[TR] Dragontail Peak - Backbone Ridge 7/29/2007

[sweatinoutliquor]

Trip: Dragontail Peak - Backbone Ridge

 

Date: 7/29/2007

 

Trip Report:

Jason (sparverous) and I hit up backbone ridge on Sunday with perfect weather and conditions. Nothing too out of the ordinary to report other than the route is sick and you should do it. Jason led the offwidth and didn't really have any trouble with it. If you haven't been paying attention, your shiny new #5 C4 cam isn't big enough to get you all the way up to the top (thanks to the previous TR's that indicated so) and although we were bummed to be dragging the 6 all the way, it was probably worth it for this one pitch. I followed with the pack and struggled a lot more than Jason did (he was taking stemming breaks and stuff) but in the end not having to haul the pack was nice. Right after this we thought we were sorta kinda off route (we got alarmingly close to Gary and Ania's roof) but it turned out that if you climb past it on the left you are probably fine and don't get stuck with more OW. I don't really remeber what was above that... Maybe one more pitch than easy simulclimbing to the base of the fin (one long lead). Another psudo simul lead up the ledge at the base of the fin and the good stuff starts. We were armed with every fin route description that we could find, and still we had no idea which cracks were which. We followed something that looked clean and indeed it was spectacular. The next pitch was this sweet traversing double crack (one for you hands, one for your feet... how convinent). Then one more also spectacular pitch and we were at the crest! As Jason reeled me in I was rejoicing at the thought of "easy rock to the summit". Or at least so I thought... When I arrived at the belay, what I saw was not easy rock. It was the top of triple couloirs, and no, it didn't look easy, it looked sketchy as S___! I begrudgingly took the lead and downclimbing into the mouth of this beast. Things were going poorly, and I was trying to figure out if it was even worth tying in because the rock was so loose. Just when I thought all hope was gone and I was going to be in the heart of this mess, I took another longing look back towards the crest of the fin and noticed a gully of vertical garbage that possibly led back to the fin crest beyond the gendarme that was previously blocking progress. I thought "What the heck, it can be worse than down here" and started up. After mining my way upward for about 30 feet things started to take on a more solid feeling and within another minute or so I was again stradling the ridge crest. I couldn't see where the route went from here, but my little pirch was solid so I set up a belay and reeled Jason in. From that spot, Jason traversed right around a corner, and then followed a ledge that was indeed the beginning of "easy rock to the summit". Thank god... I really didn't want to end the day in TC! Thanks for the fun trip Jason.

 

 

The offwidth:

The fin:

Back on the good stuff (they call it the fin for a reason!):

Looking back down the chossy gully:

Summit view:

Looking Back:

 

 

Gear Notes:

TCU 00-2 (didn't use 00 or 0)

BD C4 .4-3 +#5 and #6 (doubles .5-2)

A small selection on nuts

I thought the rack was pretty perfect. If you are pretty comfortable with OW climbing and don't mind running it out 10 feet or so in one of the harder spots you could probably leave the #5 at home...

 

Approach Notes:

Brought crampons and axe, didn't really need them for getting on or off the mountain cause the snow was soft enough.

[jport]

Nice work guys! We watched, from above, as you climbed the first few pitches of the Fin. Looks like a beautiful, solid slab! Cheers!

[sweatinoutliquor]

Cool... I think I may have waved to one of you.

[Bug]

Trip: Dragontail Peak - Backbone Ridge

 

I thought the rack was pretty perfect. If you are pretty comfortable with OW climbing and don't mind running it out 10 feet or so in one of the harder spots you could probably leave the #5 at home...

 

Thanks alot.

Now I'll never sell my #5.

 

Good TR. Great pics!

Thanks.

[sparverius]

Thanks for the TR and great trip Nate. It was my favorite climb of my enchantment experiences. And the pitches on the fin were some of the most enjoyable climbing I've ever done.

 

 

 

 

[Chriznitch]

[luvshaker]

Are there any bivy spots for two along the route?

 

And, if the weather was warm and we crossed the snowfield in the afternoon, could we leave the cramps/axe?

 

Thanks-

[ivan]

you could bivy in style at the notch below the fin, though it would ruin the style of the climb to haul much weight up it - there's usually a snow-field at the notch too

 

you can leave the cramps and axe - if it's too icy to descend the backside, take the rap stations just below the summit down to the flat glacier

[sweatinoutliquor]

I didn't notice any snow at the ledge below the fin, but maybe I wasn't looking hard enough. Yes, there are lots of bivy options on the ridge before you reach the fin, and if you had a light enough bivy kit it would probably be fun to spend the night with such an impressive view. That being said, it is nice not to have to bring the extra gear... We climbed with just one pack between the two of us so the leader got to climb without much weight... Made it a lot more fun I think. Also, like Ivan said, you can get on and off the mountain without crampons and an ice axe. I'm glad we didn't have to mess around with the rappels and just walked down though. The snow was soft, and although I brought crampons, we didn't use them. I'm not sure if it will be soft enough for that this late in the season.

[sparverius]

We tried to rappel off of dragontail back in early July, after climbing serpentine arete, and we ran into some problems mid-rappel. We had to leave a few nuts. After the 2nd rappel we encountered a loose block anchoring the next rappel station so we traversed on ledges towards Aasgard and found another station. We used it and were soon stranded on a face with no option but to build an anchor in the crack while I straddled my climbing partner. Not ideal, but it worked. Maybe we passed by the rap station Ivan spoke of? I'll think twice about rappeling off of that mountain again.