[TR] Dragontail Peak - Dragons of Eden 07/19/2019

[Michael Telstad]

Trip: Dragontail Peak - Dragons of Eden

Trip Date: 07/19/2019

Trip Report:

Sean and I have been having too much success lately. So we decided to step it up a little bit and give DOE a go yesterday. We promptly got our asses handed to us, but made it up in reasonable time.

Taking our time on the approach due to a nice morning rain, we made it to the base in 3ish hours. I will say that this route has one of the shortest approaches in the range.

The first pitch is properly dirty and harder than it looks. Looks like 5.8, feels like 10- dirty.

The second pitch is so sweet! but like the rest of the route, needs some more traffic to make it even more enjoyable. There is a guillotine flake at the start that looks bad, but is solid, this is kind of a theme of the route. I linked this into the 5.9 pitch and belayed from below the crux on a big fat ledge.

Sean coming up to the pitch 2 belay in the sun! This wall is COLD and doesn't get any real sun until late in the day. This was the only sun we got all day.

From there we rested up and Sean gave the crux a solid effort, no send but that pitch is really fun and you're more likely to hit the pedestal as the follower unless your belayer isn't paying attention.

Looking up at me on the headwall. The whole headwall seems to be comprised of scary hollow sounding tombstone flakes. They are solid for now, but it still made it feel pretty heads up for me. The position is all time exposed if you build a belay in the middle of the pitch, which is what we did.

The second headwall pitch is hard and scruffy. Still a little crumbly, but takes great gear. I can't believe that Jens onsighted that pitch before it was properly cleaned, so awesome!

Sean trying to untie his knot. Psyched on life and ready to start the scramble up to the summit.

 

Can you spot Sean in his granite colored jacket? We soloed the NE buttress until this spot. I had read in Steph's TR about how loose the notch was, It is indeed absolutely horrible. The first hold that Sean grabbed in the gulley proper tore loose and triggered a big slide below him. To get around it he went up and right, then down-climbed to the rap station. We flicked the rope down and I TR'd directly up the notch. I can't stress how gross the rock is, but I guess it could be worse.

We brought a tagline to bail and haul a pack. This allowed us to make one full 60m rap down the other side. Still more loose rock but a pretty straightforward rappel. 

From where the route drops you, you don't need snow gear to get down. Some fun scree and snow skiing took us down to Aasgard and the usual jarring hike down the pass brought us back to our packs.

 

Overall it's a great route! Too hard for me to give a good RP attempt from the car right now, but I now have something to train for. Like others have said, with some more traffic this route would clean up well! I even think the average 10+ climber with some alpine aiders and a slightly bigger rack could have fun on it. Next time I come back I will probably rap the route. It was cool for both of us to top out since it was our first route on D-tail, but the NE-Butt is mostly just exposed loose walking and not a good route.

 

Gear Notes:
Doubles .3-3 and Triples .4-1 12 alpine draws Small set of nuts 60m 6mm Tagline

Approach Notes:
Around the lake and up to the base of the waterfall, then right over the waterfall and up some loose 4th class to the base. If you're gonna leave gear at the base, hide it under a boulder before you cross the waterfall.

[Matt_Alford]

Micheal T. sends the Dragon of Eden!  Does your mother have a clue what you are up to?  

Nice job throwing yourself at a hard project!

Mr. Alford ;-)

[Sol]

DOE takes no prisoners!!! Glad to see folks getting after it, not an easy route...!

On the 2nd ascent of the route Jens and I broke the headwall into 3 pitches and he onsighted from a semi hanging belay near the wide section thru the roof to the belay your using on the upper headwall. No way in hell we could have freed that upper bit without the scrubbing we did on our next mission. 

[mountainsloth]

Wild! Way to throw yourself at something like that. 

[mountainsloth]

Wild! Way to throw yourself at something like that. 

[Szyjakowski]

Sweet!

mountain climbing on the dragons of eden... what a place; what a rock.

good job Michael and Sean.