JeffreyW

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1150895/TR_Patagonia_El_Chalten_Cerro_#Post1150895

Sweet trip you two! Lookin good! Gotta put this on our Wish List

Way to go you two! I like the minimal bivy setup Just gotta watch out for the jimmy leg...

Awesome! Thanks for the info. Still debating on bringing a toy ice axes for the complete N Ridge this weekend. Was it really necessary for the upper slopes?

Just came back, here is a report with conditions. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1150168 Let me know if you have any other questions. Cheers!

Just came back, here is a report with conditions. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1150168 Let me know if you have any other questions. Cheers!

Just came back, here is a report with conditions. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1150168 Let me know if you have any other questions. Cheers!

Added some photos. You have some awesome pics on your TR's. What camera do you use?

Bravo/Angel Glacier, SE Chimney Direct, TD- (V), 50deg snow, 5.8 (all ice/mixed, ~M3-4 AI2-3) Scribe/Photos/Climbers: Jeff and Priti Wright After several weeks of indecision for our summer climbing trip, trying to follow good weather but only finding unstable weather everywhere, we finally decided to head out to the Waddington Range in central British Columbia. Mike King, the illustrious pilot for White Saddle Air is very accommodating and was able to get us out there at the last minute. At 13,186ft tall, Mount Waddington is the highest peak in British Columbia and a Beckey 100, what's not to love? The technical climbing lies in the final 900ft on the mountain's Summit Tower above 12,300ft, which requires some amount of acclimatization. We were optimistic and set our sights on the Waddington Traverse, a classic, intense enchainment of the area's most foreboding summits (Waddington, Combatant, Tiedemann, Asperity, and the Serras). With marginal weather in the forecast, we scoped out our bail options along the traverse and decided to go for as long as the weather would allow us. In the end, the weather was so terrible that we summitted Mount Waddington on July 5th and traded additional peaks for wet, stormy, miserable festering for several days on the remainder of our trip. The stoke was high on July 1 when we got off of work on Friday, so we decided to drive the 11hours to Tatla Lake (in the boonies of central BC) over Friday night. White Saddle Air was promptly able to get us out onto the Tiedemann Glacier near Rainy Knob which sits at the base of the Bravo Glacier on the South side of Mount Waddington. The goal was to climb the Bravo Glacier to the summit pyramid of Mount Waddington, climb the SE Chimney to the summit (the 'standard route'), then descend the Angel Glacier to the Waddington-Combatant Col, an aesthetic carryover/traverse of the great mountain. The first two days (July 3-4) were extremely low visibility with a thick overcast that would occasionally let up. So we effectively navigated for two days on a complicated glacier via the arrow on our Suunto watch (pre-recorded tracks) and the iPhone Topo Maps+ app as a backup. July is still early season for the Waddington massif, and the glacier travel is notorious on the Bravo and Angel glaciers even in early season. View of Tiedman Glacier (middle), and Bravo Glacier with Rainy Knob (left) Above Rainy Knob Navigating the Bravo Glacier in low vis Lots of wallowing and sketchy, circuitous crevasse crossings brought us to the giant looming cirque of steep snow and rock above the Bravo Glacier, called The Cauldron. The notorious bergshrund crossing to mount the steep snow passage was relatively easy thanks to our early season arrival. About 100m of 50deg snow takes you up to the southeast ridge of the mountain. Above The Cauldron, we set up our first camp in the Bravo Col just behind Bravo Peak: exposed, windy, but flat. The Cauldron and the steep snow passage to the southeast ridge Camp 1 at the Bravo Col High up on the SE Ridge above Bravo Peak View across the Tiedeamann (left to right): Combatant, Tiedemann, Asperity, Serras 1-5 Bravo Peak/Bravo Col (left) and Spearman Peak/Spearman Saddle (right) After a windy first night that made us feel like we were in the Star Wars trash compactor scene, we woke to thick clouds, low visibility, and variable winds. Since we only had half of our glacier slogging behind us, we figured we would make the most of a crummy day and shave off some of our summit day elevation by plodding up icefall and glaciers with only our watch to guide us through the thick haze. We could barely even see our feet on the ground. The going was slow, but we shaved quite a bit of elevation off our summit day and set up our second camp at the Spearman Saddle, another notable flat spot on the southeast ridge. We called back to White Saddle on the radio and got a report that the following day would finally be a good weather day, so we boiled lots of water, got lots of sleep and set ourselves up for a summit push the next day. The third day (July 5), we woke up to blue skies, calm winds and our first view of the summit after two days of slogging up a glacier in overcast conditions. To our surprise, the summit pyramid was covered in rime ice and snow. This is supposed to be up to 11 pitches of up to 5.7! Don Serl says of this route in his guidebook, "When rimed, all bets are off!" But for us, it just looked like fun ice and mixed climbing with good practice for Cerro Torre. The route starts with "3-4 pitches" of class 3-4 on a rock ramp below one of Waddington's sub-peaks called The Tooth. Of course, this was all snow and ice. The bergshrund beneath the ramp was completely open, except for a thin, chandelier step of ice to gain the snow ramp (maybe AI2-3, 20m). Most parties don't come here with 2 tools per person, but it was necessary in these conditions. It also looked like the ice step could be bypassed by taking a mixed gully climber's left then traverse back right to get back into the snow ramp. Thick clouds would still come and go, covering the entire Summit Pyramid in a grey veil, so we sat at the base for an hour waiting to get a good view of the route and making sure the weather was going to grant us passage. At the late hour of 1:00PM, we started climbing the ramp, crossed "the notch" between The Tooth and the Summit Tower, and climbed a blocky, low-angle ridge to the base of the SE Chimney all in 2 simul-pitches. View of SE Chimney route Open bergshrund beneath the ramp: start in the thin vertical ice on the left to gain the ramp The SE Chimney is about 60m of "5.7", which was then pasted clusters of rime ice and snow. Two crux chock stones provide entertainment in the chimney so we each took one of these clean leads. Jeff took the first chockstone lead which had a stuck rope in the thin ice spilling over the precarious block. Chipping away a few inches of the rope from the thin ice and girth hitching a runner to the exposed rope seemed like a bomber way to protect this part! Several stem moves against the chimney walls, two good tool sticks, some quick breaths and a pull up on two tools got you on top of the chockstone and up to someone's bomber 1-piton anchor. First chockstone pitch: climb as a stem chimney with thin ice Priti took the lead on the 2nd chockstone which is an icy, tight squeeze and mostly a psychological challenge: grasping for picks above the hole with your crampons dangling mid-air and kicking in vain for any purchase. Second chockstone pitch (icy squeeze) Top of the chimney above the second chockstone and just below the Chimney Direct pitch Above the chimney there are several options, and we took the fun, obvious Chimney Direct as opposed to circuitous, easy snow ramps (also, we just couldn't find the "easy snow ramps"). The Direct Finish is 20m of 5.8 (felt like M3-4 as a mixed pitch) with 3 bomber pitons which can be used as aid. The Chimney Direct short pitch with 3 bomber pitons for aid (5.8-ish clean without rime) Above is just two 60m pitches up easy snow to the summit (rope drag forces you to pitch it out). Sure, we had fun, but we were so ready to get the funk out of there. So we snapped a few pics and started the rappels. Honestly, we had a few moments where we considered bailing early because it was so dang cold, it was so late, and we were so exhausted, but we had no legitimate excuse with clear skies, no wind, and no precip. The fear of quickly oncoming nightfall should never be an excuse to bail! Snow slopes above the chimney near the summit Summit Smiles! The Chimney can easily be rappelled as one 60m rappel (starting at the base of the Chimney Direct anchor) with minimal risk of rope stuckage. The rest of the low-angle rappels proved to be much more difficult. Most parties rappel the "Wadd Hose" (Harvard Notch Direct), but we were worried our 60m double ropes wouldn't make it over the gigantic bergshrund under the Wadd Hose, so we rapped the 3-4 class ramps below...all...night...long. Folks, a little tip, never rap anything lower than 5th class, instead just downclimb it. At the time, rappelling felt natural because 3-4 class terrain in mixed conditions in the dark feels really hard! We definitely wished we had taken the normal Wadd Hose rap route, and instead shenanigans ensued filled with stuck ropes galore. We pulled down our last rap at the bottom of the bergshrund just as the sun was rising on a new day. It was a long cold night, but at least the weather held out! Note: The Wadd Hose (Harvard Notch Direct) route is OUT! The bergshrund is fully open and detached. If you're going to rap the Wadd Hose, then aim to exit the climber's left side of the bergshrund (narrowest and least overhanging on its left side). The Wadd Hose (standard rappel route from the Notch) is completely out for climbing; if rappelling, rappel climber's left The fourth day was equally beautiful, and we set up the Direkt 2 for a nap bivy under the Summit Tower before descending the Angel Glacier via the Firey Route. Around 4:00PM we headed along the base of the Summit Tower up a steep snow/ice couloir ("The Stroll") to gain the upper portion of the Angel Glacier. This couloir actually proved to be one of the cruxes of the whole route: steep, sustained ice. Heading up "The Stroll" to gain the top of the Angel Glacier "The Stroll" up to the NW Summit Descending the Angel Glacier was a long, fun exercise in knee-deep plunge-steeping. The Angel Glacier angles sharply in a heinous maze of sketchy seracs and pencil thin snow ramps and bridges. This is the most dangerous portion of the whole trip with seracs ripping down at all hours of the day. Clouds kept rolling in and reducing our visibility to nil. So we would batton down the hatches and open bivy until we could catch a glimpse of the one sketchy line down this death trap, take a picture of the maze, memorize our route (which turns, which bridges, etc), hold our breaths and gun it down to the Waddington-Combatant Col. The Angel Glacier requires really good visibility to get around the seracs (going up or down). Descending the Angel Glacier Gnarly serac descent down to the Col from the Angel Glacier We had 4 more days in our trip to attempt the Traverse or at least climb Combatant via the mega-classic Rock route Skywalk, but instead our luck ran out and we festered 3 nights/2 days in a terrible snow storm and got an early ride out. Our little Direkt 2 tent barely held up, but was a trooper for sure. A few nights, we didn't sleep at all because we were propping up the poles and walls (even with lots of guylines). The Waddington-Combatant Col is and exposed place to bivy, subject to high winds, but safe from ice/rock fall. On the seventh day (July 9), the ceiling lifted just enough to get the chopper up to the high Col where we had our pathetic bivouac on this gigantic, football field wind tunnel. The views out were stunning! It was quite an adventure. Looking down the Waddington-Combatant Col at the rappels View of stormy Combatant from the Col Waddington-Combatant Col Campsite at the Wadd-Combatant Col (Bravo Peak to the right) Aerial View of Bravo Peak and North Face of Mount Waddington Gear Notes: -Standard Rack, 2 KB's, 2 ice screws, 1 picket -2 ice tools + vertical mono-point crampons (per person) -Double Ropes (due to the high likelihood of stuck ropes) -Suunto GPS watch with pre-recorded tracks (clutch!) -Topo Maps+ app with maps downloaded -1 hiking pole for lead glacial slogging -Didn't bring snowshoes or skis, but we were wallowing knee deep about 40% of the time. Snowshoes could be useful if doing glacier routes. -White Saddle Air provided us with a complimentary radio. It was quite heavy, but in the end, we were SO GLAD that we had it. It was invaluable to call back and get weather updates every day and also change our pickup location when weather prevented us from getting to our originally intended pickup spot. Highly recommend taking their radio

Dang! Really wanted to climb this one today, but it is out!

Awesome accomplishment and great TR! Priti and I wanted to climb Polish Route or Ford's Theatre today but they were both out Cosley-Houston was marginal and packed! Polish Route was just super thin and looked aerated, with a huge moat at its base. Decided not to attempt it. Also, no dagger!

Trip: Dragontail Peak - Direct North Buttress "Iceline Bling" WI5+ M4 (FA) Date: 4/3/2016 Trip Report: Climbers: Priti Wright-led 1st pitch (WI4) Jeff Wright-led 2nd pitch (WI4) (scribe/photos) Craig Pope-led crux 4th pitch (WI5+ M4) (photos) Went up to Dragontail Peak looking for some new ice! Camped at Colchuck Lake and got the bino's out. We spotted a nice-looking line just climber's left of Dragontail's toe. Ended up being 5 pitches (most were 60m) with 2 sustained pitches of WI4 and one thin crux pitch of WI5+ M4. After the crux pitch, easy snow leads to the first couloir of Triple Couloirs just below The Runnels. Super fun route! We've done lots of research and found no evidence that this line has been climbed. If anybody *knows* that this line has in fact been climbed before, please *respectfully* leave a note (with evidence, if possible), and we will definitely correct this TR. Thanks! Priti leading up the first pitch (WI4) Following, higher up on the first pitch Jeff leading up the second pitch (WI4) Craig and Priti following the second pitch Craig moving the belay on easy snow (P3) to the base of the crux pitch Happy Jeff Priti following the gnar on the crux pitch (P4, WI5+ M4) Craig on an outcrop where "Iceline Bling" meets Triple Couloirs Gear Notes: Took rock pro and pitons pretty well. 6 screws (10cm, 13cm), small alpine rock rack, KBs, Spectre Approach Notes: No snow on Eightmile Rd 3/4 of the way

Trip: Colchuck Peak - Holsten-Hilden (new link-up?) Date: 4/17/2016 Trip Report: Climbers: Jeff Wright (scribe/photos) Priti Wright (photos) Spent 3 glorious weekends on Colchuck Lake in April climbing ice. While climbing Gerber-Sink the previous weekend we spotted this sweet ice line on the NE Face of Colchuck between the North Buttress Couloir and the NE Couloir (commonly incorrectly referred to as NE Buttress Couloir). It connected to an upper snowfield to the North Buttress. The following week, we scoured our books and the web if it had been climbed, and no sign of any activity... ever! Stoked on our potential first ascent, we went back to Colchuck Lake for the 3rd weekend. From the trail, we could see that the upper snowfield had an easy snow gully to get up onto the North Buttress. From there we could hopefully traverse out onto the NW Face to the summit. Everything was spectacular. Great ice! Turns out it's really fun to climb with no beta sheet and no beta. The 2 lower ice pitches were 2 sustained 60m pitches of AI3+, the snowfield was cruiser, the snow gully exit onto the North Buttress was a non-event, the traverse onto the NW Face was cautious but straightforward (with less snow, it could be tricky mixed climbing), and the staircase to the summit on the NW Face (connecting to the North Buttress Couloir route) was exposed, fun steep snow. Descended via normal, East Route. After the climb, we asked Jens Holsten if he knew if it had been climbed, and in fact he and Dan Hilden climbed the 2 lower pitches in 2011 but then veered left onto hard mixed terrain to the summit (instead of the snowfield we took to the North Buttress). Their report is here: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1011755 Perhaps this is a new linkup? If you can't climb M6, but are looking for AI3-4 ice, and Gerber-Sink is packed, then this is a really fun, cruiser, elegant line with sustained ice. Alternatively, you could just climb the first 120m of ice and bail. It will likely consistently come in, so look for it next year! Approaching the base First pitch Second pitch Higher up on the Second pitch. Lots of great options. We went right around the corner. The upper snowfield Near the top of the upper snowfield. The exit snow gully is visible leading to the North Buttress Colchuck Col, Dragontail Peak, and Pandora's Box Gear Notes: 2 stubby's, 6x 10cm screws, 3 KB's, 1 picket. You can probably unrope at the base of the upper snowfield. Route does not take rock pro well (flared cracks). Approach Notes: Snow on road from last bridge to trailhead (approx the last 1/4). Likely no more snow on the road. Colchuck Lake Trail. Up towards Colchuck Col, head up to the moraine and continue directly to the base (don't follow the moraine).

Great overlay, Jenny! Your description was perfect. That yellow descent line is exactly what Priti and I did. Very mellow and seemed like the natural way down. Once past the short, 4th class U-turn (no more than 20m), hike the 3rd/4th terrain down the gulley. Key is to hug skiers left like you said and not get sucked down those gulleys. The gulleys look like cliffs from above, so they're not very enticing, anyway. Once at the field, we had to stay traversing skiers left for quite a ways (past and over the waterfall) to get back on the trail because the field is above slabby cliffs. Thanks!

Awesome pictures! Great work you two. Hope our paths cross again some day. Cheers

Trip: Colfax Peak - Cosley-Houston Date: 5/10/2015 Trip Report: Left the car at 4:15 for a car-to-car ascent of Cosley-Houston on Colfax with my wife, Priti. The route just saw an ascent this past Wednesday and we figured this will probably be the last weekend for the route. Perhaps it has one or two weeks left in it, but the ice was pretty crummy and aerated with lots of air pockets. From a distance, Polish still looked pretty good, but I really can’t say. This was probably the last half-decent weekend for the year for the Cosley-Houston route, especially if it stays warm/above freezing. I figured we’d have company on this route, and sure enough we were joined by an awesome climbing pair from Oregon. If you really want some last-minute WA ice this season, try to get on Cosley-Houston this week ASAP! View of Cosley-Houston and the open, lower crevasse and upper bergshrund Baker-Colfax Upclose of Polish (left) and Cosley-Houston (right) Perfect boot pack conditions. Skining-up probably would not have saved much time and you might have needed ski crampons for the early morning crusty snow. No snow on the trail. We attempted this route unsuccessfully two weekends ago only to be physically pushed back on the glacier by trying to kick fresh steps in waist-deep sludge 2miles up the Coleman, but this time conditions were perfect for kicking steps (and most of the steps are already there). Base of the climb (lower ice + crux pillar) Base of the climb at 9:00AM. To get to the base of the climb, go all the way right around the large, open crevasse below the bergshrund and then all the way left to walk around the ‘shrund. The lower pitch below the crux pillar has audible flowing water underneath the ice, but it was easy enough angle to allow for crummy snice. There is also an easy snow walkup alternative on the right to get you to the pillar. Priti leading up crux pitch The crux pillar was non-stop streaming water drops and light ice flurries. The ice was very aerated with lots of air pockets, but the screw placements were solid once you find one without air. We set up the first belay just below the shrund on the very left side. Priti killed it leading up the crux pillar. The first 25ft is the hardest at 90deg, then it levels out on the upper half of the pillar and gets way easier. We pitched out just at the base of the pillar, then just above the pillar, then at the base of the upper ice pitch, then halfway up the upper snowfield below the rock butress, then simul to the summit (5 pitches). The upper ice pitch above the couloir was much easier and shorter (about 15ft), with several different options from AI3-4. Me leading up last ice pitch Belaying up on upper steep snow exit Final simul off the steep snow. Summit is just around the corner on the left. Summit False Summit of Colfax just below. Boot path stays South (right) of the ridge to get back down to the col. Summit 2:00PM. The descent was trivial. Boot path the whole way down Colfax and the Coleman-Deming. Routefinding off Colfax is easy, just stay south (right) of the false summit. Perfect plunge-stepping conditions. Mashed potato ski conditions in the late afternoon. Crusty corn snow in the morning. Back at the car 5:45PM. 13.5hours car-to-car. Polish up close. Looks pretty decent still. Gear Notes: 8 screws (perfect), 2 pickets (could have maybe used 3, but you can get away with 2), half rack of nuts (useless), pins (useless), .3 and .75 (useless on the climb itself, but we found places for them along the exit upper steep snowfield which allowed us to simul out of there and not have to pitch out the snow). You can’t put any screws in on the middle couloirs and the upper snow field (no ice), and the pickets hammer in vertically about halfway, but solid. I couldn’t find any good options for pins like I was expecting from reading earlier TRs.

Left the car at 4:15 for a car-to-car ascent of Cosley-Houston on Colfax with my wife, Priti. The route just saw an ascent this past Wednesday and we figured this will probably be the last weekend for the route. Perhaps it has one or two weeks left in it, but the ice was pretty crummy and aerated with lots of air pockets. From a distance, Polish still looked pretty good, but I really can’t say. This was probably the last half-decent weekend for the year for the Cosley-Houston route, especially if it stays warm/above freezing. I figured we’d have company on this route, and sure enough we were joined by an awesome climbing pair from Oregon. If you really want some last-minute WA ice this season, try to get on Cosley-Houston this week ASAP! Perfect boot pack conditions. Skining-up probably would not have saved much time and you might have needed ski crampons for the early morning crusty snow. No snow on the trail. We attempted this route unsuccessfully two weekends ago only to be physically pushed back on the glacier by trying to kick fresh steps in waist-deep sludge 2miles up the Coleman, but this time conditions were perfect for kicking steps (and most of the steps are already there). Base of the climb at 9:00AM. To get to the base of the climb, go all the way right around the large, open crevasse below the bergshrund and then all the way left to walk around the ‘shrund. The lower pitch below the crux pillar has audible flowing water underneath the ice, but it was easy enough angle to allow for crummy snice. There is also an easy snow walkup alternative on the right to get you to the pillar. The crux pillar was non-stop streaming water and ice. The ice was very aerated with lots of air pockets, but the screw placements were solid once you find one without air. We set up the first belay just below the shrund on the very left side. Priti killed it leading up the crux pillar. The first 25ft is the hardest at 90deg, then it levels out on the upper half of the pillar and gets way easier. We pitched out just at the base of the pillar, then just above the pillar, then at the base of the upper ice pitch, then halfway up the upper snowfield below the rock butress, then simul to the summit (5 pitches). The upper ice pitch above the couloir was much easier and shorter (about 15ft), with several different options from AI3-4. Summit 2:00PM. The descent was trivial. Boot path the whole way down Colfax and the Coleman-Deming. Routefinding off Colfax is easy, just stay south (right) of the false summit. Perfect plunge-stepping conditions. Mashed potato ski conditions in the late afternoon. Crusty corn snow in the morning. Back at the car 5:45PM. 13.5hours car-to-car. Gear: 8 screws (perfect), 2 pickets (could have maybe used 3, but you can get away with 2), half rack of nuts (useless), pins (useless), .3 and .75 (useless on the climb itself, but we found places for them along the exit upper steep snowfield which allowed us to simul out of there and not have to pitch out the snow). You can’t put any screws in on the middle couloirs and the upper snow field (no ice), and the pickets hammer in vertically about halfway, but solid. I couldn’t find any good options for pins like I was expecting from reading earlier TRs.

Nice job Dana and Andrew! Word is getting out! We climbed Cosley-Houston yesterday May 10. Heard from several people along the approach that Ford's Theatre saw it's second ascent on Saturday May 9 with skis on their backs (Discllaimer: we did not hear from the climbers themselves, so this information could be incorrect). The only evidence was that we saw their fresh tracks coming up from above Ford's Theater onto the exit steep snowfield and joing with the Cosley-Houston exit.