Dragontail Peak TR

[Paco]

This weekend was the weekend. I wanted to end a six-week period of profound inactivity and I wanted to do it properly. I was super-motivated, something which had not occurred over the last six weeks. I wanted to do something long and moderately difficult. I wanted to do it solo. Triple Couloirs on Dragontail fit the bill. The climb was in good shape, and the weather for the weekend as forecasted was good enough.

 

The plan was simple: climb triple couloirs solo in a single car-to-car push. I would leave work at 5:00 on Friday, head home, pack, eat, and get jazzed up on caffeine so I could make it through the night. I was planning to forgo sleep Friday night so I could climb through the night.

 

So Friday rolls around, I leave work, and the plan is set in motion. Shortly thereafter I’m packed, fed, one cup of Joe down, and a liter of English Breakfast Tea is ready for the ride. I’m off.

 

The skies are clear and there’s a half moon at 10:30 when I leave the car. I don’t have to use my headlamp until I enter the woods at the Colchuck/Stuart Lake trailhead. When I reach Colchuck Lake I notice that the skies are now cloudy.

 

It’s still dark and will be for a while when I get to the base of the hidden couloir. About 100 ft. into the couloir my hands are cold. I’m still wearing my fleece approach gloves. It’s time to switch to the warmer pair. I take my pack off, pull out the warmer gloves, and, “Fuck!,” there goes one glove sliding off into the darkness. “Fuck. How far did that slide? I can’t tell. Fuck. Hopefully I’ll find that one on my way out. I’ll just have to use the thin fleece glove for my left hand.”

 

After climbing maybe 1500 ft. or so I see what I think is the entrance to the second couloir. I head up this onto ice and neve. “Damn, some of this is pretty thin and not well bonded. Where did all this spindrift come from? Fuck, now I know why jackets come with hoods. Too bad mine didn’t.” Above this section I climb up a 200 ft. snow couloir. It ends in a rock band. “Fuck, this ain’t right. Let’s continue up anyway and see what we see. I don’t want to have to reverse some of those last moves if I can avoid it.” Up I go. “Damn, this is dicey.” I climb through, getting hammered by spindrift, and realize that there is no way I could downclimb what I just came up. “You’re committed now fucker.” Time to fail upwards as Mark Twight might say. There’s more spindrift. I continue up through a few more rock bands and snow patches until reaching the East ridge. From here I climb over the ridge through a small notch, and downclimb the south side for 200ft. of moderate snow, ice, and rock to lower angled snow slopes below.

 

The climbing through the rock bands involved dicey mixed climbing. The rock bands were moderately steep and covered in any combination of ice, neve, or powder. All of it was thin, a lot of it was not well bonded, some of it was hollow, and none of it was good. Thankfully it turned out to be good enough.

 

After heading down from Asgard Pass I traverse over to the base of the hidden couloir and found my glove. Sorry, no booty for you!

 

Needless to say, Paco got a little more adventure than he had bargained for. I’m glad that I can tell you about it instead of the AAC in Accidents of North America.

 

Have Fun and Climb Safe.

 

 

In an attempt to figure out just where on the Northeast Face I climbed, I have put together my best recollection of what occurred.

 

I climbed up the hidden couloir about 1500 ft. or so, and then followed a short couloir for about 100 ft. that angled off the hidden couloir at about 30 degrees. I passed a pink, weathered rap sling abandoned in the rock to my right near the top of this. Exiting this couloir involved climbing neve and ice for about another 100 ft. to a second couloir. This couloir headed straight up for about 200 ft. and ended in a rock band. I climbed the rocks to a snow patch that angled slightly up and to the left with another rock band above. I opted to climb the rocks directly ahead. I first tried climbing near the right hand corner, but this looked too difficult so I traversed left approximately 50 ft. to lower angled rock. I climbed this to second, smaller snow patch. Above this was another rock band that I climbed to reach a narrow snow patch that stretched horizontally across the face below the ridge crest. I traversed right about 30 ft. to the top of a steep narrow couloir and a notch in the East ridge. I climbed through the notch and then down climbed moderately difficult snow, ice and rock for approx 200 ft. to the lower angled snow slopes below. From here it was an easy downward traverse to Asgard Pass.

 

The best that I can figure is that I climbed a line on the Northeast face above the hidden couloir that pretty much followed a direct plumb line from the prominent notch in the East ridge to the hidden couloir below approximately 100 to 200 ft. left of the second couloir of the Triple Couloirs route.

[JoshK]

Paco, good meeting on sturday, sorry it didn't turn out how you hope. If it makes you feel any better, shortly after you left, we spent the next 18 hours stuck in the tent. The weather turned to crap and got even worse on sunday despite the weather forecast.

[Bug]

Right on Paco. Followed your tracks for a ways then baled when my arthritis kicked in. Wish I could have watched but the clouds were thick when I headed down. You must have climbed in some snowy moments.

[MysticNacho]

Phew! Right on!

[COL._Von_Spanker]

JoshK said:

Paco, good meeting on sturday, sorry it didn't turn out how you hope. If it makes you feel any better, shortly after you left, we spent the next 18 hours stuck in the tent. The weather turned to crap and got even worse on sunday despite the weather forecast.

 

Didn't turn out? Sounds like it turned out better. He got to the top and took a more badass line.

 

Nice work dawg.

[leejams]

Pretty damn good I would say for not being out for awhile. Good job and you even got your glove back. Glad you picked Friday/Sat cause Sunday it was Crap up there.

[JoshK]

COL._Von_Spanker said:

JoshK said:

Paco, good meeting on sturday, sorry it didn't turn out how you hope. If it makes you feel any better, shortly after you left, we spent the next 18 hours stuck in the tent. The weather turned to crap and got even worse on sunday despite the weather forecast.

 

Didn't turn out? Sounds like it turned out better. He got to the top and took a more badass line.

 

Nice work dawg.

 

Yeah, that's what I told him too. Sounded more interesting than triple couliors proper. Unless I misunderstood, I thought Paco told me he didn't go to the top, but veered off onto the east ridge than down. In any event, I think he got his climb's worth.

[mattp]

I bet that less than one party in ten continues to the actual summit after climbing the Triple Couloirs, North Face, Backbone Ridge or any other route in that area.

[Paco]

I passed on tagging the summit. After climbing up and over the ridge I just decended down the other side. Come to think of it after all of that I didn't even think about going for the summit from the south side.

[TimL]

Nice job Paco. Fri/Sat was the money cause Sat/Sun sure sucked.

[COL._Von_Spanker]

The 'top' is always open to interpretation.

[plexus]

So now that you kicked the six-week inactivity bug and are in shape, what crazy-ass stuff you gonna climb now?

 

Good job, it's amazing what you can pick your way up when soloing and past the return-point.

[rr666]

you Rock!!! great T/R, glad you made it through all right, even though you found a creative way up.

[mattp]

Sat/Sun wasn't all that bad up high where the "snow" fell as some kind of graupel or something rather than rain. The winds were generally pretty moderate and there wasn't more than an inch (maybe two) accumulation. Not much for visibility, though.

[plexus]

Mattp,

 

you're right, at least up north it wasn't too bad, once you got above the freezing line. The slog up sucked in the rain (just one of those days that no matter what you weared, you were going to get wet, either by your sweat or the rain).

 

Probably about two inches of new on the way down, made for nice ski back to truck. Avy conditions were a lot better than we thought they'd be, considering there was a bit of new debris from the past warm spell.

 

Couldn't see crap from summit though and got to a point that I couldn't tell the angle of the slope.

[JoshK]

mattp said:

I bet that less than one party in ten continues to the actual summit after climbing the Triple Couloirs, North Face, Backbone Ridge or any other route in that area.

 

OK, great, whatever. You guys seem to think I am bagging on the guy or something. I told him right to his face that he climed something harder and more impressive than triple couliors. I was duly impressed. In case it wasn't clear, paco, sweet climb. I'm sure the bed felt mighty nice later that day, eh?

[texplorer]

Good TR, thanks for not mention how extreme it was. Sometimes the best times are the worst of times. Great job keeping it together and coming back to tell us your story. This is the kind of shit that this website should be about.

[klenke]

Maybe Paco can enlighten us on this image:

[cs]

Nice job Paco......