[TR] Dragontail - Serpentine Arete, Attempt on Colchuck 8/20/2007

[Jeff Woodward]

Trip: Dragontail - Serpentine Arete, Attempt on Colchuck

 

Date: 8/20/2007

 

Trip Report:

[font:Verdana]James (lostboy) and I climbed Serpentine Arete on Dragontail and made an attempt at the NE Buttress of Colchuck back in late August.

 

James and I met via the Cascade Climbers partner forum! I'm stoked that it worked. This trip was been christened "The Good Luck/Bad Luck trip." Here’s why:

The Approach:

 

With almost no knowledge of the permit process, James and I showed up at the Ranger Station at 7:44 AM.

 

Good Luck: The permit lottery is at 7:45 AM, and we won a permit!

 

Bad Luck: About 3 miles from the trailhead James' VW Passat broke down.

 

Luckily, the car made it back into town but the mechanic couldn't look at it until that afternoon.

 

Good Luck: It took us approximately 2 seconds to hitch a ride to Castle Crag so that we could at least get some climbing in.

 

Bad Luck: It started raining.

 

Back in Leavenworth, the mechanic said it was going to take a couple days to fix. Naturally, it would cost a lot more money than originally quoted, leaving us in Leavenworth without a car or a place to crash at 5pm.

 

While James talked to the mechanic, I got to know the ladies at the Natural Food Store next door (Sage Mountain Natural Foods). The woman behind the counter heard about our predicament, and called her friend who lives past the end of Icicle Creek Road. He was in town, and was kind enough to pick us up, drive us up Icicle Creek Road, and drive an extra 4-5 miles down a dirt road to the Colchuck Lake trailhead. He's great, and he has a really cute kid.

 

Climbing: Day 1

 

We woke up at 6am to find some folks already headed to our intended route for the day, Serpentine Arete. However, the NE Buttress of Colchuck is also right there, and we wanted to climb that, too.

 

 

The routes we climbed. The N face of Dragontail is on the L, Colchuck on the R. The part of the NE Buttress that we climbed is in red, Serpentine Arete (roughly) is in blue.

 

 

James looking intimidated in the morning.

 

Bad Luck (or bad routefinding): We started heading for the Buttress that's one left of the NE Buttress.

 

Good Luck: James is much smarter than I am, and we found the right one before we got badly off track.

 

 

Colchuck in the morning. We almost headed for the low buttress on the middle-left.

 

After crossing the glacier and surmounting the bergschrund (strenuous 5.8 where we did it), I decided to try and link the first two pitches. The 2nd pitch which I linked went up a pretty corner which was much harder than I thought. I was also more tired than I thought. (Upon further reflection, the corner is described as a 5.9 variation in the Beckey guide).

 

The offending corner. The climbing is good, just harder than I thought.

 

As James followed, an ice axe fell off his pack and onto the glacier. Then his camera fell off the pack and onto the glacier. When he finally got up to the belay, it was 11am.

 

 

James, rather tired at the end of the linked pitch.

 

We know an epic when we see one (we were overly tired, hard routefinding, surprisingly hard climbing, unknown glacier descent, down one ice axe, and threatening weather). So we bailed. We did recover the ice axe and the camera, and the camera still takes pictures!

 

Bad Luck: At 4pm, it started raining.

 

Good Luck: We were playing cards in the tent.

 

Climbing: Day 2

There have been a lot of trip reports written about Serpentine, so I'm going to relate our trip up it in pictures.

 

 

Evening clouds on Dragontail.

 

 

More pretty clouds.

 

 

James hiking up the approach the next morning. We got an earlier start.

 

 

James on a lower pitch, just as the rock started to get good.

 

 

Me with the Colchuck-Dragontail col in the background. Had we kept going up Colchuck, our descent would have gone down the glacier behind me (it's not as steep as it looks, but still). Sounds fun with one ice ax and no crampons in the dark.

 

 

Me at the start of the fun crux pitch.

 

 

Climbing higher on that pitch. The little handcrack above me and to my left was great fun.

 

 

James loves his self-portraits.

 

 

Slapping for a hold on the last 20 feet of 5.7 before the top.

 

 

James styling higher up on the last tricky bit.

 

 

James has conquered the mountain.

 

 

Stuart from the summit of Dragontail. The North Ridge is outlined pretty well.

 

 

James showing off on the summit. I bet him a 6-pack that he couldn't do a handstand. He claims this is a handstand. I still haven't bought him the 6-pack.

 

 

The descent down the back of Dragontail. We found some great glissading here. Ice axe nice, crampons definitely not necessary for us.

 

The next day, we got a ride out before we even left out campsite. Hitchhiking in that area is too easy. James' car now runs again.

 

Serpentine is a ton of fun - a few full 5.7/5.8 pitches and a bunch of 4th-easy 5th pitches with 15 foot sections of 5.7. Lots of simul-climbing if you do it right.

 

NE Buttress of Colchuck is probably also a bunch of fun, but I can only speak for 1-2 pitches.[/font]

 

 

Gear Notes:

We carried a decently heavy rack. We didn't need it. Don't bring a #3.

 

Ice axe very handy.

 

Crampons would have been handy, but not necessary. They might be necessary for the descent off Colchuck.

 

Approach Notes:

Don't have your car break down.

 

For Serpentine, once you're ~1000 feet above the lake, make sure to gain the moraine crest (it's really obvious).

 

Colchuck glacier looks very ugly up towards the col - lots of blue ice.

[Bug]

Nice pics.

Good call on bailing. The Colchuck can be a very fast ride down.

Thanks for posting!

[LostBoy]

Dude, only my hands were touching the rock for like, 15 seconds, therefore I was standing on them, ie a "handstand." Anyone want to back me up here? It doesn't have to be expensive beer... natural ice would be fine.

 

ps- nice trip report bro

[olyclimber]

Have any other pictures of the Colchuck glacier? I haven't seen it this late in the year/in that state before. (not that i'm headed up there anytime soon with my broken leg, just wondering how far that thing retreats and how steep it is)

[ClimbingPanther]

yeah, it's kinda hairy. ~40-45 degrees and water ice. I've been up there this time of year before w/o rope & pro, and turned around b/c it was one slip and you're dead.

only pics are film, so no help there.

[spotly]

Looked at it yesterday - looked like solid ice. I was surprised at how far up the slope it's retreated - up near the steeper section. Maybe it's like that most years at this time - don't know. Was just surprising because when I went in there early summer(first time) it ran all the way to the water so I just assumed most of that was glacier. I'll post a pic later tonight when I get home.

[Jeff Woodward]

Here are a couple pics of Colchuck.

 

The first one's a zoom from the routes overview shot. It gives the best sense of the steepness, etc.

 

 

These next two are closer up, but the steepness of the glacier is way out of whack. It's not as steep as it looks.

 

 

 

Enjoy!

[ashw_justin]

It's not as steep as it looks.

The vantage from Serpentine must be the least biased view of the actual pitch of the Colchuck glacier that one could get... (The photos from below are foreshortened.) I'm not so sure the camera is playing tricks there--it was way scary-looking and didn't look conventionally hikeable by any reasonable stretch of the imagination on Sept. 2.

[Off_White]

Sorry LostBoy, no beer for you.

 

From Wikipedia:

A handstand is the act of standing erect, but upside down, with one's hands on the ground and feet in the air. The basic handstand has legs extended vertically with no knee bend, hands roughly shoulder-width apart, and head facing forward, but there are numerous variations.