esugi Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Trip: Dragontail Peak - Triple Couloirs Date: 2/5/2007 Trip Report: Not sure if this is helpful but since we did all the work hiking into Colchuck Lake, I thought I'd post it anyway. Kevin and I hiked all the way into Colchuck Lake (actually, spent the first night just past the junction) to find out that Triple Couloirs looked sketchy. The below photo (sorry its not that good since it was just barely daylight) shows the "ice runnels" to be very thin. Sunday turned out to be very frustrating as we were post-holing all over the place. Gear Notes: Snowshoes would have been helpful. Stashed skiis near the trail head and enjoyed the ride down (though I was snow-plowing a lot for fear of going off the side of the road - little icy) Approach Notes: Mountaineers Creek Road is actually very good. Little icy to ski but I managed to snow-plow a lot. The trail itself up to the first river crossing was packed down pretty good. Beyond the second river crossing (past the junction), we were post-holing all over. But again, the temps were very high and FL was 8000 ft or so Saturday evening into Sunday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bug Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Skiis are cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weekend_Climberz Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Thanks for the conditions update. They hoar frost crystals we saw on Sunday in there were some of the biggest I'd ever seen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 Wait a tick. My memory may be completely fouled up, but you can't see the ice pitches connecting the first couloir to the second, can you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alasdair Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 Wait a tick. My memory may be completely fouled up, but you can't see the ice pitches connecting the first couloir to the second, can you? Yep you can. In the photo posted above the ice pitches if formed would be directly below the white streak that is the second couloir. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 Wait a tick. My memory may be completely fouled up, but you can't see the ice pitches connecting the first couloir to the second, can you? Yep you can. In the photo posted above the ice pitches if formed would be directly below the white streak that is the second couloir. And there you have it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skykilo Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 TCs looked thinteresting on Saturday, to say the least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Hopefully you guys get a rematch soon -- looks like there's some winter weather in the forecast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weekend_Climberz Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Seems to me that TC isn't the most interesting thing in these photos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCash Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Yeah, the 1975 route, Cotter / Bebie, or that other route in Washington Ice may be in better condition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHarry Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 I'd say you should go get the 2nd ascent of Dragontail Madness but that would be shere madness! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYC007 Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 can only see the first pitch of the cotter/bebie.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alasdair Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 TCs looked thinteresting on Saturday, to say the least. Does anyone else find the snow deposition in this photo interesting? First off, two weeks ago there was very little snow on Dragontail at all. Now there looks to be a lot more snow, however it is only on the bottom half of the peak. So did you guys get close enough to take a good look? From this pic it looks like the lower half of the peak is covered in rime ice. Either that or new snow was all blown off the upper part of the mountain. I find this less likely because I would expect less snow closer to colchuck col. Anyway. I would not pack all my stuff and run up to do ice lines on Dragontail anytime soon, because they were not there as of two weeks ago, and I dont think that has changed. I was really pretty stunned at how little snow is on the N face route this year. There is usually a large snow field that you can traverse from the top of the first coulor to the middle of the third with no rock at all. This year it is barely there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skykilo Posted February 21, 2007 Share Posted February 21, 2007 We did the NBC on Colchuck, so that's as close of a DTail detail as I can give. I'm pretty sure wind is the culprit. Colchuck col is a bit leeward with a small east component to its aspect; the North Face is more open, not protected by anything, and even has a bit of a westerly aspect. Some gentler spring storms should fix things quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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