Reconnaissance on Dragontail Triple Couloir for May 2023 Climb

[Anton Koveza]

My buddy and I are preparing to attempt to climb Triple Couloir on Dragontail in the coming days. Has any been out there recently? Did 7601 road melt out? Any pictures of the north face of the mountain that you could share? Thank you in advance!

[DPS]

Scroll to the last couple of posts

[Anton Koveza]

Thanks DPS! "runnels look quite fat" is encouraging. We will post pics and debrief.

[Anton Koveza]

Quick report from out climb 5/6-5/7 via Triple Couloirs. Runnels are thin ice. We did them into 60m rope lengths. First rope still has some ice, but starting to thin out. Second rope had running water at 7 am and pretty much no ice. We had to dry tool and rock climb through it. Did not see any protection options for 20-30 feet on that 2nd rope.

Otherwise snow was in great condition; however, one has to note that 5 am temp at the lake was ~26F.
 

Below is first rope length on the runnels. There was another team of two on the route, in the image, who were our friends and very careful to not release rocks. They were pretty good, except for few small ice pieces. However, rock hazard is high on the route, especially with thinning runnels, indicating late season for this route. Rock on this route becomes flaky with less ice to hold it together.

Glad to see this release after someone walked on it. My assessment of root cause is "gravel" layer 5 feet down, which released with warmer weather. Hopefully this released weekend of 4/28-29, when it very warm and no one would think to climb this route.

Edited May 8, 2023 by Anton Koveza

[aikidjoe]

My partner and I watched you and other team for a while from the lake, having decided it was much too spicy for our taste. Nice work! 

[kmfoerster]

That had melted out substantially since I posted after I saw the photos/videos. I'm sure that hot weather nuked it. Does not take much.