Serpentine Arete Trip Report

[goatboy]

Dragontail Attempt: An Exercise in Judgment

Kevin and I climbed part of the Serpentine Arete on Sunday morning (10/7) before retreating in a gathering storm.

5 Am Wake-up. Coffee and mashed potatoes with cheddar cheese fueled us up nicely for the challenges ahead. Skies were dark with patchy clear stars shining through. Moon was a milky blob in the cloudy sky. Winds were fairly mild.

"Kicked steps" up the crumbly morainal slopes from Colchuck Lake to the Glacier. The sun rising cast colors on the peaks to the North, and lit up a few gendarmes high on Dragontail in morning alpenglow. Put on rock shoes for what Beckey describes as 4th-class terrain. Ended up not traversing far enough left, and instead doing a variation on the Black Buttress just right of the white, sloped shelfs which Beckey recommends. The variation we did followed steppy ramps and corners with pretty sounds rock but sparse cracks for pro -- approximately 5.7 (felt like 5.8 with the packs on!!!) Midway through this section we roped up on a ledge and climbed a full rope length to join up with the standard approach.

Now we were back on route, and since we were roped up already, we simulclimbed to the normal roping-up spot below a small pillar with a wide layback.

Climbed that pillar in one long pitch to the base of the large, prominent pillar. Had to simul-climb the last 20 feet or so before reaching an adequate anchor on the large ledge (anchored off one of the huge boulders imbedded on the ledge).

As I belayed my partner up to the ledge, I watched the distant and not-so-distant peaks slowly disappear in a descending cloud layer. Small snowflakes began to fall. Wind picked up.

We reasoned that since we were essentially one pitch up, and a storm was obviously approaching, we would be wise to save this route for another time. A series of rappels from larch trees took us straight back down the route, then down the black buttress and onto the morainal slopes again (6 full single-rope rappels, with a little down-climbing on easy but loose ledges and corners).

Disappointing not to summit, but exciting to be on the arete in a rising storm.

As it turned out, the storm blew through in about an hour, and then things cleared up a bit, leading us to ALMOST second-guess ourselves. But we managed to make a distinction: Feeling disappointed over not summiting is one thing, but second-guessing our judgment and beating ourselves up for retreating is another. We chose to feel disappointed, but not to beat ourselves up.

We'll be back another day!