[TR] Dragontail Peak - Serpentine Arete 7/8/2017

[Nick Sweeney]

Trip: Dragontail Peak - Serpentine Arete

 

Date: 7/8/2017

 

Trip Report:

John and I climbed Dragontail's Serpentine Arete in 24 hours car to car on July 8th. We should have brought crampons, which would have made things safer and saved time. I expected the descent to take 4 hours from the summit to the car, based on my experiences on this peak in early Spring conditions. It actually took us 8 hours! A painful learning experience. You can see my full trip report and photos on my site: Spokalpine

[Daphne H]

Woo, thanks for the TR! I'm headed to the area this weekend and couldn't find too much info on DT. Sounds like an awesome (epic) trip!

 

So based on your picturse it looks like crampons are something i'll definitely want to bring... how about shoes? Do you think the snow is shallow/hard enough for approach shoes or are boots better?

[Nick Sweeney]

Hey Daphne, I would recommend bringing ice axes and crampons right now. We got away without crampons, but if the snow was much harder we would have been forced to bail. We used approach shoes, which should be fine for you. Boots are unnecessary unless you want to keep your feet dry on the descent. Have an awesome time!

 

[Vernman23]

I did it on 7/12 didn't bring crampons or and ice axe but did have trekking poles and found the snow to be very soft and no need for crampons or ice axe. I hit the bottom of the route about noon. Summit around 2p.m. so the sun had plenty of time to warm things up.

[Daphne H]

Thanks! We ended up going crampon-less and I definitely regretted it. Great route though! Made me definitely consider lugging the bigger pieces up and trying Backbone too...