JoshK Posted October 22, 2002 Posted October 22, 2002 Skisports (David) and I were aiming to get one last climb in before our apparently late snow finally gets around to covering the cascades. We originally aimed for Price glacier or the Torment-Forbidden Traverse. The plan was to meet at my place Friday afternoon, check the new weather report at 3:30 and decide from there. When David got there we checked the weather and much to our dismay what was "partly cloudy" earlier in the week, then "mostly cloudy" wsa now "rain likely, 8000 ft snow level" for Sunday. Hrmmm...ok, that sucks. We really don't want to be in any sort of weather for the Price glacier and getting rained off the traverse didn't sound so fun. (Ask Alex about this to be sure. :-)) Time to head east. Washington Pass or Leavenworth? We both had routes we wanted to climb in both places. In the end we decided on Serpintine Arete on Dragontail peak. We took of late Friday afternoon and slept at the trailhead that night. On Saturday we got a (very) liesurly start and hiked up to colchuck lake and set up a camp at the end of the lake. We then headed up the colchuck glacier to go play around. We ended up climbing 2 pitches of easy 4th and 5th class on some rock between the two glacier lobes. On Sunday we ended up sleeping through the alarm and didn't wake up until 7:30. We weren't so thrilled with this because we'd heard that serpintine can have tricky route finding and take a while. I also wasn't thrilled that I left a bag of gorp out and the snaffles ate the entire thing. We ate some breakfast and climbed up the moraine to the start of the climb. I think we stated the actual climb around 10 or so. We simulclimed until the first of 4 5.6-5.8 pitches described in nelson's book. I led through the section that I belive is the 5.6 and 5.7 in Nelson's book??, which brough us around the big ledge traverse and right next to the tower Nelson describes. David then climbed a very nice lead of the 2 5.8 pitches, combining them into one long pitch and *almost* making it to the next suitable belay. I took a low-drama fall right after the crux of the first 5.8 pitch when I reached my hand up and attempted to pull up on a small ledge. What my cold-numb fingers failed to tell me was that this ledge was covered with sand. As soon as I pulled, my hand slipped and the rope stretch was enough to take me to the bottom of the pitch again. Back on the rock, I followed up then led about 20 feet above David to where he was trying to reach before the rope ran out and set a belay. From that point we simulclimbed the rest of the route, which was quite enjoyable 3rd to low 5th. There were only a couiple of unsavory loose bits. We topped out around 4 or so as I remember, took a couple of summit shots and headed down the snow creek glacier to the awaiting ass-master...err...aasgard ...pass. All and all I thought serpintine was a great route, despite some people's mix reviews. Neither one of us thought the route finding on the top part of the route was hard, just as long as you stay on the ridge. It felt great to get sneak in one last climb this season. -josh Quote
JoshK Posted October 22, 2002 Author Posted October 22, 2002 Thanks 'bone. BTW, on a random note, if anybody likes to use handwarmers (I did on this climb) while climbing on cold rock, Costco has boxes of 40 pairs for something like $16. [ 10-22-2002, 01:39 PM: Message edited by: JoshK ] Quote
ivan Posted October 22, 2002 Posted October 22, 2002 sweet climb, senor, but was it worth not getting drunk for? i'm thinking the answer is a resounding yes but what now? has the desire to climb been quelched, or is it but one more fix in an ever increasing addiction to the dreaded rock? fuck...tuesdays suck Quote
Skisports Posted October 23, 2002 Posted October 23, 2002 The weather window isn't over yet you can still climb a hell of stuff the next 4 days as long as the weather holds out. On the other hand I am looking for some nice bubbley ice and some hero snow Quote
Lambone Posted October 23, 2002 Posted October 23, 2002 it ain't over till its over homie, nice job! Quote
Skisports Posted October 23, 2002 Posted October 23, 2002 Josh do you want to do price friday saterday sunday. We might be able to sweeze in the price yet this year. Looks cold weather is comming in on sunday we would just have to high tail out on sunday through fisher chimeys but still has potential. Quote
Lambone Posted October 23, 2002 Posted October 23, 2002 Hey Josh, was there any sun on the route? How cold was it up there? Quote
Skisports Posted October 24, 2002 Posted October 24, 2002 It wasn't that cold I did break out my big puffy coat for a bit. My fingers were a numb after leading the the 5.8. This October we are talking about so it was great. the 5.8 pitchs I though those pitches were excellent. Quote
JoshK Posted October 24, 2002 Author Posted October 24, 2002 Dave, I'll email you... Lambone, yeah, it really wasn't *that* cold for being October. Dave's puffy coat (big FF thing) ruled at the belays as did a pair of fleece gloves I brought. After the technical pitches we simulclimbed fast and got very hot from that point on. Quote
Lambone Posted October 24, 2002 Posted October 24, 2002 ok i'll take that as no sun... [ 10-23-2002, 08:34 PM: Message edited by: Lambone ] Quote
Lambone Posted October 24, 2002 Posted October 24, 2002 werd, just wondering if the face is in the shade all day... Quote
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