DC Route Conditions?

[ridehikeclimbski]

Has anybody been up the DC in the past few weeks ? Is September the best time to solo since the snow bridges are apt to melted out and the crevasse dangers reduced for solo climbing ? I understand theres increased frozen water slabs and rockfall danger , I have experienced these on Shasta. Thanks for your input.

[pete_a]

I was up there yesterday, will be writing a t.r. later. I had thought about soloing but was glad that a buddy of mine joined me for the climb as there are two snowbridges that you still have to cross on the DC route on the upper Emmons that are pretty nasty, the crevasses that the bridges span are not very wide, 8'-10' maybe, but if you were to solo I would highly recommend carrying a rope and pro so that you could tie into an anchored rope for crossing these.

[ridehikeclimbski]

Conrats to your one day climb , wow , only approx 50 people summit a year in a single day trip !

 

Thanks for the info about the upper Emmons conditions, I think I will wait till next year and go up the entire Emmons route in June or Success Cleaver when its full of snow.

 

Good luck on your state exams !

[Alpinfox]

pete_a said:

...if you were to solo I would highly recommend carrying a rope and pro so that you could tie into an anchored rope for crossing these [snow bridges].

 

Are you recommending he leave behind pickets and/or rope? Pick it up on the way back? Maybe I'm just too drunk to understand what you mean by this...

[babnik]

Alpinfox said:

pete_a said:

...if you were to solo I would highly recommend carrying a rope and pro so that you could tie into an anchored rope for crossing these [snow bridges].

 

Are you recommending he leave behind pickets and/or rope? Pick it up on the way back? Maybe I'm just too drunk to understand what you mean by this...

 

yer not the only one brah!

[Dan_Larson]

I am old and fat but I think I could still do the running long jump at least 10 feet . That is if I threw my pack across first . ORRRRRRR I could walk a few feet left or right and go around it

[Norman_Clyde]

I've never tried it but I think the idea is to place a picket, tie in to one end of the rope, clip the rope through a biner on the picket, connecting the other side of it back to your harness with a prusik; then cross with the rope in a loop, feeding it out as you go. Once across, you can pull the rope through. Repeat as necessary until you run out of pickets. Reverse the procedure on the way down, but you'll have to leave pickets on the uphill side. Or dig a big bollard on the uphill side and you won't have to leave a picket.

[Dan_Larson]

Yeah sure, but we would like to do the route in one day

[Attitude]

Alpinfox said:

pete_a said:

...if you were to solo I would highly recommend carrying a rope and pro so that you could tie into an anchored rope for crossing these [snow bridges].

 

Are you recommending he leave behind pickets and/or rope? Pick it up on the way back? Maybe I'm just too drunk to understand what you mean by this...

I think it's liked roped soloing.

 

Place anchor, tie in, and prussik across snow bridge. Place second anchor on far side and tie in. Prussik back to grab first anchor and then cross for a third time. Grab second anchor and go.

 

[pete_a]

...Guess I should clarify my ramblings.

Attitude explained what I was trying to say (thanks!), thats basically the strategy I've used before when on a glacier alone, its time consuming but for a safety freak like me it seems like a good way to go.

On the DC route right now crossing the schrund is the maybe the only spot where one might want to think about roping up to an anchored rope if travelling solo (just my opinion). The uphill side of the crevasse is significantly higher than the downhill side, you have to step on the snowbridge, then take a couple steep steps up to get past the schrund...piece of cake...but the snowbridge already has several holes punched in it where it has failed on some unlucky climbers. If you only wanted to protect the schrund you could put in an anchor on the downhill side and go across the schrund tied in using a prussik to your rope, then just leave your rope tied to the uphill side so you can use it on the way down. You can leave your rope there as-is to use when you are on your way down because you are past the final crevasse hazard and don't need to carry your pickets or rope with you beyond this point. You wouldn't need to carry an entire rope, 30' would be enough to cross it.

Please feel free to disagree with me or tell me I'm smoking crack...this setup has worked well for me on other trips. Just trying to give some advice to someone who was thinking about heading up there solo.

...Its also possible that if/when the snowbridge on the scrund fails, that RMI will scout out another route which may be easier.

 

[AlpinistAndrew]

I climbed the DC route on Monday-Tuesday. RMI has now moved the route, it does not go over that snow bridge. The route now traverses below the bergshrund a bit more and then crosses it to the left of the old route. It is very easy. Also, there are a two spots where RMI has set up pickets with a hand line.

[pete_a]

cool. I kinda figured that RMI would snoop around and find something better...so there ya go, no need to set up a rope to walk across the chunk of snow that looks like swiss cheese.