[TR] Dragontail Peak - Triple Couloirs 2/5/2007

[esugi]

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.

[Bug]

Skiis are cool.

[Weekend_Climberz]

Thanks for the conditions update. They hoar frost crystals we saw on Sunday in there were some of the biggest I'd ever seen

[chris]

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?

 

[Alasdair]

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.

[chris]

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!

[skykilo]

TCs looked thinteresting on Saturday, to say the least.

 

 

 

[rob]

Hopefully you guys get a rematch soon -- looks like there's some winter weather in the forecast.

[Weekend_Climberz]

Seems to me that TC isn't the most interesting thing in these photos

[MCash]

Yeah, the 1975 route, Cotter / Bebie, or that other route in Washington Ice may be in better condition.

[DirtyHarry]

I'd say you should go get the 2nd ascent of Dragontail Madness but that would be shere madness!

[NYC007]

can only see the first pitch of the cotter/bebie..

[Alasdair]

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.

[skykilo]

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.