Leaderboard

Early Winters Couloir I discovered this fine route while researching lines that might offer good winter/spring mixed climbing. Finding such routes has since become much easier thanks to Nelson's guide books, but back in the day one had to read Becky's guides carefully to find the rare gem that offered good climbing and reasonable access. This route delivers both. The route follows the 1000-foot, east facing couloir between the North and South Early Winter Spires. The majority of the route climbs cruiser 45-50 degree snow/ice with cruxes coming as mixed sections bypassing chockstones. The route delivers a final sting in the tail with an enormous cornice that must be bypassed on aid. Season: April-May, after North Cascasdes Hwy opens Rack: Four screws, six large nuts, five pins (two knifebades or bugaboos, angles from #1-#3), four pickets, cams from 0.5" to 3", two tools, 60 meter rope, aiders, hooks, prussiks or jumars. Time: 1-2 hours to base, 5-6 hours on route, 1-2 hours descent. Difficulty: Grade III, 5.8, A2, WI 3. Approach: Park at the hairpin and hike up toward the objective, as if one was approaching the East Buttress. Climb up easy slopes to where the couloir steepens at a convient tree belay. Route: We stepped out right from the tree and climbed steep ice (60 degrees) to lower angled slopes (45-50 degrees) for three pitches, finding both rock and ice anchors for belays. At the start of pitch four, we dry tooled past a large chockstone. A #3 Camalot was useful for protecting this section. My partner, who led this pitch, found a belay in a cave created by another chockstone. On the fifth pitch I pulled over the chockstone and climbed steepening snow (to 75 degrees!) before tumbling into a spacious cave underneath the very big cornice. The cornice overhung 20 feet on the right hand wall but only a few feet on the left-hand wall. The left-hand wall it would be. A couple of dry tool moves brought me to a small flake. I nailed the flake, which promptly fell off into my lap. I nailed the flake stump. The knifeblade rotated 90 degrees under my weight, but held. No more cracks or flakes appeared, the wall was featureless. (Note to self, bring hooks next time). At this point, I was past the most severely overhanging portion of the cornice. The cornice still reared back at 95 degrees, however, and consisted of sugar-snow. I hand placed a picket, clipped my aiders to it and weighted it. It held. Four more picket moves brought me to an 80-degree section, which I swam up and then dove down the backside. My partner jugged the rope. We bombed on down the gully, making one rappel past the chockstone. We walked around the east side of South Early Winter Spire and descended to the hairpin. Synopsis: This accessible route packs a lot of interesting climbing in its 1000 feet; ice, rock with a little aid thrown in for good measure. Warm up on this route, and then climb the East Face Couloir the next day to complete the weekend.

Drove up to Darrington yesterday to check the road conditions. Clear Creek road: almost blocked by a huge tree 2.5 miles up from the pavement. There is enough room to drive under it, but someone has tried to cut the log with a large chainsaw and failed. Whether there is enough strength left in the log to keep it there while you are up climbing is left to your judgement. Squire Creek road: clear and even better than last year. You can drive past the cave-in of two years ago without even turning aside. It is just another orange ribbon on the side of the road.