TR: Colchuck NBC

[Alex]

[JayB]

Great panorama.

 

You and TimL passed by just as I was zipping out of my bivy sack. What time did you top out?

[dalius]

Hey Alex, it's probably obvious, but I have to admit I'm a bit confused with your pano-shot. Which peaks are which here, from where was it taken, in which direction, etc?

[slothrop]

Ray-neer is the big one in the distance, Stuart is the big one in the foreground. To the left of Stuart is Sherpa, on the ridge from Colchuck. Dragontail is out of view on the far left side.

[sverdina]

Actually, that's Argonaut that appears as a high point on the ridge extending off of Colchuck. Sherpa is the distant but prominent hump in the ridge immediately left of Stuart.

[Alex]

JayB said:

What time did you top out?

 

9 am.

 

dalius said:

Which peaks are which here, from where was it taken, in which direction, etc?

 

This is the summit panorama from top of Colchuck looking S towards Ellensburg to W towards Snoqualmie Pass. From left to right, Ellensburg in the distance, lower Ingalls valley there in the foreground, then Mt Rainier in the distance with Argonaut real close and in your face. Moving right, Sherpa blends in with Stuart a bit, but its distinctive N ridge is easy to pick out. Then Stuart, its subsummit is small here and obscured by the scale of Sherpa. Just to the right of Stuart you see the higher Snoqualmie peaks in the distance, kinda drifting in and out of the clouds. Daniel, Chimney Rock, those peaks are over there.

[dalius]

Sweet. Thanks. I was confused because I was looking for Colchuck, didn't realize you were standing on it.

[klenke]

Photo from April 19, 2003. JayB, GregW, genepires, and Bronco ascending the NBC at around 10:00AM:

[JayB]

Thanks for posting that pick Klenke. If you look real close you can see me doubled over in a coughing fit.....

[dalius]

Climbed the NBC Sat, 5/3.

 

The weather was perfect. Forcast called for rain/snow and thunderstorms, but ended up being a pretty damn fine day, with lots of sunshine. You could see the clouds/storms breaking up to the west of Stuart.

 

The hike in was over solid hard snow. I was surprised to see that even Colchuck Lake was still frozen over and completely walkable. Don't know exacly when we started going up the NBC, but topped between 10 & 11? The NBC proper was pretty rock solid snow and ice in the lower half, with softer, but till hard snow in the upper half. The rock step 1/3 way up couloir that could be a problem later in the season is still cover in snow and ice, so you don't have to go over rock (yet).

 

Conditions were completely different once on the north face section. There was lots of fresh unconsolidated snow, don't know from when. I imagine that snow takes a long time to age up there. I think the sketchiest part of the climb was right after starting across and up this face, you had to step across some exposed sloping rock with little ice, snow for purchase, directly above some cliffs. You'd be so fucked if you slipped.

 

Was surprised to find the little bit of rock climbing at the very top. Made the route a little more interesting.

 

All in all a great alpine experience, in one of the coolest settings in the cascades. The views from all parts of this climb are amazing. This was my first time on snow/ice that steep, and I had a blast. I highly recommend it for novice snow/ice folks.

 

The descent wasn't that great. I was expecting a long stellar glissade back down to the lake, but the snow was a weak crust over soft snow. All glissading effort was stopped by constant punching through the crust. Closer to the lake every step was a posthole and is very slow going. The hike out was definitely harder in softer conditions. We were punching through things left and right that we walked right over in the frozen morning. Start and finish as early as possible.