[TR] Colchuck - North Buttress Couloir 6/20/2007

[escapeclause]

Trip: Colchuck - North Buttress Couloir

 

Date: 6/20/2007

 

Trip Report:

John Banes and I climbed Colchuck's North Buttress Couloir on 6/20. The snow in the lower couloir was discontinuous in three closely spaced sections. A couple of apparent forth class moves got us over the first rock band. At the second rock band we followed the snow up to the right searching for an easy way over the obstacle then decided that we needed to rope up. At that point, our progress for the day ground to a slow crawl. We traversed left and up on a rocky spine, then back into the snow of the couloir. This was a 40ft, 5.2 pitch with one piece of protection and a crack for a belay. The pitch ended up bypassing the third snow discontinuity so that was the end of our rock-climbing in the couloir. We couldn't see farther above us so we kept a running belay to the top of the couloir. Unfortunately, John had to kick the steps by himself, all the way to the top. Midway up the couloir, I noticed that the sole of my left boot had partially-detached itself. I put my crampons on to keep it in place. Another delay.

 

After topping out on the couloir, the going got even slower, we kept a running belay, only because we didn't know what to expect. A significant amount of snow had melted off the Northwest face. We lost the snow and traversed too far to the right. We then back-tracked to find the snow route. At that point, the day had worn on and because it was so warm and sunny, the snow was really soft. We were post-holing, sometimes over our knees, making for slow, arduous going. Being tied together on the rope became a real hindrance and we both decided to coil the rope and rely on our scrambling skills to finish off the climb. After topping out at the base of the summit block, we traversed to the right and found what looked like the only reasonable way up, a 15ft 4th class/low fifth class section. Since my boot sole was still partially-detached, I did it in crampons. We summitted after 10.5 hours.

 

We were feeling jubilant that it was nearly the longest day of the year , that the weather was still looking good and that the views were fantastic. After descending the sandy benches to the head of the Colchuck glacier, we realized that the soft snow was now a friend to our behinds. A 2,500ft glissade ensued, all the way to Colchuck Lake. We were back on the trail in minutes. I took off my crampons and proceeded to flop 4.5 miles back to the trailhead. All in all, it was a boot sole shy of an epic.

 

 

Gear Notes:

ice axe, rope, small rack. Use the rope for the lower rock bands, then pack it away and scramble to the summit.

 

Approach Notes:

trail snow free

[dinomyte]

we realized that the soft snow was now a friend to our behinds. A 2,500ft glissade ensued, all the way to Colchuck Lake. We were back on the trail in minutes. I took off my crampons.....

 

From the order you wrote it (glissade then crampons) it was a broken leg short of an epic!

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Ya, that would have hurt. I took the crampons off at the Colchuck-Dragontail Col. We had a little duct-tape that we used to try to hold the boot together at the col, in the place of the crampons. About halfway down the glacier the duct-tape wrap came off. I continued on glissading to the lake shore with the floppy boot sole. We ran into a camper along the lake that gave us some more duct tape. This time we wrapped the tape closer to the instep. It still only lasted a couple of hundred more yards. It seemed not to have the best grip on wet leather and tended to expand slightly after walking. After that, we didn't take any other corrective measures because it seemed that if I angled my foot up slightly as I took a step, the floppy sole wouldn't catch roots and such. It worked enough to get us to the trailhead, but the flopping sound just about drove John off his rocker!