fredrogers Posted July 18, 2003 Share Posted July 18, 2003 Climbed Colchuck via the Colchuck Glacier and Dragontail from the Colchuck Col by the "snow gully' in the Beckey book yesterday. In spite of warms temps at the lake Weds. night, the snow on the glacier was very firm at 6:30 AM. Was glad to have crampons for the 2 steeper sections. Glacier is still in good shape and was straightforward. Summited Colchuck at 8:15 AM, beautiful day with every peak imaginable out. Descended to the col to go check out the snow gully, which looked like it had melted out just above the bottom. A short scramble led us to the first snow finger- which was still firm at 9:30. That led up to a short, loose 3rd class scramble until we were able to regain the snow higher in the gully. A short downclimb of 50-60 snow led us out on to the snow slopes on the W end of Dragontail ridge were we tagged the summit and descended in the blazing sun back to Colchuck lake and out to the car and cold beers. Great trip in spite of the bugs and the heat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bug Posted July 19, 2003 Share Posted July 19, 2003 What's wrong with bugs? So it sounds like that gully goes pretty easy. Did you take a rope? Climbing shoes? Was there lots of opportunity for off route scrambling with safe bailouts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredrogers Posted July 21, 2003 Author Share Posted July 21, 2003 The gully went easy, but would be pretty unsavory after it's completely melted out. The downclimb from the top of the gully would also be pretty crappy when it's melted out. We did not take a rope, nor did we need one. Tons of stuff to scramble- most of it with some pretty cool exposure down the N. Face of Dragontail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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