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Dragon's Jaw FA 9/2/2024 by team: Alan Kwok, Chris Borg, Edward Toumayan I've just led a party of 3 up a line on the NE Towers of Dragontail I've been eyeing for a few months now. It runs about 700ft and shares a top out with Dragons of Eden but is totally independent. Based on looking through every available guidebook, MP, and CascadeClimbers, it appears to be an FA. I think this could shape up to be an incredible climb with some traffic. So get on it! Here's the full story: During a hike up to Asgard pass in 2023 I happened to take a picture of Dragontail. As this year is the year of the Dragon in Chinese Zodiacs, and it happens I was also born on a Dragon year, I looked up all routes in WA and OR containing the words "Dragon" and put it on my list for this year. That said, "Dragons of Eden" is one of the routes on my list, and as I went back to my photos to ID the route, this other line appeared (the square roof in the center drew my attention), and so I made plans to check it out on 8/12/24. At the last minute, I couldn't line up climbing partners, so I decided to rope solo the low angle terrain until it was too sketchy or time ran out. I really wanted to see the roof up close, and the twin cracks below it, too. I ended up starting at a tree that appears to be a rappel station for DoE, then traversed my way across the big slab and eventually up the twin cracks. It was mega. Although I wasn't too happy about all the traversing down low, the twin cracks were promising - splitter, wide, steep. And the roof appeared perfectly doable. Between some gardening and a lot of exploratory climbing, it took 6.5 hours to get to this point. So I put in some pitons and rappelled. Then I made a questionable decision on the ground - to complete the through hike. It ended up being a 21 hour day, with a fortuitously swift hitchhike at midnight to shuttle back to the Stuart Lake TH. I returned on 9/2/2024 with Chris Borg and Edward Toumayan on a successful ground up, onsight attempt. Chris and Edward both fell at the crux, but I ended up leading every pitch clean. We were stoked to find that the pitches linked up very naturally, the climbing was engaging and clean (but still alpine), and belays were natural and punctual. Additionally, we found an alternate start that was slightly more vertical though slightly looser. Route description below: Inspired by the hanging teeth-like formations throughout the route, Dragon’s Jaw is located on a steep section of the northeastern-most buttress of Dragontail Peak. If you are a jack-of-all-trades climber, this is for you. The route consists of face climbing, fingers, perfect hands, perfect fists, squeeze chimneys, roofs, underclings, laybacks, and stems in sustained moderate sections guarded by brief but powerful cruxes. It shares a top out and rappel with Dragons of Eden. To get there, hike to Colchuck Lake and ascend towards Asgard Pass. Cut right to cross the stream about 100 ft below the first set of cliffs on the trail. Aim for the scree hill to the right of the mossy stream beds. 3-4 hrs from Stuart Lake Trailhead. The route is between the starts of NE Buttress and Dragons of Eden, about 100ft to the left of the latter. For protection, bring doubles from .3-4 with an optional addition of 1, 2, 5. Alpines at least 4x 60cm and 1x 120cm. Pitch Breakdown P1 - “Approach Pitch” 5.9+, 45m: Follow a broken, but generally left trending, wide crack (5.7) that sits on low angle terrain directly below a prominent overhung slab, aiming toward a ledge on its topleft. Make an airy (5.9+) move right onto the ledge, then build belay with small gear. P2 - “Leaning Cracks” 5.10a, 35m: Head up the corner system, deviate left onto a rail feature 25ft up, and reenter the corner to meet two prominent cracks that are leaning “away” (5.10a). At the top of the hand crack, gain the ledge and immediately move left onto the face to follow a left-trending shallow crack until a fixed nut. Belay at the large ledge to the left of the fixed nut. The anchor takes .5-2. P3 - “Belly of the Beast” 5.10b PG13, 35m: Scramble up and make an unprotectable move (5.9 PG13) to gain the ramp at the base of the twin cracks. Then unload your entire bag of wide tricks through the cracks and a chimney, which protects within. Make a heroic exit by surmounting the “dagger”, a glorious protruding chock. Take a picture to send to mom, then move up and left to belay on small gear and pitons directly below the large roof. P4 - “Gaping Roof” 5.11a, 35m: Head straight up the right corner (5.9) with sinker fingers and good feet right where you need them. Place a piece out on the roof, shake out, and punch through this short but powerful section. Dance your way up another 20ft to a ledge and belay here. P5 - “Hands” 5.9+, 30m: Get into the rightmost crack above by stemming and reaching. Belay on a slabby ledge below a right facing corner. P6 - “Finale” 5.10b, 40m: Enjoy an easy corner crack to a ledge, then commit to the final crux - a well protected layback above and out right. Cracks on easing terrain lead to the rappel anchor of Dragons of Eden. Build your own belay anchor here as this route has a different direction of pull. Descent Rappel as for Dragons of Eden (double 60m ropes) or continue to the top of Dragontail Peak via Northeast Buttress. Misc Photos Start of P1 is about 10 ft to the right of where this photo was taken. (Notice the #6 - I used it on the solo run, but wanted to see if we could avoid using it on P3 - turns out, it's fine without a #5 or #6) Looking up at P2. In the twin cracks of P3 (having a yellow totem here saves on big gear). Chris on the "dagger" of P3. It's really solid! The Gaping Roof, P4, is the crux of the whole route. The right dihedral turned out to be the perfect line. The left dihedral would have led into quite a bit of meandering, and the right splitter crack (not pictured) has maybe a V6+ move to get into it - a different proj for a different time. Belaying from the top of P5. (Yes, you can sit at all but one of the belays!) Looking up at P6. The final route crux is right where the rope disappears. Topping out P6. The boys are happy about the dirt shower being over. Incredible lighting on the hike out. There were storm clouds to the west that just managed to let a slice of light squeeze by.

Left the cam on accident. Weather was getting bad and was moving in a hurry. I'll definitely buy you a six pack :-) here's what the sling looks like. It may have had a brassy on it as well but all of the gear was marked with black and red nail polish cheers! Ahren Swett

Climb: Dragontail Peak-Puff the Inflatable Sex Dragon Date of Climb: 8/23/2005 Trip Report: With Sharma and Davey G bailing on us to go on their summer European tour, our plans to burn incense and grid bolt super top-secret Renton granite were dashed. It appeared Eric (Lunger) and I would have to make other plans. It was a good thing gas was cheap, because we dream big. The Bugaboos, Canadian Rockies, the Sierra, it was all within the grasp of our greasy claws and my gas slurping ’91 F150. Since our country invaded and occupies one of the world’s largest oil producers, we can afford to go anywhere we want! Not so fast, son, said Eric. Petrol is at a record high and according to my calculations it will cost us approximately 1.2 million dollars to drive to Banff and back. It’s a good thing my climbing partner has a PHD in international finance. In reformulating plans, our long term goal of adding a sit start to Liberty Crack and renaming the route “Enumclaw Sex Farm,” just didn’t sound prudent as neither of us had really been bouldering much and everyone I know who owns a boulder pad sleeps on it in the back of their truck every night. Eventually, after drinking way too much coffee, consulting the oracle at Delphi and slaughtering lamb or two, we settled on making another attempt at the abstruse and phantom Dragonfly route on Dragontail. Eric and I had attempted the route late last year on a blustery late summer day. Unfortunately, our lazy 9 A.M. start from the trailhead didn’t prove effective as Eric repeatedly peeled off the kitty litter 5.11 funky undercling crux pitch. With the unknown still above us and only couple hours of daylight left we reluctantly fixed a couple nuts and bailed. We had, on the first attempt, gone a bit left (we think) of the original ascentionists line, adding a powerful 10+ variation pitch to the lower section. This year, when we got there, Eric, intended to find an easier line by going even further left. Unfortunately, he ended having to power through not only the 10+ section from the prior year, but groveling up another dirty 10+ finger crack to finish up the pitch. In the middle of this section, Eric took the BIGGEST WHIPPER I have ever seen in the mountains. I’m talking a rolling down the windows, calling the tower up to come in for a landing whipper. Some serious air time. Good thing the wall was steep, because Eric only ended up with some minor flesh wounds on his arm from the fall. Of course, Eric got back on the horse and finished up the pitch. All in all, a burly 5.11 affair indeed. Eric and I regrouped on the big ledge where the two crux pitches of Dragonfly begin. Even though the rock on the buttress is a bit dirty and flaky, some of the most beautiful splitters I’ve seen in the Cascades emanate from that ledge. I noticed a choice splitter starting on the far left side of the ledge, and since Eric and I were justifiably feeling a bit worked after the burly pitch and whipper, I suggested we climb it and try to take an independent line to the ridge. Eric concurred. The steep splitter would have been a four star classic at any crag if it was clean. I had to throw down a substantial amount of soil and vegetation to the belay, but I enjoyed the moves in between the plant matter. The splitter continued up a beautiful and featured steep hand crack with two roofs, but was dripping with black lichen and flaky rock, so I made some face moves and took a cool undercling around left to an easier crack with led to a small ledge and another undercling. Here I had to pull on some gear as the undercling turned into a blunt and smooth super awkward layback. Eric and I felt it would be solid .11 free. From there a 5.8 off width and some easier climbing led the ridge, where we simul-climbed on the northwest side of the ridge all the way to the notch at the top of the northwest colior. From there, we descended on some shitty kitty litter rock to the east to easy slabs and a short walk to the top off Asgard pass. All or some of our route may have been climbed before, so feel free to call us on that if you know. We did decide to claim a FA and name the route though, because the route was real dirty and we didn’t see any tat or fixed gear. Also, I guess it technically is a variation to the Northeast Buttress since it shares the same finish along the ridge more or less. Gear Notes: Standard Rack some extra small shit, but no pins this time. Approach Notes: Easy. I didn't whine once.