layton Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 Climb: Dragontail Peak-F.A.- Der DieHedral Date of Climb: 6/27/2004 Trip Report: 1st Ascent: Der DieHedral, 6p var to NE Arete on Dragontail Peak. 14 pitches. IV 5.10b ®. 6/27/04 Eric Wolf and Mike Layton. You gotta love the weather forecasting that's been going on these days. N.Cascades 60%, Der Leavenworthen 40%. Next day it's 0%. Then back up to 20%. Well MisterE and I figured it would be nice so we drove up to Der WorthLeaven and managed to get 3 full hours of sleep before our 3am wakeup call. We were going to try a new route up a major dihedral system on the NE face of Dragontail peak I had noticed on a photo someone posted on this site. 4 hours later we are finishing our final step-kick to the base of the NE face. Turns out that original dihedral (looks mid 5.10 and 5-6 pitches) is really really wide the whole way up. Definately doesn't look fun. Although it would be an interesting ascent. Bring you and you're friends #5 cams and big bros. Anyway, above us loomed another shorter diehedral, but WAY lower down Asguard Pass which was nice b/c it mean the route would be longer. Age before beauty, so Eric got the 1st lead, the luck bastard. It looked like crap but a hidden LONG 5.8 fingertip undercling flake (amazing) led to a 2 inch splitter (also amazing) back to the fingertip flake. As I follwed I was really hoping the whole route would be this good. This was a 120 meter lead. My pitches were in the dihedral itself and were both 70meter rope stretchers. The lower dihedral was tenous, but not too hard. The upper pitch I led, known as the "Belayer Slayer" required precise footwork and careful hold selection. It went at 10b ® and was the crux of the route. Eric got a couple leads after this and one went up a steep slabby face with splitter 1-2" cracks and went at 5.8 Now we were on the N.E. Arete which is the 1972 route in the beckey guide. We swapped leads up the ridge which was kinda easy, but required careful climbing and the exposure was wild. After about 1500' of ridgeclimbg we got to the N.E. tower summits which marked the end of the N.E. arete and the end of some awesome climbing. One rappel and some scrambling got us to the snow basin below dragonail and the Witches towers. There we ran into Kenford and Paco coming down from the Backbone ridge. Kenford was limping badly so we knew something was awry. Turns out he fell onto his heel and did something very bad to it. Maybe broke his calcaneus. Anyway, it was a really shitty place to have something like that happen. Luckilly he slid on his ass all the way down Asguard Pass IN SHORTS!!! Hardcore! MisterE had his 1st glissading experience and he was really psyched about that. What an amazing 1st glissade. 2000' of rocket power feet skiing. I hope Kenford didn't injure himself too badly on the hike out. I can only imagine how much pain he was in by the time they got to their car and how long the hike out must've taken. Hope you guys got some beer before the hospital! I am going to attach some photos MisterE took in a sec so hold your horses. You gotta wait for me to finish my roll before I post my photos. Gear Notes: Standard Rack up to 4 inches We used a 70m rope and used ever inch of it. Approach Notes: No crampons needed Quote
layton Posted June 29, 2004 Author Posted June 29, 2004 Above is the NE face. The obvious shadowed dihedral was our original objective. Our route starts in the shadowed dihedral on the very lower right hand side of the NE face and climbs the NE arete to the top of the NE towers. link to thread I stole this photo from MisterE should be posting the real photos soon, right???? Quote
Dru Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 funny i thought draggintail was in the ALPINE LAKES FORUM Quote
chucK Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 Nice going! I've definitely looked up there and thought there looked like some doable cracks. I think you guys are probably #1 and #2 in terms of the cc.com (hard climber)*(prolific sprayers) metric. Quote
chucK Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 Hmmmm....maybe in the top three. Dru does have quite the prolific spray factor, probably more than enough to make up for the climbing part ... Quote
EWolfe Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 The first pitch we dubbed "The Oh! Face" (insert red swingline graemlin), and no pictures until Mike gets his film developed, but it was awesome!! Here's Mike leading the second pitch: Quote
EWolfe Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 Just below Der DieHedral, the BelayerSlayer is the knife in the crack above Mike to the left: Quote
icegirl Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 Sweet! awesome picts, great TR... Nice work boys! Quote
EWolfe Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 Here's an approximation of the Route Variation and continuation: Quote
jordop Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 Looks WAY chossy! I bet you guys didn't even have to empty your GODAMNED SHOES on that one Pbbttt, call yerselves alpinists Quote
layton Posted June 29, 2004 Author Posted June 29, 2004 I'm offended that this has been moved to the Alpine Lakes area. Kudos to MisterE for being a great partner and putting up with my shit. It threatened to rain on us all day long so we were lucky. I gotta climb some dinky little thing w/some loser the next couple days, then I'll develop my film. Quote
telemarker Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 Nice job guys. That's a cool looking line. Good talking with you in the parking lot. We passed a couple of young guys sitting on the side of the trail just below the lake. Was that Kenford and Paco? We zipped past and didn't realize one was injured. We would have offered to carry some of his load down to the lot. Anyway, congratulations! Quote
TimL Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 (edited) Didn't Wayne do something over there as well? Is this a FA of a new route or just a variation to the NE Ridge? Edited June 29, 2004 by TimL Quote
specialed Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 Could someone who knows shit or who has a Becky guide describe where Yoder's Dragonfly would be in that picture? Quote
Dru Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 isnbt it on the other side of the ridge ie north facing rather than east facing? Quote
Off_White Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 (edited) Dru is correct, it's not visible in the photo, though I think the upper part comes in on the skyline from the right. Here's a crappy photo that still doesn't quite show it, but it's closer. Dragonfly is over on the extreme right edge, mostly facing further right. The white rock up high on the right edge is part of Dragonfly. Edited June 29, 2004 by Off_White Quote
lunger Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 (edited) it'd be just outta sight on the far right; from L to R it's their route on NE Arete, NE coulouir, then NE Butt. as Dru indicated, the start is (likely) just on the N side of the buttress toe. edit: I see Off beat me to the punch. apologies for the redundancy... Edited June 29, 2004 by lunger Quote
ken4ord Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 Hey nice job you guys on that new route. MisterE thanks so much for the use of the poles for the hike out. Luckily no damage except for a some major bruising all over my foot, including my toes. Could have been way worse. Maybe that will have to be the next Dragontail route to add to my list of climb to do. Quote
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