mammothclimbs

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Trip: Dragontail Peak - Triple Couloirs - May 4, 2025 - Triple Couloirs Trip Date: 05/04/2025 Trip Report: This is more of a conditions report rather than a trip report, but I just wanted to post as I had not seen any reports since mid April, and was curious if the route would still be in when I was planning for this climb. I climbed the triple couloirs C2C on May 4, 2025. Approach on eightmile road is snow-free to Stuart Lake Trailhead. There are a few small patches of snow after Stuart Lake Trailhead (luring me and my partner into ditching our trail runners too soon), but then ~1.5 miles of mostly clear trail before hitting continuous snow. Snow on the rest of the approach is slightly punchy, but not terrible. Lake is not frozen enough to support weight. Snow in all three couloirs is in very firm and secure conditions. Pitch 1 of the runnels is presently easy ice, although not thick enough for 10cm screws. Pitch 2 has some easier ice in the bottom and top sections, but the middle section was delaminated snow/snice for which the only good protection felt like pins, and the slabby granite didn't feel super confidence inspiring. I found this section to feel quite insecure with difficult gear placements (I am not leading much more than ~WI4 M4 on gear in cragging contexts -- if you're well above this level, I'm sure this mixed section would feel reasonable), so I would consider the bypass if you're not a stronger mixed climber than I am. There was a thin layer of ice in the chimney of the 3rd pitch of the runnels which was extremely well-bonded to the rock and provided secure climbing. There were good anchors in the runnels exactly where you want them pitching it out with a 60m rope. The final mixed pitch between the second and third couloirs had relatively poor ice conditions (we made the mistake of traversing slightly too high), and I was happy to have a rope for this section. Descent was straightforward, but Asgard Pass was fairly icy, requiring care and a small amount of face-in down climbing in particularly icy sections. Pictures of the first and second pitches (for reference on the angle of the second pitch, the climbing was near-vertical after the fixed piece visible) of the runnels are attached, as well as a larger picture of the route. IMG_6037.HEIC IMG_6041.HEIC IMG_3622.HEIC Gear Notes: Recommended rack in current conditions: 2-3 angles, 2 knife blades, standard rack of nuts, few cams .4-2, 1-2 10cm screws, 2 pickets. Approach Notes: Approach described above in the text.

Haha, thanks. There are summer programs at a few of the major universities in Norway, and then there are a few folkehøgskoler (sort of adult education programs, usually taken following "high school" level) which offer language programs if one has a longer period. A lot of the major universities have scholarships, and then past that there's scholarships through different Norwegian culture institutions in the US that have some scholarships. The subset of people in the US learning Norwegian is quite small, so a lot of these scholarships don't seem to be too difficult to get as long as one can demonstrate a fairly dedicated effort towards learning the language. Haha, I wish. I will definitely be trying to take advantage of the beautiful nature as much as possible while there.

I got a scholarship so I'm actually going to be headed to Norway for a few weeks to take a course in Norwegian. Past that, I'll be back home working and hoping to get in a lot of harder (for me) dry tooling in this summer.

I didn't end up having the budget for my plans in Alaska this year, so I'll be spending more time in the PNW and Canada. I'll be in the PNW starting mid-May hoping to climb whatever subset of Curtis/Ptarmigan/Liberty ridge I could fit in/would be in acceptable condition, and then will spend early August in Squamish before heading to the Canadian rockies and hopefully climb the Kain face on Robson.

Awesome, thank you. Peak 11300 is the climb from that list that I had been most stoked on. Did you have any other climbs relatively accessible from the Kahiltna planned for that trip, or not if plan was run 11300 and then head up for the Cassin? It looks like there's a lot of good beta online, but I'll also probably try to get my hands on the Supertopo and take a look at beta for 11300 and neighboring climbs.

Hi everyone. I've just been looking at my plans for this summer, and have been zeroing in on the idea of a ~2 week trip to Alaska in early/mid May. I don't have much experience in the Alaska Range, so I'd love to get some feedback/sanity check with some ideas on what might be some sensible routes to look at. For my general background (have previous post with more background), I am consistently leading ~WI4 M4 ish in Hyalite and the Midwest, ~5.10 on gear in cragging scenarios, and have done a good amount of easy alpine stuff in the cascades and climbed the west buttress of Denali last summer. The routes listed below are a few that I had been looking at that seemed like they could be at an acceptable level of difficulty with the proper partner, depending on if they would still be in acceptable conditions by mid May. My main objective with the routes would be to get more experience on routes in the Alaska Range that would be good in the buildup to something like the Cassin Ridge. https://www.mountainproject.com/route/105997286/south-west-ridge https://www.mountainproject.com/route/120635482/bacon-and-eggs-on-mini-mini-moonflower https://www.mountainproject.com/route/113156880/west-ridge https://www.mountainproject.com/route/110994020/southwest-ridge Thanks for any suggestions and happy climbing.

Another fun Spring route you could look at if you're looking to get some more mileage on steep snow on Hood could be the Cooper Spur. I climbed the route two years ago in June (would recommend earlier in the Spring), and found it to be an enjoyable step up from the standard south side route at the time. The route follows a very obvious line, and has ~2000ft of snow increasing in steepness to ~45 degrees, until you get to the "chimneys" section near the summit which can be a little steeper. There is some rockfall potential on the route, so it's worth thinking through start time, if you're comfortable soloing the route (as mentioned in above post, unchecked fall very dangerous, but attempting a running belay on snow for such a duration is often impractical), route of descent, ... Otherwise, looks like a reasonable progression of routes, especially if you're working on your ice climbing in the meantime.

Messaged.

Curious to hear how everyone's 2024s have shaped up compared to plans at the beginning of the year. I ended up spending substantially less time alpine climbing than I would have guessed at the start of 2024. I climbed the West Buttress of Denali with some freakishly good weather in late May, and then ended up spending 2 months out in Squamish as my biggest weakness right now is just pure rock-climbing. Pretty stoked right now to head to Hyalite for a month or so once ice/mixed season arrives.

Congrats on the climbs. Super cool to have succeeded after more than 30 years.

This is a potentially ignorant question, but what changes in behavior would be expected of climbers now that reintroduction measures have been approved? Would it basically be along the lines of carry bear spray and double down on responsible storage of smellables. From an admittedly naïve perspective, these two factors would seem relatively negligible, so I would see the potential negatives of reintroduction as being primarily focused on potential mismanagement by NCNP, rather than the factors inherent in the reintroduction itself.

My schedule is not finalized yet, but I'm planning to be in WA for a few weeks early May before heading to Denali. I was just looking at lining up partners, and I'd be super keen to get out to the enchantments if conditions are looking good then, so I just sent a PM.

Ok, great. Thanks to both of you for the advice. I think I'm likely guilty of just looking at when I have off, and hoping that some of the routes I want to climb happen to be condition, so it probably makes the most sense to just evaluate conditions and decide where to head out to at the last minute.