[TR] Dragontail- Backbone Ridge 9/30/2006

[SmilingWhiteKnuckles]

Climb: Dragontail-Backbone Ridge

 

Date of Climb: 9/30/2006

 

Trip Report:

First off, the many trip reports we were able to find either on CC or from CC were not only entertaining, but REALLY helpful with routefinding on this climb. Thanks.

 

I picked up Load around 4:30pm from SeaTac. I was a bit late because of a mad dash to Second Ascent to pick up a NW Forest Park Pass--a friend of mine had gotten ticketed the week prior and The Man wanted her to go to court in Leavenworth to prove she actually had a pass (which she did--it had been left at home). This prompted a last minute purchase.

 

Load was on the curb outside baggage claim, and we were soon on our way. After a huge dinner in the city of lights and a brief clogging session underneath a gift shop speaker, we headed up to the trailhead to do our final bit of packing. The parking lot was full but we didn't see many people. One party drove up to retrieve their other car after a one-day Enchantments hike, but they were battered from the effort and somewhat less than talkative...Woke another dude up by accident who was sleeping by his car. Sorry bro.

 

We got to Colchuck Lake in a couple hours and crashed out in our sleeping bags for a few hours. 5:30am had us up (barely) brewing tea and oatmeal. We brought a bunch of water with us on the climb thinking that there would be none, but there is still water coming down from the Colchuck Glacier near the moraine. We thought: hydrate! and guzzled as much as we could but it just made me nauseated (too early? altitude? what?) .

 

We broke out the crampons for 40ft across the ice and had no trouble scrambling across, around, and up to first pitch. We did two short pitches to the off-width so we could belay from it's base like a few TR's recommended. We also ended up hauling packs with the remainder of our 60m rope.

 

Load graciously led this pitch having stoked himself up for the whole week before and did a great job. He even brought his shiny new Christmas ornaments all the way from Chi-town to decorate this pitch: a red (5) and a green (6) Wild Country cam.

 

 

I think somebody in one of the Backbone TR's used the word "thrutch" to describe how one gets up this thing. I looked up the word to no avail but figure it's a combination of thresh, huck, and scratch or perhaps instead of huck, there's a fat expletive stuck in the middle. It's a perfect word for how it goes, and we both left our share of ankle bone, skin, and blood in the crack....So wear your latex up there if you're heading up there soon--I'm pretty sure Load's got the disease.

 

Even though I followed, I found this pitch strenuous and a little scary. For sure the crux of the climb.

 

Stepping left from the ledge above the OW, we spied the mentioned and photographed roof. I went up and left of the roof and established a belay on a small ledge next to a really cool layback block (also photographed in some TRs). The next pitch climbed this and then up moderate cracks to blocks on the crest and another belay. After this, we remembered to drop down and again headed climbers left. We did one more belayed pitch from there and then simuled the low angle stuff to the base of the fin.

 

 

And it was getting windy and cold up there! You could hear the wind blast the fin in wave-like pulses which was neat but a bit unnerving. After a quick snack and drink we proceeded . The first pitch up the corner surprised me a bit by being harder than anticipated. While still moderate fifth, the rock was a funky mix of solid and crap and finding the couple pieces of good pro I wanted took a few minutes.

 

Soon we were below the fin proper though and it looked daunting. The fear was for naught though, cause after pulling the first moves up, one is presented with cool climbing on great rock and plenty of solid placement options. This feature is phenomenal, and I loved these pitches despite the gusts of wind which were enough to knock you around a bit and make you grip and hug the rock.

 

I did get one good photo of Load coming across the traverse on the final Fin pitch--the money shot!

 

 

We short-roped again for the last bit of climbing, traversing the crappy, crumbling, scary rock above the top of the 3rd couloir which we eventually climbed into and up for the last 60 feet. I am still wondering if there's a more aesthetic--not to mention solid--finish to this otherwise amazing climb.

 

We were really glad for the crampons on the way down. Further reading has me curious about the rap descent, but the snow works fine with light spikes as well.

 

And Asgard? Well let's just say it's been awhile and time seems to create false optimism...It is long--especially if you get cliffed out following the green (and golden--larches) belt down by fading headlamp and have to walk back uphill and traverse until finding the trail again.

 

A great adventure!! Fall in the Enchantments is amazing! Thanks for the trip, G.

 

 

Gear Notes:

Medium rack up to 3"

Wild Country cams #5 and #6

60m rope

crampons

aluminum axe

 

Approach Notes:

A small patch of snow getting to the climb (probably avoidable)

Glacier on descent (hard ice right now)

Edited October 5, 2006 by SmilingWhiteKnuckles

[scottgg]

Love that fin picture! Was one of you wearing a bright jacket (red or maybe orange)? I hiked through the enchantments on Saturday with my parents, and we saw you guys on top of the first pitch. Yeah, the wind was pretty tough that day, really blowing through asguard pass! Doing that traverse on top of the fin was tough in the wind! Good Report!

[olyclimber]

awesome pics. love the last one of the fin.

[still_climbin]

Thanks for the TR. Where was that last photo taken from?

[SmilingWhiteKnuckles]

You're welcome. Last photo was taken from the Stuart Lake trail on Sunday (10/1).