Raoul Duke

Oh well. Make that a cinder block sitting in a wheelbarrow of infinite stupidity. Just click the links...

Picutres; I hope this works, but I'm about as computer savvy as a cinder block. Like I said, nothing impressive... My rotten attorney making lude, childish gestures at the offending clouds: Looking up at the face in the erlay morning: Closeup of the runnels: First pitch, and the last picture we took on the face: Getting really really excited to hike out at 11pm: Oh, in my gear notes I forgot the first aid kit: we had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls. Hopefully I fixed these great pictures-TTT

Trip: Dragontail - Northwest Face Date: 4/22/2007 Trip Report: My buddy Noah and I climbed a route up the northwest face of Dragontail on Sunday, generally staying left of Backbone Ridge. It snowed on us Saturday night up at the lake, probably a couple of inches. I understand from other recent posts that others found conditions unacceptable this weekend, but when we got up at 5 on Sunday it was clear, windless, and we decided to go for it. We started pretty low on the face, aiming for a pair of iced-up runnels at mid height that are obvious from the lake. We snuck around the first serious rock band by using a short snow couloir on the right, then traversing leftwards on a snow bench for a couple of simul pitches until we found a corner system that was iced up enough to work with. To our surprise, this turned out to be crux. First, I lead a pitch up a short, smooth corner with a little iced up crack. This involved some not-so-fun lie backing and half a spectre in some turf as the one piece of pro. After that we moved up a short stretch of snowfield, really a snowed-over slab. That brought us to the base of another corner. This was Noah's lead, and an impressive one. The gear was VERY marginal, and the corner just barely held ice; the hardest moves involved camming the picks in a crack and balancing the feet up on verglassed rock. Nasty shit, in my humble opinion. There may well be an easier way to access the runnels we were going for, but this pitch brought us a onto a nice little snowfield where we could relax and take a breath. Or in my case, a smoke. From this point the route started coming together really nicely...the crap conditions on the lower face gave way to some thick, bomber snice in the steeper sections. We simuled through snowfields and the runnels that we had seen from below, stopping every 300 feet or so to change leads. There were small steep sections, and the last two runnels we climbed in the middle of the face were real water ice, solid and incredibly fun to climb. Might have even taken screws! A bunch of simuling thorough this kind of territory brought us to a snowfield below the Fin, and the corner system running up its left side. This yielded more snicey terrain, until we encountered a steep section that had no ice in it. This was a little cruxy (again, Noah's lead, big high-five) but it deposited us at the base of TC's third couloir. Ran up that to the summit, just in time to see the sun to set above the clouds. In general, I guess we found the face in "acceptable" conditions. I don't think we were too close to either of the routes described in the WA Ice book, at least not in our finish...maybe closest to Beckey's Northwest Face route? We found some fixed pieces in the lower runnels and also in the rocky corner below the third couloir of TC. We didn't take many pictures because the goddamned clouds fogged up the lens, and besides we were trying to be businesslike...but I'll try and post what we have. All in all, a great route. Gear Notes: Bring your knifeblades, and be ready for some run outs. Approach Notes: We biked Mountaineer Creek Rd. The hike out after breaking camp sucked ass. Got back to Seattle arround 6:30am Monday morning.

There is nothing further right, except Backbone ridge and the Fin itself. Let me rephrase: where, in reference to the marked route in BJ's picture, does the Cotter-Bebie route ascend the higher part of the face?

Were the upper couloirs out of shape, forcing you onto a bad-ass line, or did you take the bad-ass line by choice? Either way: bad-ass line, and great pics. Speaking of Dragontail, anyone have beta on the Cotter-Bebie route described in Washington Ice? I believe it finishes up the corner/groove to the right of this variation...

Hey Jamin- I think you summitted right after my dad and I on Friday- if so your TR left out the part about the free beer half way through the descent! It looked to me like you two descended the chute pretty safely, good call with the short belayed sections. These other guys are right though- south side of Hood is a nice, straightforward Grade II. I haven't done liberty ridge myself, but these commitment grades exist for a reason; why not get on a few grade III's before trying a IV, a few grade IV's before trying a V? Climbing Hood last week wasn't the hardest, give-it-everything-you've-got route I've ever done, but I still had fun, know what I mean? At any rate keep climbing and keep safe!

we were up there on 2/18 and there was still some stuff worth getting on, but probably not for long...