[TR] Dragontail - Colchuck Glacier 6/17/2007

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Trip: Dragontail - Colchuck Glacier

 

Date: 6/17/2007

 

Trip Report:

 

After canceling a Shuksan/Fisher Chimneys climb due to an awful forecast on Friday I and two friends got really bummed and began looking for better weather options on Saturday for a one-day climb Sunday. We settled on Dragontail figuring if the weather didn't look good, we could just crag along icicle. The forecast called for no rain in Leavenworth and a chance of showers up in the high country.

 

Two friend and I carpooled up to the Colchuck Lake TH on Sat night. We did an early wakeup and hit the trail at just after 5 am. The weather was looking promising, with some thin whispy (but gray) clouds blowing over us. We got to Colchuck at 7 am, and the winds picked up a bit, with whitecaps on the lake. There were some clouds sitting on top of the summits of Dragontail and Colchuck at about the 8000 foot level. Aasgard pass looked clear, but it was melted out and ugly looking. Colchuck col was in and out of clouds at the top, but the snow pack extended all the way to the lake on one side and looked more sporty, so decided to go for it.

 

Right before heading up we met a solo hiker who was going up Colchuck via one of the couloirs (some buttress or another). Nice guy. He didn't like the look of the weather as far as summit views went but it didn't seem to phase him w/r/t his plans to summit. That encouraged us too.

 

We made good time up to the col. The snow conditions were not too great though. There was a think layer of newer snow on top of a thin layer of hard pack on top of ice. Two of us had aluminum crampons which did not do as well on the snow as the other party-member with G-12's. More on this later.

 

The temps low were in the 40's. As we approached the col it got windy and ugly. With wind chill it was below freezing. After eating, drinking and resting a few minutes, we were all chilled and shivering so we headed up.

 

We dropped down 150 feet, and headed left up the snow couloir on the left. Our route descriptions all said to ascend the steep (40 degree) couloir to a notch - Pandora's box. The snow conditions here were awful, and the couloir narrows and winds with rocks below. The 30 mph gusts of wind didn't help. We ascended and ascended and hit the ridge on the south face! Elevation was about 8700 feet. No obvious notch. WTF is pandora's box? We whipped out our GPSs. Apparently we were 1500 feet from the summit as a crow flies. None of us had been there before. After looking around we concluded we had gone too high up the couloir. So, we descended a few hundred feet. It was slow going with the snow conditions and our crampons. We had to face the slope for a few icy bits. Pucker factor = 8/10.

 

Down lower we scrambled to a notch in the ridge and looked over. There was no obvious way to scramble down and to the left as described in our route descriptions. We scrambled back to the couloir and looked at the ridge and all the "notches", reread our route descriptions. No luck. Time to bail. F**k!

 

In a few minutes we were back to the col. We had awesome glissading all the way to the lake. We then met the solo hiker mentioned above. He had route finding issues too up on Colchuck but did summit. He told us that he had done the exact same thing as us the year before on Dragontail - winding up in a dead-end at the end of that couloir, so we felt a little better.

 

The hike out was uneventful.

 

As soon as I got home, I went online looking for pictures of Pandora's Box. I still don't know exactly how far up that damn couloir to go to get to it.

 

Gear Notes:

Ice axe, helmet, crampons.

 

Approach Notes:

Colchuck Lake trail 100% snow-free. Snow extends to lake down from the Colchuck glacier, but not for long.

[chucK]

Pandora's Box,

 

from MVS's page

[Kyle_Flick]

About 50' from the terminus of the couloir, you head up on the rock on the left and cross a short exposed rock ridge and drop over onto the southeast snow slope of Dragontail. You'll get it next time.