dberdinka Posted March 25, 2005 Posted March 25, 2005 Climb: Cutthroat Peak-East Couloir Date of Climb: 3/24/2005 Trip Report: Bob and I climbed the East Couloir of Cutthroat on Thursday. We found the route to be in excellent condition. After postholing up to our knees on the approach and wallowing up the start of the gulley we found lots of water ice and relatively compact neve on the rest of the route. Due to the low snow year there is an additional 40 meters of thin, somewhat poorly protected, ice below the “crux” pitch and more ice above. While the climbing was no harder than WI 3+/4- the ice is always thin, sometimes aerated, sometimes brittle. The crux pitch itself is beautiful, a steep smear in a nice corner with great rock gear and occasional stemming and chimneying. We descended the west ridge, the first rappel station being difficult to find and reach. Its hidden just below the end of the slabby “a-cheval” ridgeline about 30’ west of the actual summit. Best done with a single rope. Evidently NOAA is predicting snow levels more akin to February for the next couple weeks. If so I’d venture to guess that the route should remain in condition for quite sometime. Put it on the list! I’ll post some photos later. Gear Notes: 1 60m rope stubbies KBs and LAs Quote
DirtyHarry Posted March 25, 2005 Posted March 25, 2005 Cool man. Sounds fun. I bet North Face Greybeard would be good too right now. Quote
pms Posted March 25, 2005 Posted March 25, 2005 Right on! Nice to have that one in condition. Maybe you will have some pictures. Quote
dberdinka Posted March 26, 2005 Author Posted March 26, 2005 On the 1st ice pitch Below the in-famous crux pitch Bob yelling at me to not tangle the rope Topping out on the North Ridge Quote
Alpinfox Posted March 26, 2005 Posted March 26, 2005 Oh man that looks sweet. Too bad its getting buried in snow right now. Is that crux pitch really 4-? How steep is it? Quote
JoshK Posted March 26, 2005 Posted March 26, 2005 Holy crap! That is way more ice than when Paco and I did it a couple of years ago. Looks great! Quote
layton Posted March 27, 2005 Posted March 27, 2005 Holy crap! That is way more ice than when Paco and I did it a couple of years ago. Looks great! same here. and nice work! Quote
glassgowkiss Posted March 27, 2005 Posted March 27, 2005 very fun route. 2 notes. while starting the ice corner pretty substantial "spindrift" hit us. i would be cautious going up there after a snow fall. after rapping down west ridge- i would recommend another way down. from the summit rap to the snow gulley between main summit and south buttress pinnicle. then just walk down the gulley and do 2 more raps on the bottom to the snow basin. Quote
dbb Posted March 28, 2005 Posted March 28, 2005 that looks reall sweet guys. no narrative from the turd needed either, nice! Quote
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