiied the road (icy), the trail (couple bare spots on the way in, many on the way out), and the glacier (cake). The Polish route looks killer! The last piller doesn't quite touch down however. John probably has a good photo, I do too, but my slides aren't developed yet. Both routes are do-able in a day for sure. -M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmilingWhiteKnuckles Posted December 16, 2005 Author Share Posted December 16, 2005 The best shot of the Polish route is above unfortunately. Natch, I wish I had taken more pictures... Hope someone goes in there this weekend!! Conditions are probably still primo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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