[TR] Eldorado, Guye, Snoqualmie, Sloan - S Gully, NY Gully, West Face (FA attempt) 3/10/2017

[Marcus Russi]

Trip: Eldorado, Guye, Snoqualmie, Sloan - S Gully, NY Gully, West Face (FA attempt)

 

Date: 3/10/2017

 

Trip Report:

My friend and frequent partner-in-crime Riley and I met up in the Cascades from March 10-24th for our second season together learning how to climb winter routes. We were much more successful this year than last, managing to succeed 2 for 4 versus 0 for 2.

 

Riley wrote up a great TR of our experience here, including our sleeping-in-the-shitter, floating-in-a-tent, getting-towed-out Epic Failure on Eldorado: http://rjrice.com/cascades-take-two/

 

I want to advertise that the West Face of Sloan has ENORMOUS untapped winter route potential. Two lines have already been completed on the northern end of the face, but if you keep hiking farther south several great looking ice lines reveal themselves, all connecting on the upper half of the face to funnel into what looks to be a moderate snow gully which intersects the North Ridge. If was on this part of the face that we began our climb. If our line was a little fatter, I have no doubt that our route would go and be a pretty classic climb. If anyone else has been on this part of the face in winter I would love to hear about your experience. The approach only took us 3.5 hours including 1.5mi of skiing on the road, making access comparable to other great Cascades winter faces like Dragontail and the NW Face of Snoqualmie.

 

Red is us, green was where we wanted to head. Photo: John Scurlock

 

The hanging dagger was absolutely massive. Photo: Marcus Russi

 

Gear Notes:

Sloan: singles to 2", nuts, 3 pins, 9 screws, 1 picket, 8.7mm+6mm tagline

 

Approach Notes:

Sloan: Easy by winter cascades standards

Edited May 1, 2017 by Marcus Russi

[Rad]

Excellent!

THIS is the spirit: "The mere act of daring to try something new felt like cracking a door into a new world"

Hope you get back to one of those big lines on Sloan.

 

 

 

[Bronco]

Sounded terrible, good job!

[Stefan]

Raining in the Cascades for winter--that will put hair on your balls. Good to keep at it!

[wayne]

Thanks for the thrill of the possibility of this getting climbed someday. It was a dream of my younger years that is now still alive for the next generation! I made a strong attempt long ago.

[Priti]

Yeah! I agree, THIS is the spirit! You guys rock!

 

It's too bad it didn't go this year, last year was a lot better for ice. I hope you get on it in the future! Thanks for sharing

[kukuzka1]

nice. that 3.5 hr approach is only after the snow melts on the mt loop road. its an extra 8-10 miles? if its closed, correct?

[Marcus Russi]

Thanks, everybody! I hope to see this line finished sometime soon.

 

kukuzka: I dunno, it was our first time on the road. We came from the Darrington side and there was no snow on the road 'till after we turned off on FS road to the trailhead.

[kukuzka1]

in official winter there will be a gate about a mile before big 4, unless its an unusual dry warm winter, so its a full day (or more) of road skinning to get to the summer trailhead. although snowmobiles are allowed here. if not into this, maybe wait till early spring(but still winterish up high)

[Ryan Hoover]

Tried to car to car this route a couple years back. We ran into the same situation on where you guys backed off. Continued up the pitch with some m5 moves on a good piece that led to a full 70 meter pitch of unprotectable 1-2" thick AI4+ to below the dagger. Ended up digging for quite awhile to even find something to resemble an anchor. My partner busted off the snice while seconding and took a little TR whipper.

 

Ended up making some time killer mistakes and had to bail. Good potential, but expect tricky protection and anchors on this face as well as some very thin sections. I was hoping a later season would improve conditions on the pitch you guys opted out of.

 

The dagger was twice the size when we were there and looks pretty devious when the sun hits it... By the looks of your photos, it's probably on the fatter side then usual, although the dagger looks to have broke.

Edited June 9, 2017 by Ryan Hoover

[Jacob Smith]

The west face of Sloan in winter is the real deal.

Awhile back I wrote about my experience there

https://fringesfolly.com/2016/05/18/choose-your-own-adventure-by-jacob-smith/