[TR] Mt Snoqualmie - NY Gully 1/27/2007

[TrogdortheBurninator]

Trip: Mt Snoqualmie - NY Gully

 

Date: 1/27/2007

 

Trip Report:

Eric8 and I climbed NY Gully today. The route was in great shape. Some of the most fun (and occasionally scary) climbing I've ever done. Mixed climbing was encountered on every pitch, however there was a healthy amount of ice for sticks (Usually < 1" thick though). Every pitch was challenging and interesting.

 

The route is pretty easy to find and follow. Colin's description in this thread is spot on: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=3&Number=127804&Searchpage=1&Main=9678&Words=%2Bsnoqualmie+%2Bgully&topic=0&Search=true#Post127804

 

 

We approached it like this:

 

We approached via the source lake trail, cutting off right in the obvious clearing. This led to a pretty long and steep snow gully that eventually forks. The right fork cliffs, so we took the left fork. Ice tools were used for this gully, and I chose to use crampons. From atop the gully we made a right trending snowshoe traverse until we found a suitable descent gully off the shoulder of the sub peak. A short rap (15') over some rock and we were able to down climb the gully, then traverse back up into the approach gully for the climb.

 

We climbed it like this:

 

I lead a long simul pitch from the approach gully to the dead snag. Expect run out climbing and some loose rock. Lots of fun though

 

From the dead snag, Eric lead the box gully in two pitches. The first pitch has some tricky climbing past fixed pins.

 

Eric belayed at a fixed pin backed up with a 2nd pin and a cam. The next pitch seemed like the crux. Committing and physical climbing for maybe 40m.

 

Next, I lead up a corner with good turf and ice sticks. From here I moved right to a low angle slab, then up to an obvious chockstone. I belayed atop the chockstone, just below the "off width" (actually a 3" crack that quickly tapers to 1-2")

 

Eric lead the offwidth with some aid. This thing is much harder than it appears from below. I was able to follow free on TR, but it was pretty physical. Placing requisite pins on lead would be pretty challenging. Eric belayed at the highest trees.

 

From here I cut over to the right and traversed loose rock and snow until above the slot couloir. Easy down climbing on steep snow brought me into the couloir. More easy deep snow led up the other side. We simuled this section, but it might be better to just unrope, or at least shorten up. The rope drag was horrendous.

 

We descended down and right to retrieve our snowshoes, then descended back left towards alpental falls.

 

All said, about 12.5 hours car to car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Cams: Purple TCU - Red TCU, Both Link Cams, Silver DMM Cam (#3 camalot size)

 

One set of nuts

 

Two tricams (red and black, but dropped red at the dead snag)

 

5-6 Pins (Mostly blades with a lost arrow and an angle)

 

4 screamers

 

6 Slings

 

1 Stubby Screw (not used)

[catbirdseat]

Nice work. Most detailed TR I've seen of this particular route.

[Blake]

Nice guys, way to get on it. That third shot is a good one, things look icier (or at least more consolidated) than the conspicuous fluff of 2 weeks ago.

 

This bit is steeper than it looks, and he's defintely not running it out by choice.

Edited January 28, 2007 by Blake

[DirtyHarry]

Look like you guys caught it in great shape. Nice!

[TrogdortheBurninator]

If anyone is looking to get on this route, now seems like a great time to do it. We were a little worried about the temperature inversion, but it never got above freezing. If this current weather keeps up I can only imagine things getting better.

[NYC007]

it looked fun, we climbed up the coulior past you to washington dihedrals, while you 2 were climbing pitch one.

[RocNoggin]

nice job guys! great TR too.

[colt45]

Way to go, Eric & Jason! Thanks for the report.

[dbconlin]

Nice job! That must've been you we saw over there. We were thankful that you guys were on the first pitch when we got there, giving us an easy excuse to do something else--something much less committing! NYC007 and I climbed Wash. Dihedrals, which was really fun & mellow with no runouts...

[eric8]

I really enjoyed the route. Having such good climbing with such easy access in winter is awesome.

 

The runouts weren't that bad. I definetly would have placed a piece closer to the crux had I seen a spot for some gear but other than that it all seemed fine.

[Weekend_Climberz]

Nice TR :tup:

 

Those pics say it all

[TrogdortheBurninator]

More pics from Eric:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2007 by TrogdortheBurninator

[Weekend_Climberz]

Have any "Twark Might" bleeding face photos to complete the effect :tup:

 

Looks like good conditions.

[kadyakerbob]

good job guys, Eben and i actually climbed new york gully on sunday. Except a whole bunch of ice must have melted we didnt have hardly any ice thicker than a quarter inch. But i Dropped a tool maybe two pitches from the top and we ended up having to rap off but i found my tool on a ledge below the dead tree so that was good.

[TrogdortheBurninator]

I dont think any ice melted (that would seem really unlikely given that it was cold all day Sat and Sat night). 1/4" was probably the norm (hence my comment about <1" ice). Turf was where the bomber sticks were.

[brian_m]

Nice climb Eric & Jason!

 

Jason,

Looks like the X-monsters got the call up to the big leagues for that one... How'd they do?

 

Nice Pics.

[TrogdortheBurninator]

The X-monsters worked great as an alpine tool for a route like this. I debated for a while the night before whether to take them or quarks. I decided to save my quark picks and see how the monsters did. When necessary, they can actually be plunged pretty easily with their narrow shaft and fairly pronounced spike. The more I use them, the more I like them. Still, I refuse to admit they are better than my quarks that cost twice as much.

[Ade]

Nice job! Great shots of the route too. The turf is where it's at for sure on that thing!

[Chad_A]

Thanks much for the TR. Great pics!

[kadyakerbob]

Actually after looking at your pictures, i am pretty sure some ice did melt. And actually quite a bit of snow was lost. I will post our pictures tomorrow, so everyone can see. But the climb was still ok. Maybe not as difficult as everyone says, just a little run out on crap rock. Did you guys pick up the bootie from the guys who rapped off a few weeks ago? because we didnt see any of it. They said they left a red camalot.

[Blake]

the red camalot was two raps below the dead snag. you wouldn't have climbed past it, only would have seen it if you rapped by it. Jason grabbed our pins and stopper.