esugi

My friend in Canmore wants it now! Will send you PM.

Thanks guys. Bala, I've been thinking about this route ever since that day we met up on the trail...finally off of my mind.

Trip: Dragontail - Triple Couloirs - Date: 3/7/2008 Trip Report: In January 2007, Kevin (Quasimoto) and I hiked all the way into Colchuck Lake only to find the route "not-in". In Spring of 2007, we got turned back at the top of the first couloir due to heavy winds and cold temps. Both times, we made it a two day. We were determined to get this route sooner or later. We had been watching the weather and thanks to Racsom's TR from February, we had good chance and good beta. This time, we decided to push in one single day. We left the car at 2:30am (Lugging our skis and snowboard, we hoped that we can cruise down the road after our climb - stashed it just before the TH). Made it to the end of the lake at 8:00am. It was clear from post-holing and breaking new trail through the lake that very few had been up this far since the last dump on 2/24. Taking turns breaking trail, we started from the bottom of the hidden couloir at 9:00ish. Soloing up the first "hidden" couloir Approaching the "ice runnels" Kevin at the P1 belay Fresh from climbing ice in the Skylight area (Ouray), I took the P1 lead. The ice was really good and phat through here. Then, Kevin took the thin and spicy P2 lead. Lots of "Psychological" pro here. On one occasion, Kevin placed an ice screw that went in about inch and a half. Awesome job Kevin! Conditions through all three pitches in the runnels was just like the one encountered by racsom. No noticeable change. Me following P2 after Kevin's awesome lead. I then led P3 which ended up being good enough conditions and little bit of mixed fun. The physical problems started here. We had to break trail the entire way with often times knee deep snow. Very exhausting and the 2nd couloir (and 3rd couloir for that matter), seemed to go on forever. At the top of 2nd couloir, we encountered the mixed traverse to the base of 3rd couloir. I led this section but went off route a little. I think what I did wrong was going too high on the rock, instead of traversing lower. Unfortunately, because of this, I could not find any ice and all I encountered was sugar snow on top of slabby rock. I managed to mostly dry-tool my way up to a belay and brought Kevin up. Then Kevin on belay found a spicy traverse that he managed and got to the start of 3rd Couloir and stable ground. Wasted atleast one hour, unfortunately. By this time we were both exhausted. I think Kevin had been up something like 36 hours. Me, I had a 2 hour nap before I left the house. Obviously, we had no choice but to keep going so I headed up the 3rd couloir (it was 4pm). Again, switching leads, we topped out little after 5pm. Heading up 3rd couloir Beautiful shot of the lake from about half way up the 3rd couloir. Quick Gu shot and little drink and we were high tailing to AssScrape Pass and down to the lake at 6:30pm. At this time, all we could think of was getting back to the car and hoping that we would have good conditions on the ski/snowboard ride down the road. We managed to stumble down the trail and got to our stash. Stepped into my skiis and Kevin strapped into my snowboard. The funny thing is, he rides regular foot while I ride goofy. So he was riding faky the entire way down. He managed pretty good though and only stumbled few times. We managed to get back to our cars 19 hours later at 9:30pm and we high tailed it to McDonalds hoping they were still open (thank god they were!!) Overall, terrific climb with good conditions. Just a long long day. Gear Notes: Assortment of cams (various sizes up to #3), set of nuts, 2 pins (one which we dropped), 2 stubby screws (good placements on P1 and P3), etc. Approach Notes: Lots of snow still. Skiis for me and snowboard for Kevin made the last 3 1/2 miles down the road manageable after a long day. Good times!!!

Thanks for posting Dane. I am too lazy and frankly too busy in the evening to post. Good job. When are we going out again? Maybe some drytooling here locally? When I get pics from my Ouray trip, I'll do a TR.

No, we did not actually do Louise. First day in Graduate Gully was kind of a waste. Only one pitch worth of what you can actually call "ice"....versus if we did Green Gully, that would have been 7 pitches. We were actually looking to do 2 to 3 long "quality" routes in WI3/4 range. The only one we finished in its entirety was Professors. Heading back this weekend though...

Trip: CA Rockies Ice - Date: 2/1/2008 Trip Report: Last weekend, Kevin Hogan and I explored the CA Rockies for few days. We putzed around Mount Hunter area for a day and climbed the Graduate Gully. That turned out to be uneventful and looking back, we should have tried Green Gully instead (which looked pretty phat from the Beaverfoot Road). Second day took us to the Field where we climbed and played around on Massey's. Nice first pitch. Other climbs also looked good but avi danger was kinda high so we didn't explore much further. Few pics of various climbs... Pilsner Pillar, Carlsberg Column, Cascade Kronenbourg, and Heineken Hall (from left to right) Silk Tassel looking good. There was avy debris at the base of the climb later in the afternoon Massey's first pitch. It truely is "One Pitch Wonder" Since we had time on our way back to Canmore, we stopped to check out Louise Falls Looked like the 3rd pitch (pillar) was well kicked in In Canmore, we played around at the Junkyard for a day... Kevin playing on mixed stuff As a finale, we did Professor Falls. Classic route but very wet on the first 2 pitches. In very good condition but because of its popularity, there were total of 10 people on the route. Hiking in (Kevin and John Freeman) Pitches 1, 2, and 4 visible Me on Pitch 4 lead Tracy Jacobson following John's lead John Freeman on last pitch (ended up being pitch 9 for us) Overall, fun trip but we definately did not get the "mileage" we were looking for. Gotta go back soon!!

Thinking of heading up to Leavenworth area. Anyone been up Mountaineers Road? Hubba Hubba? Mountaineers Creek Drainage area? Thanks

Yea, it probably is not a IV for sure. But BB's re-assessment of 5.8/M4 seems right for the crux. We were suspecting that the conditions were much different few years ago. It seemed about 9' to the first fixed pin, thus requiring one or two moves to get to it. We did place one nut just lower then the fixed pin in the right hand crack for extra pro. The second pin is few feet beyond that. If the rock step is one body length, one must be Yao Ming with platform shoes! =) Any other suggestions for AI climbing in the CA Rockies? Shooting Gallery, Andromeda? Thanks

Here are the pics from the climb. The Rockies guidebook rates this Grade III, 5.4. The conditions we were climbing, it was atleast Grade III+, maybe IV, and the rock band is 5.7/5.8. NF in the morning...looking good!! We exchanged leads all the way up...this about pitch 3? Kevin nearing the rock crux...which is to the right (just left of the thumb rock sticking up) Quick shot of Silverhorn. Beautiful day Me, glad to have the crux section behind us. Almost home free. Kevin, topping out!! Looking back along the summit ridge. Wow, this climb was fun.

Well, its September now and I was also wondering what the current conditions of AthaB NF route. Anyone have pics or beta? I did not see any MCR reports recently of the NF. I'm planning September 15/16 weekend. Historically, is that too late?

Just came back from Adams Glacier attempt. My partner felt very ill so we barely made it out of camp before turning back. The glacier is very broken up. With this weeks warm spell, this route could very well be "out" for the season. IMHO. I will post pics of the route tomorrow when I have more time.

Nice! I can't imagine skiing down the northridge....but then, I can't ski....though I can hang with the best of them on my snowboard. Very cool TR. thanks

I can always count on you Bala =) Thanks, it looks like we are headed there on Sunday/Monday. Either Adams Glacier or Lava Headwall...though i'll look into Stormy Monday Couloir as well. Eiji

OK, sorry guys but I'm too lazy to do my own research. What's the approach on this route? what TH? Is this route located near Adams Glacier and North Ridge? Thanks,

When are you thinking of going? Looking for partners? I've been wanting to do that route for some time. I'm like you, waiting for someone to post TR on this route.

David, you're going up in couple of weeks? Good luck!! Hope the conditions will be "most excellent" for you guys.

Failing on this route last year (due to late start and time, we only made it to the base of the first pitch before we bailed), Kevin and I have been trying to get back to "Git'er done". Kevin had couple friends (Justin and Mike) in town from (NY and Cali) this weekend and was looking for a 4th man to make 2 rope teams of 2. When he asked me if I wanted to come along, I jumped at the idea. We got started at 3am Saturday morning in drizzly conditions. Weather looked really good by the time we got onto the glaicer but soon after, the clouds rolled in. We waited for 45 min to 1 hour for visibility to improve (lost time!). Just when we thought the conditions improved, the clouds rolled back in. It was frustrating but we had to get moving so we did. It had snowed anywhere from 6-8 inches on Friday so the glacier was pristine clean. Really felt like winter/spring conditions. We broke trail across the glacier but the going was slow. All 4 of us got on one rope and Kevin and I took turns breaking trail. We punched through couple of times and with variable whiteout conditions, made travelling difficult and dangerous (more wasted time!). We took the "high" approach to get on the snow slope that leads you to the first ice pitch. This slope was very unconsolidated due to the new snow and made all of us nervous (in fact, this slope and the lower Coleman Headwall released later in the afternoon). We broke above the clouds at about 8,000 ft and the weather was fantastic at this point. However, it was getting late in the morning, I think around 11am and we were not even at the first ice pitch! We contemplated for 15 minutes of whether to continue or bail. Mike didn't like the idea of downclimbing the slope we just climbed up. We were looking at atleast 3pm summit but the whether was quite good and no wind. We were all tired at this point but we made the decision to continue. At the base of the ice step, we broke into 2 rope teams. Kevin lead the first pitch with Justin behind him. Good confident sticks, good screw placements, and he was up and over the first ice step. Justin followed him with good confident climbing. I followed their lead and led the same pitch with Mike also doing superb job on the ice behind me. We encountered route finding issue at the base of the second pitch (more wasted time!). It was early afternoon by this point and we had to get up and over and find the descent route. We found an easy route by going to the right of the second ice step and soon, we were traversing the upper Coleman and onto the summit plateau. Boring descent down the regular ColemanDeming route and we dragged our bodies back to the car, eventually making it back 18 hours later. Fun route but very long for a one day ascent. I would definately recommend 2 days. Our biggest challenge was the route finding across the Coleman. It was tricky and took lots of time. Ice is in good shape. Enjoy the pics.

Friday's storm dumped about 7+ inches of snow on the upper mountain. The wind loaded slopes up to a foot. In fact, the Lower slopes of Coleman Headwall and the snow slope below Northridge released (likely slab avi) Saturday afternoon (we were descending after our successful attempt of Northridge). Wait atleast until this weekend to let the snow settle. Otherwise, the conditions look good. Beware of crossing the glacier. Very tricky route finding and we punched through couple of times.

Yup, it was fun. My knee feels lot better now! Thanks for letting me lead the dihedral. We'll climb again soon. Still eyeing Baker NR or Coleman. Have fun at your sons baseball!

Trip: Stuart Range - NE Couloir - Argonaut Date: 6/11/2007 Trip Report: We had plans of doing Coleman Headwall but weather Sunday looked iffy so we opted for our back-up plan. Nice moderate climb of Argonaut via NE Couloir, East of the Pass. I know there's couple other TR's so all this post will do is show current conditions of the route for anyone interested in doing this route in next couple weeks or so. First narrow constriction. Easy mixed climbing involved. Chris waiting for my slow ass. Showing current condition inside the couloir. 4th class scrambling to the summit. Snow free. On the summit in 7 hours from TH. We soloed the couloir and went to the notch, where we climbed up the 5.6 dihedral. Descended down the East Gulley just like "SmilingWhiteKnuckles" on his previous TR. Overall, a fun outing. Another warm spell and this route may go out of shape though...

Alex, good pics. thanks for sharing. By any chance, do you have any wide shot pic showing Fuhrer Finger? Eiji

Have you climbed it recently? How broken up is the glacier? On May 12 - we made a beeline to the base of the route. Unfortunately, on that day, I came down with a terrible cramp in both my legs, and had to turn back. got any pics of the route now?

Looking for a partner(s) to do Baker North Ridge or Coleman Headwall June 10/11, weather permitting. Preferrably with experience on steep ice. Contact me at eiji_sugi@tmo.blackberry.net or PM me We can talk about our qualifications/experience level. **Update** Partner found, thanks. Esugi

I was looking for someplace to place rock pro but....I may have missed it completely. My partner belayed me first but we ended up simul-climbing after not finding a good place for belay. Again, did I miss it???

Kevin and I had struck out on Triple Couloirs on Dragontail few weeks back due to weather and Coleman Headwall on Baker due to my leg cramps so we were desparate to get up something. We had been eyeing SGC for couple of months and after reading a TR, we decided to go for it. Weather was warm Friday and Saturday but the freezing level was dropping down to 5500 ft on Sunday night so our planned Monday morning ascent seemed perfect. Left the TH at around 2pm and got up to high camp at 6:30pm on Sunday. We ended up going through the boulder field...which is not recommended as I learned after this climb. After cursing and wondering through the boulder field, we found the moraine where the usual high camp is (at the bottom of IceCliff and Sherpa Glaciers). We woke up at 2:00am and off at 3:00am. Got to the base of couloir in 2 hours and headed up the couloir with me on lead. The bergschrund is easily skirted to the right. No problems. There's still plenty of snow and ice in the couloir. Following the soloist (John), we climbed the couloir to the notch with no problems. Thanks John for kicking the steps! Only thing is I wished I had 3 screws (I only carried one stubby). Approaching the first ice step. Climbing the upper portion of the couloir. Once at the notch, John (the soloist), was contemplating down climbing the west ridge after seeing all the ice on the summit pyramid. We offered to tie him in on our rope and our 2 man team became a 3 man. Summit Pyramid from the notch. Following the Nelson guidebook, Kevin lead pitch 1 across the Class 3 traverse. After the second pitch, we got off route and ended up going more towards the south side. Not recommended! Our variation consisted of short pitch of 5.9 exposed climbing. With a 3 man team and being off route, we wasted a lot of time. Eventually, we found the correct line and reached the summit. Overall, a fantastic climb through the couloir but somewhat frustrating and our pitch 3 faux pas cost us a lot of time!! Oh well, it was fun anyway. I was so tired though that I did not get back to the car until 9pm, just beating the light of day. Gear Notes: No snowshoes, 2 tools, 10 cm ice screw (should have had 2 more, 10 to 13cm), assortment of nuts, cams from 0.5 to 2, 60 m rope