[TR] Strobach - Strobach D Approach Pitch 02/09/2020

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Trip: Strobach - Strobach D Approach Pitch

Trip Date: 02/09/2020

Trip Report:

 

It was my first time in there, figured it was a long shot but maybe still the best chance for ice last weekend.  Skied in the long road approach  towing a pull with my overnight gear with my buddy Mike on Saturday.  It was a long slow ski.  Camped at the end of the road with tasty pork chops and plenty of wine.  Got up in the morning and did some crappy tree crashing on skis to get to the climbs (lots of knee high blowdown).  Stuff was mostly out but there was lots of water flowing and it was below freezing so it seemed like things might come back.  A few things probably climbable for someone with more balls or less rusty ice tools.  We finally settled on a consolation of the easy approach pitch on “Strobach D” which I think has a new name and an ascent now (last flow on the right side of mother lode).  The actual pillar was a tiny bit thin for us in the middle but I bet is great now.  We also had fun TRing the mixed corner right of the approach slab ice.  Here are some more pics, you all should get on it!

 

 

Also that approach was long both ways and too flat to ski down easily for half of it.  You could probably drive the road except for the signs saying it’s closed to all vehicles except registered snow mobiles.  Might be more snow this weekend though.  Maybe the other approach is better in these conditions?  I didn’t see any flagging or anything and the forest after the road end sucked with little snow.

Gear Notes:
Ice gear, camping gear, skis

Approach Notes:
Ski five miles up the road as in WA Ice, then crash through trees for a half mile.

Edited February 13, 2020 by OlympicMtnBoy
Trying to get pics to work

[JasonG]

The meal looked worth it!

[genepires]

8 hours ago, JasonG said:

The meal looked worth it!

the wood is so wet that it can be used to support the frypan over a fire and not burn?

 

[psathyrella]

Approaching strobach will always be a bit of an ordeal, but if you hew closely to the attached .gpx there is almost zero bushwhacking or blowdowns. It follows the route we flagged a few years ago (2015?). I think the main key is that if you go directly from the road to mother lode, you encounter a ton of blowdown, but this gpx track swings to the right, generally onto a berm/ridge on the climbers left edge of a large boulder field, and provides much easier travel. I was in there in early January this year, and was surprised that almost all of the flagging was still there. It's not that much help if there's any snow on the trees/bushes, since you can't see most of it until you're right on top of it, but you're never more than twenty meters or so from a piece of orange so you can use it to verify that you're on the right track.

strobach.gpx

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Cool, thanks for sharing that!  We went in the milk creek/lost lake approach and tried two different ways from the of rd. 609..  We'll try your way next time.