rocky_joe

Trip: Dragontail Peak - Serpentine Arete Date: 9/25/2009 Trip Report: In a last weekend of summer hurrah, Thomas (Maineiac) and myself made our way up to the Enchantments for a little bit of an alpine fix. In usual fashion the trip was an interesting one, with lots of twists and turn, both planned and unplanned, along the way. A few online conversations, phone calls and email had given rise to a brilliant plans, a plan so crazy that it just might work. As our mutual favorite artist was to be playing a show in SE PDX on Wednesday night, we made plans to drive up and hike in thursday, climb fri-sat and drive out saturday as well (in order to get to PDX in time for free beer at the Ice Fest). Wednesday: Leaving Eugene at 5pm we arrived in PDX around 7:30. only one stop was made along the way; a stop by Mendeg's house in SE to pick up some new cams (thanks again Gent!). We got to the venue around 8 (about 3 mins before they opened) and we rudely shooed out of the place by some mangy fixie kid, fuckin hipster. After deciding that leaving a car full of gear parked on morrison was less than brilliant we drove over to a garage in downtown and parked there. We made our way back over the morrison bridge, stopping only for some $2.50 pints along the way. back in the SE at 9, the show had yet to start so we found ourselves seated in the fine establishment across the street: Sassy's. What a place that is, cheap drinks and cheaper women--suits us just fine. A few dancers later we made our way to the show. It was fantastic and with it behind us we could now focus on the task at hand. Thursday: The drive up to Leavenworth was fine, not much traffic through Tacoma or Seattle, but not much as far as views through most of the pass. Once in 11worth the clouds had cleared, and God is that a weird weird little place! Great brats and beer, but damn, I've never seen (nor have I wanted to)so much leiderhosen (or how ever it is spelled). A beer was drank and a brat eaten and we found ourselves back in the car and on the way to the TH. the TH was fairly empty and we made quick time getting on the trail and good time to Colchuck; about 1hr 40mins. Views of the mountain are, as I'm sure a good number of you know, stellar. Absolutely one of the most gorgeous places I've seen. We set up camp, had some dinner and studied the topo and the mountain. Sleep was good and we definitely heard some goats outside the tent doing whatever it is those things do. We woke a wee late (on trail by 7am) but made fair time getting to the route and were scrambling up the first ramp by 8:45. God that moraine is steep. We roped up rather early and pitched out the upper 4th stuff before, through and after the gulley. Being rather new to alpine rock, neither Thomas nor I felt entirely comfortably simuling anything that might be a bit spicy. The climbing was easy and we decided on a little mid 5th variation just before the 5.7 OW. Good call that was, a little interesting chimney with a fun internal crack system. The crux pitches went really well, Thomas took the lead on the hardest crux pitches; his lead head and confidence is quite a bit stronger than my own. I was happy to let him lead, while I carried the back pack and cleaned. The 4-5 pitches of 5.6-5.8 are really fun climbing, a few tenuous moves, a few exposed, but mostly really fun solid locks and jams. Above the difficult stuff the climb gets, how do you say, interesting. The TRs I'd read had definitely mentioned the difficult route finding, and they aren't kidding. this proved to be the crux of the climb. So, being a bit in doubt of where the climb went I took the "lead" through the easier stuff and followed the two route finding rules I could remember: follow signs of people and areas free of lichen. Keeping this in mind we went up, up and away (from the route). So turns out that the two reasons that rock might be lacking lichen are, a) people climbing and b) water flowing. Bet you can't guess which one we ended up following. Not only was I following the lichen free rock, I kept seeing relatively fresh foot prints. In no way would I describe our ascent as fast. Was it efficient? For the methods we chose (pitch most all of the climb out) we were pretty fast, but again, despite the climbing being easy, we weren't comfortable simuling most of the terrain. Everything was going pretty well, until the sun decided to go down. God that made things fun. Then I bonked. And if we needed more encouragement we found brand spanking new rap slings, apparently the party ahead of us was off-route and bailed here. So much fun at this point it was intolerable. Then Thomas called down from the sharp end, "hey dude, it's really steep up here, I don't know where to go." ---- "FUCK! Reallly?!?! Alright dude, set an anchor and bring me up." I get to Thomas about 20 metres later and find him standing between some flake and a super steep headwall. To the left is a slab that has a big bulge and the only climbable feature (at least for us) is a short OW. To the right is a steep (80-85) flake system...looks even harder. We initially resign ourselves to an on-route bivy; but in the end (about 45 minutes later) I lift my head and say, "fuck it, get me the gear, I'm aiding the fucker." The crack went pretty well, a little modified French freeing and I was to easier terrain. Then the summit; bliss. I belay Thomas up and we celebrate that we will be sleeping on the summit and not in some God-aweful squeeze chimney. I dunno how much warmer the summit was, but it was nice to be able to lay down. And I know what you're asking yourself, so I'll spare you the curiosity, we took turns playing Jake Gyllenhall: things got REAL cozy in that space blanket. A few hours of uncontrollable shivering and the sun was up. God it was nice to see that sun. The next beast we tackled was the descent. The Beckey guide just says follow class 3 ledges down to Ass-guard pass, too bad it didn't say which way the ledges were. As the left looked like it would definitely send us over the glacier we elected to go skier's right. After a few hundred feet it cliffed out and we did three raps. Solid slings at the first two and then a 2 stopper and tri-cam anchor at a hanging belay about 30m off the ground. Quick descent from there littered with encounters with hikers asking if we were the headlamps on the mountain last night. Honestly, I can't see myself going up Aasguard for fun anytime soon. We got back to camp and made the best meal I've had in a good long while: TunaMac. So good after no food for a good long while. All in all, the climbing was fun, the scrambling sucked and I am now a lot more confident in my alpine skills. I don't feel we made bad decisions, our lack of speed was largely due to lack of practical experience. Perhaps we should have selected an easier route, but I'm stoked to have this one under my belt and have put a lot of this year's goals into perspective. Pictures to come later. Gear Notes: double from #2 metolius to #2 C4 and a #3 set of stoppers and a few hexes bunches of slings Approach Notes: Stuart TH

Don't get down on yourself. One day without exercise is not bad at all. And the fact that you noticed you didn't exercise shows how amazingly far you've come in just 9 days! Well done. keep up the work. and a shot of kalua sounds like another huge improvement from 6 beers a night. you're doing awesome. keep it up, it's really awesome reading about what you're doing for yourself and family!

dexamethasone is also NOT used to treat HAPE...it is used for HACE. and they'd have been dead mere minutes after their coughs became productive. also, never heard of sending rescue teams to four different routes for one party on the standard route, much less having them carry nitroglycerin stolen from the pakistani army. the movie was laughable, the first scene was def hilarious. also i have trouble trusting my orange metolius now...rofl. i'd keep going on, about base camp, lack of balti sherpas, wearing ski resort jackets and fleece, a million helicopters in every scene, the cliff jump, old man climbing steep ice with a rope but no pro, cutting ropes, crevasses that are rocky caves on the inside, but that would take all day. instead i'll say the only correct thing in the movie was Ed Visteurs saying "this is stupid."

what time were you coming down the mountain?

Just had a wee epic (TR coming?) on Serpentine friday and can definitely say that, without 'pons and an axe there is no way to "walk-off" without hitting the glacier (solid ice) or going all the way around little annapurna (unacceptably far). Thomas and I rapped. The first is down skiers left at the obvious end of 3rd class ledges, it is three slightly aged blue slings around a bomber horn. about 20m to another decent ledge with one horn. The horn is well slung by old gear, but now has a bright piece of orange webbing to go with some red cord. about 25-27m to hanging rap. the station is interesting. we found a 2 stopper (#10, 5) and a pink tricam, "backed-up" by a worthless chockstone (i could pull it out of the crack. we added a blue stopper to the mix and rapped off that, the 10 and the tricam (small stopper placement was a little far down for the cord we had). bottom line on this station, cool rap from a bomb proof anchor. definitely a fair way to get off the hill.

If you're looking to do a little bouldering, there is a sweet crag on the north shore at Waimea bay. lots of different features, some stuff might be as hard as V4-5. didn't really get a good feel for it...no shoes and too many people. have fun.

my imagination isn't even a third as flexible as that 3rd photo.

pm sent on metolius cams.

these. also, have fun and be safe. welcome to the obsession.

Meh. Find one on that route for me that's recent. When you don't, I won't be mad. it's a terrible shame you didn't say in your TR that you were looking for a recent TR. Don't be mad, you didn't qualify your statement. Believe it or not, when you say "I couldn't find a TR on a route," and fail to include key words like September, this time of year, this date, similar conditions, etc. you kinda set yourself up for my comment. Anyhow, it wouldn't seem you've learned your lessons. DON'T CLIMB MT. HOOD IN SEPTEMBER VIA ANY ROUTE. South side was probably your "safest" bet. All the other routes WILL be DEADLY this time of year. Wait for the snow.

you couldn't find a TR? wow, now i've heard it all.

I've had it >4 times now and can get it healed in ~3 weeks if i do every thing right. go to PT, it helps a ton as there is only so much good you can do for yourself (in regards to deep tissue massage). top 5 things to do. 1.stretch your hip...patellar tendonitis tends to stem from tightness in the hips. 2. strength exercises that isolate the affected quad...this can help counteract the tightness in the IT band and hip. 3. rest, nothing worse for it than a run, or hike, well actually just don't have fun for a few weeks. 4. get a knee band asap...the strip one that goes over the patella. they're like 15-20 and help a ton. 5. if you can get your hands on some liquid (pure) DMSO...its fantastic. It is usually reserved for race horses, but I have a friend who works in a lab on campus and has access to it. what it does is penetrate the cellular membranes through your knee (or other place) and remove the free radicals that cause inflammation...tons better than any NSAID. apply topically. good luck.

Huck the Fuskies.

Exactly. Why even use a rope if its truly A6? Maybe we need a new grading system for stupidity. . Use a rope so you can get to the A4 pitches where it matters.

no such thing as A6. closed scale A5 = death of whole team.

Surprised King wasn't along for this go. Would think Thompson could go even faster with King along. For those who don't know, Max King is a world-class steepler out of Eugene...doesn't have another meet for a month or so...wonder how fast the two of them could go.

Ethics on an aid pitch are about as far from present as they are on a sport pitch.

Why the hell were you up there in August?

that must have been an awkward night...honey, you wait here...i'm gonna remover the adhesive residue from my tits, err...I mean slip into something more comfortable. that's it.

Watch "The Purist" funny stuff that. looks like this rising treeline business is good for some of us.

second the camp alpax recommendation. two buddies have them, great tool, climbs most AI stuff really well. Def has more clearance than either the venom or grivel tool for the steeper stuff.

nah man, you pretty much accused. there was one sentence in your original post that said "if it wasn't you." the rest was lecturing two guys who clearly know what they're doing and i'm assuming would never do anything in the alpine to endanger anyone. also, Sol and Jens, you guys are badass. that route looks stellar, thanks for the rock stoke!

god that hill is ugly this time of year. yuck.

lived in the area my whole life...never heard of em. does anyone else even climb in salem?

where's that second photo taken?