[TR] Dragontail- Serpentine Arete 6/24/2006

[mountainmatt]

Climb: Dragontail-Serpentine Arete

 

Date of Climb: 6/24/2006

 

Trip Report:

Headed up with Tim (runningdog) to climb the Serpentine Arete on Saturday. Arrived at the trailhead around 10 PM, and tried to get a few hours of sleep in the back of his van. Thankfully, the mosquitoes weren't out so we could leave the doors open. The alarm went off and we started hiking around 3 AM. We arrived at the north side of Colchuck lake around 5:45, and to the base of the route by around 6:15. We started up the route, freeing up the first several hundred feet of class IV and roped up when a couple of the moves started getting harder (about 1-2 pitches below where pitch 1 starts according to Selected Climbs of the Cascades). The real first pitch still had snow in it, and Tim headed to the right of it and managed to get around the snow, but the rope drag definitely made it hard for him to finish and for me to second. I headed up the second pitch and made the mistake of not heading to the right to the start of pitch 3. Instead I continued up an off-width crack that could definitely have used some cleaning (5.9?). I ended the pitch about 2/3 of the way up the real pitch three. Tim came in and combined the end of pitch three and all of four (5.8). This was the best pitch of the entire route, great cracks, knobs, and smears! I headed up and lead pitch 5 which snaked around various blocks and finally arrived at a large ledge (5.5). At this point, we decided to simul climb the rest of the route. It was definitely nice to be roped up in the first couple hundred of feet, after that the route really eases up (in hind site, we wish we had just soloed the remaining portions of the route from pitch 8 to the summit). The rock in these remaining pitches was quite loose, and we found ourselves climbing delicately to avoid tossing rocks on the parties below. We arrived at the final 5.7 pitch which still had snow in ice in it, so we took the class III route around to the summit. After 20 minutes on the summit, we decided to head to climb Colchuck. We followed the snow path over to the chute and headed down to the top of Colchuck glacier. We both had ice axes, but I had brought my tennis shoes that made kicking steps very difficult (definitely bring boots). The snow was plenty soft so we were glad we had left the crampons behind. When we arrived at the saddle, Tim raced to the summit while I slowly started to descend down to the lake (I had just been up there a few weeks before). There were still several teams on the route at this point (around 6 PM) so it was easy to see where we had just been (hope they all made it out ok). Tim and I met up at the lake and headed over to the north side of the lake to purify some water. After jumping in the lake to cool down, and chasing off a goat, we made it down to the car by about 8 PM. The mosquitoes were out in full force, so we made haste for some burgers and shakes in Leavenworth.

 

Gear Notes:

Brought: Rack to 3", ice axe tennis shoes

 

Should of had: boots, double 3"

 

Approach Notes:

Trail all the way to the north side of the lake, mix of rock and snow to the base of the climb. Access from the snow to the rock is a little difficult due to melting, but can be done with a large step. Can glissade from the top of Colchuck glacier to about 200 feet above the lake.

[Weekend_Climberz]

Great job. Let's see some stokey.

[Off_White]

Multiple parties on the route? Not what I'd choose, too much loose stuff up high. Good on ya for looking out for those below. Seriously, if there's someone on the route, go do something like the Gerber/Sink N Face, an overall better route if you ask me, with multiple options up high in the fin area.

[mountainmatt]

Oh, there were AT LEAST two other parties below us if not more. The two parties that I could see at 6 PM were very close to each other and maybe ~6 pitches up the route. I agree with you, I would not want to be on the route below someone. It was scary enough trying not to hit your partner with the loose rock.

[Off_White]

Good work being the first party.

[Blake]

Way to go guys! Tim was out of his element without enough bushwacking though...

[mountainmatt]

Some pics for da haters (finally up as I got sick this weekend )

http://serpentinearete6-24-06.blogspot.com/