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Kautz route - need info


esugi

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New member here posting for the first time.

 

My friends and I are interested in doing the kautz route. I have read previous threads here and summitpost and even read Mike Gauthier's description of the route in his book. Here I want to pose few questions.

 

1) In late June, do you typically recommend a second tool for the first and second pitch just after scurting around the ice cliff?

 

2) Does anyone have a picture or accurate description of this permanent rappell rope, supposedly fixed against the rock wall, some distance below the ice cliff (to avoid going through the bowling alley on return)?

 

3) We can't leave until late afternoon on Saturday. Our plan is to hike in Saturday afternoon, spend 1 night somewhere before Nisqually glacier (drop down from Panorama Point), spend next night at the bivy sites below icefall, and go for the summit early on 3rd day. Does this plan seem feasible?

 

Any insight would be helpful cool.gif

 

Thanks!

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On your stay the second night there are great spots below camp Hazard, as opposed to staying in camp Hazard, as a lot of stuff can rain down there from the icefall. Three days sounds good especially if you are getting there in the afternoon, it takes a fair amount of time and effort to get to the high camp in a day, and you would have time to look for another way like that rope you mention (I haven't heard of one, but we did go down on our own instead of up and around).

TTT

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Thanks for all the reply. This gives me a good understanding of where the rope is.

 

So I guess the second tool is not really needed (?) I only got one reply on this question but that's the direction I'm leaning....

 

We're also entertaining the idea of a carry over and coming down DC. That'll be a heavy summit pack!

 

Is the whether ever going to clear up for more then just one day? Its June, enough is enough....give us sunshine!

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Re 3)

 

If you are leaving Sat afternoon, there is still a really good probability you can reach your high camp Sat night, unless you are a slug. Consider it will be light until after 9pm. Its not THAT far from Paradise over the Nisqually and up the other side to approach the Kautz. Otherwise, I would just come up Sunday...less food and fuel to carry...you would be taking an entire day going from "somewhere on the Nisqually" to high camp on Sunday, which is really around a 3-4 hour endevour. Unless you really want to just hang around all day.

 

My suggestion to you would be that you and your partner train and be as cardiovascularly fit as possible for your trip - it will make you much faster on Sat, which will enable you get to high camp Sat night, get up with 6 hours sleep at 3am, climb fast and more comfortably Sunday, come back down, recover, and head out without being exhausted.

 

Just a thought..

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  • 3 weeks later...
Yes. Not too terribly crevassed until maybe late in the season? I remember in June a few years ago it was just a jaunt, we unroped up after the chute all the way to Pt Success, I think.
Cool, thanks Alex. It is on the list of posibilities for next summer. cool.gif
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Randy

The section from the top of the chute to the top of Wapowety Cleaver (where the Kautz, Finger and WHW routes converge) is a living, moving glacier, full of holes waiting for you. The normal route moves from there onto the upper part of the Nisqually Glacier, which has some HUGE holes waiting for you. Don't unrope until you summit. Safety first.

And if, as a two-person team, you haven't practiced the entire sequence of arrest/ anchor/ transfer/ Z-pulley/ extraction, don't travel on a glacier until you do. Safety first.

MHO

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Very true about the waiting holes above the Kautz. We had the second on our rope disappear in an instant down a deep one, fortunately we retrieved him unhurt about 30 minutes later. Stay roped until the summit, and stay safe!

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Randy

The section from the top of the chute to the top of Wapowety Cleaver (where the Kautz, Finger and WHW routes converge) is a living, moving glacier, full of holes waiting for you. The normal route moves from there onto the upper part of the Nisqually Glacier, which has some HUGE holes waiting for you. Don't unrope until you summit. Safety first.

And if, as a two-person team, you haven't practiced the entire sequence of arrest/ anchor/ transfer/ Z-pulley/ extraction, don't travel on a glacier until you do. Safety first.

MHO

Hey ,Thanks also. I probaly wouldn't consider unroping anyway up there. I've been climbing technical ice and rock for quite awhile now, but I,m too new to Cascades climbing.I've done a bit a glacier travel, but not enough to get cocky and let my gaurd down. I am interested in trying some slightly harder routes though.I just may have a trip next summer, and don't know if we are 2 or 3 yet. Just looking for beta and feed back and nurturing ideas. cool.gif
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