Michael Telstad Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 (edited) I'll keep the beta spray brief since there is sufficient info out there on both routes involved in this climb. On Sunday the 4th, Eli Spitulnik and I hiked then skied out to Colfax with an idea I had schemed up the week before. We planned to climb the first ~80meters of the Polish route (Link, Link), then traverse a snow band left to the pitch 4 chimney of Colin's route Kimchi Suicide Volcano which we would then take to the summit. The combo worked out better than we could have imagined, and we both think this is one of the most quality alpine mixed routes we've climbed in the cascades. The nature of this route allows it to go in normal conditions, where the Polish or KSV would not be in. We hope that it'll become a popular way to climb this face as it has much more actual climbing than the Cosley-Houston, for a slightly harder grade. Here's some pretty pictures. Blurry, but you get the gist Eli about to cross the bergschrund Following P1 Myself taking the spindrift straight to the face starting pitch 2 Eli traversing over to the KSV chimney. Entering the squeeze Eli carried the pack like a champ through the rime tunnel Wild rime daggers threatening to collapse on our heads while we tunneled Eli after exiting the tunnel into the sunlight Pleased to be on the summit and in the sun. Tagged the East summit on our descent Rack: 9-12 screws, single rack .2-2, nuts, selection of kb's and beaks (very helpful for anchors). If you don't like long sections of unprotected snow climbing, a picket or two may come in handy for the upper slopes. In less rimed up conditions more rock gear should be available. In our conditions cams from .4-1 would have been sufficient. You may be able to climb all the way up to the ledge traverse in one pitch with a 70M rope, otherwise we had a single 60. Edited February 6 by Michael Telstad 4 1 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marko Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Great idea! For sure we all gotta get high for any (sub)alpinism these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonG Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Wow! That looks high quality. Great photos! How far could you drive up Glacier Creek road? Did you ski up the summer trail(ish)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Choada_Boy Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Wicked!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 Awesome! Great pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostbolt Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 Excellent Job and that exit shot of the chimney is priceless! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Telstad Posted February 10 Author Share Posted February 10 On 2/6/2024 at 9:01 PM, JasonG said: Wow! That looks high quality. Great photos! How far could you drive up Glacier Creek road? Did you ski up the summer trail(ish)? The horrifying thing is we hiked on the "summer" trail for 2 miles before putting skis on. There was more snow on the road in October this year... Great year for access to the alpine if you can look past everything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonG Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 So you could drive all the way to the TH @Michael Telstad?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug_Hutchinson Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 Nice work Michael and Eli! Visionary to remove the need for the pesky Polish's dagger to be in. I'm giving you permission to upgrade it to WI4+++ but, this being Washington, no way can you call it WI5- 🙂 I fear for the aspiring moderate alpinists who attempt some of the WI4+/M5 routes put up in the last several years without knowing that WI4+/M5 is the new 5.9+/A2. 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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