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Big Four Spindrift Couloir TR


layton

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SOMEONE PLEASE CLIMB SOMETHING ELSE AND CHANGE THE SUBJECT!!!!!

 

Seriosly, we all are climbers and that's that!!!

 

Too much inbreeding on these posts will make us turn on each other.

 

NEW TOPIC! NEW TOPIC!

 

How 'bout the Yoccum TR? Huh! Wow! Or the NY Gully TR! Those guys are needing some serious harrasing too! wave.gif

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cry.gifsome people cry when no one responds to their thread cry.gif

 

Warhol said "All Publicity is good" or was it PT Barnum.

 

You should be glad your TR has sparked such interest. I am already planning to see tickets to the Natural-Perkins "Did they Dog The Fuck out of it or was it easy or what" battlecage boxing_smiley.gifboxing_smiley.gif

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I'm sorry but there is not overhanging terrain if you take 1 of probably 5 natural lines up the gully in question. The crux step is very similiar to the first pitch of guiness gully in Field, Often thin but never harder than WI 4+. You are always on your feet. If there is no ice on that pitch you could easily skirt it to the left! The ice(if its there is just the easiest passage). The Cornice on the other hand can add some spice!! We did not have to tunnel. but from the looks of the pics we exited further to the left. There were cornices there when we climbed it but there is a less odvious exit to the left that we took.

 

dale

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Hey folks:

 

I was off line this weekend and totally missed the news reports and this TR until today. As a three-time loser on N. Face of Big Four in winter, and a veteran of a fairly well-known non-rescue by helicopter after climbing J'berg N.E. Butt in July '99, I think this story is a classic. I'll bet you boys had pine needles in your undies after that much thrutching around. I'm glad someone climbed that stupid mountain this winter. And for what it is worth, I would think a grade III+/IV rating would be about right for any of the routes on the N. Face in winter in average conditions.

 

Cheers, and be safe.

 

John Sharp

 

 

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Not to change the subject, but I'm curious why you tried to descend the N. Face. Seems like it would have been far easier to descend the east side "Dry Gulch route" to the climber's left.

I've been up there in the winter, and it's much easier going than dealing with the endless trees and bushwhacking of the N. Face.

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Tom-

Actually, I believe the NW Ridge descent is probably both easier and quicker than traverssing over the summit and descending the dry gulch route. I have talked to folks who have done it both ways, and it sounds as if it is not exactly trivial to get from the top of any of the N. Face routes over the crest of the peak and down to the Dry Creek descent route. The Spindrift is on the far right side of the N. Face, topping out a fairly long way from the actual summit, so this would be all the more true for that route. Although Mike and Matt had the unfortunate luck of getting sucked down into the wrong drainage, the NW Ridge is actually a fairly reasonable descent for anybody who belongs on the North Face in the winter!

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It'd be some serious effort getting over all the way east, like Matt said. I'd do the dry gulch route if I did a N.face route on the left side of the peak, like Alan Kearny did in his book. Just climbing the subpeak on the left looked like a serious climb. See the photo I posted earlier on the thread of the summit. The NW descent is pretty easy if you don't f^ck it up.

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I have also heard that depending on conditions the the route Alpine Tom suggests (Dry Gulch on the Mtn's NE side) can be a very good descent route.

 

Of course if you're not going to the summit (ok by me) then Matt's suggestion makes good sense.

 

Fun to speculate.

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Either way Jim,

If there's a rumored cascade III book coming out, I would avoid sending people up the debated "far far right" line which looked like vertical tree and snow climbing death to me. Doug L. has concured that he did the same line we did and I will be speaking with Bart P. soon who will hopefully be in agreement as well. I think everyone knows which one Spindrift is when they see it from below. It's the obvious, prominent couloir on the right hand side of the mountain. Unless of course Bart makes a better case next week. We'll see. And I personally wouldn't wish that Dry Gulch descent (from the top of SD) on my worst enemy. It would take forever from the right side of the N. Face topout.

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You could be right that there are times when the Dry Gulch route would make a good descent route, Jim, but I would stress (as you pointed out) that it would depend on conditions. A friend of mine once climbed the gully between the two north ribs, which i think tops out quite close to the summit, and he reported that even from there, it took a fairly long time to traverse the peak and reach the Dry Gulch descent; he said a descent back down the North Face (not even the NW Ridge) would have been much easier on that particular occasion and he opined that he would plan to descend the N. Face rather than the Dry Gulch if he ever went back.

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Okay, I just looked at the 1997 AAJ for the route topo of Spindrift Coulior. I know there's a lot of confusion as to what route it actually is.

On the photo with the route line drawn, it shows the route I took, along w/everyone else who claims to have climbed the Spindrift Couloir.

BUT, the topo they drew shows a different line. One that tops out to the right of the rightmost saddle between the two peaks. It tops out on the slope heading up to the rightmost peak. I looked at a bunch of photos including my own and I see 3 other lines to the right of the gully I climbed. The one immediately to the right connects runnels leading to the ridge. The two to its right are steep lines directly on the face of the rightmost peak. All three look very steep with lots of tree, shrubs, and cliff bands.

 

I would either assume that the gully I climbed is the one that Doug and Bart did, or they did the one to the right and misdrew the line on the photo of the face.

Either way, reading their description, looking at photos, and looking at both their topos...nothing adds up to a clear conclusion.

 

What do you think. Mr Natural? Anyone else notice the discrepancy in the AAJ's photo and topo?

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Dru said:

well, whatever anyways. aren't the routes on that face about 5 meters apart anyhow tongue.gif i thought this was alpine climbing!!

 

sounds like alpamayo "my snow flute is a new line, no mine is" yellaf.gif

 

does that mean it is okay for us to grid bolt it now??

 

rockband.gif

 

the_finger.gif

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