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Leuthold Couloir


letsroll

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Leuthold's is in OK shape right now. The snow is an interesting mixture of neve, rime, and sugar. Avi conditions were very low (on Friday) and mercifully little icefall.

 

This is a shot looking up at the hourglass:

3363AUT_6908-med.JPG

 

Just above the hourglass we were engulfed in clouds and the wind picked up considerably. Having no clear view of where the route went, we just headed up hill. An eternity later we emerged from the clouds, covered in rime ice, just below the summit ridge.

3363AUT_6913-med.JPG

 

The route was a lot of fun, but more physically demanding and less technically challenging than we had expected. Basically, it's like going up the Hogsback/Pearly Gates for 3000 feet. The coolest part was the knife-edge ridge leading to the summit. WOW!

 

 

Looking forward to hearing from all the folks who headed up there today wave.gif

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We made the summit around 1:30 - a rather pathetic 9 hours the parking lot. Fortunately, it stayed extremely cold all day and icefall was almost non-existant.

 

We had hoped to do this route on Saturday under blue skies, but decided to go a day early when we realized how many people were headed that way. The solitude was great (didn't see any climbers all day) but the whiteout and ferocious wind was the tradeoff.

 

Glad everyone made it safe on Saturday thumbs_up.gif

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Sorry have been away from the computer. I went up on 3/11 and the trip was amazing. I did the went up the wrong couloir and did Ried Glacier till the 50 degree bulge and at the point I chickened out and down climbed to a ridge overlooking Leuthold. Was not too sure about the bulge and if I fell....I didn't want to be one of those guys. Anyway when I was checking out Leuthold saw some of my friends heading up leuthold and I joined them till the summit. The climb is really easy, as it was said before just a long hogs back. Much easier than I anticipated. The summit ridge on the other hand is a little scary and I would not want to do that in a white out. The day was perfect, cold at night for good and hard snow and then warmed up durring the day for good boarding on the southside back to timberline. The only thing was the ice fall through out the day, lots of it and some pieces were rather large. Take a helmet and have fun. I am going to go back this weekend with a second tool for the Reid Headwall and attempt to finish it with just my ice axe but feel safer with access to a second. I chickened out and looking forward to redeeming myself.

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