racsom Posted February 26, 2008 Posted February 26, 2008 Trip: Dragontail - Triple Couloirs Date: 2/23/2008 Trip Report: On Feb 23rd madeinmontana and I tried to do a one day ascent of the Triple Couloirs after having a spectacular week of high temps, no storms and a trip report specifying good climbing conditions on the North Face of Dragontail. We came prepared for a bivy in case we were not fast enough and we knew that the weather would deteriorate on Sunday. We started the hike from the car around 3:00am on saturday and it took us about 4.5 hours to get to the lake. We stopped and melted some snow and refilled our water bottles with water. We noticed that the runnels from the 2nd couloir looked like they were covered in ice. We started heading to the base of the TC as soon as we stopped melting snow. As we approached the base of the route we noticed there was someone soloing the route and that gave us some confidence that the route was in shape. madeinmontana on the first couloir As we headed up the 1st couloir the soloist was coming down. He told us that the 1st pitch of the second couloir was in, but the 2nd pitch had some thin snow/ice and with out a belay it would have been too risky. (BTW Many thanks to him for that beta, 2nd pitch was definitely very thin). We soloed the 1st pitch (AI2) of the 2nd couloir with amazing alpine ice conditions, the type that makes you happy and secure every time you throw your ice tool. madeinmontana soloing the first awesome pitch!!! I led the second pitch (not sure what rating to give it but very sketchy) and that was really thin. I was able to place two good cams before the crux giving me confidence that a fall was not too dangerous. madeinmontana following the second pitch, thin ice.... The 3rd pitch had good enough ice to make it enjoyable. I just wish it had thicker ice so that I could have used the ice screws we had brought up. me starting the third pitch... We continued moving up to the start of the 3rd couloir and a navigation mistake at that point wasted us about 1 hour. Our mistake was moving up too high and missing the obvious iced corner. We tried climbing a variation thinking it would be covered with ice but quickly realized that it was safer to just move down and start the pitch from the very bottom. My partner led the pitch connecting the 2nd to 3rd couloir (about AI2+). madeinmontana on the second couloir... We reached the top of the 3rd couloir around 7:00 pm in white out conditions. We could not see 20 feet in front of us and we were unsure of the descent route even though I had done 2 summer routes previously on dragontail. We were worried that we could not find our way to asgard pass and find a good bivy spot. We decided to bivy at the summit ridge (just below the summit) and wait for daylight. It snowed all night and it was windy. Next morning we woke up in a whiteout and with a bunch of snow all over our stuff. As we started getting ready, my partner’s sock was stuck inside the boot due to ice. It had iced inside the boot and for the next 20 minutes we tried to pull it out (in retrospect that was pretty funny). After trying to warm it up we finally manage to pull/rip it off the boot and started to head out around 8:30 AM. We were still in a cloud but at least there was daylight and that allowed us to see further than with headlamps. We started moving to the summit and a short break in the clouds gave us a glimpse of our descent route. We arrived to our car around 4pm very tired and exhausted. As we were heading out, a cop pulled us over and asked for our names. Turns out one of our call backs (we had two) got too scared since he didn’t hear from us on Sunday and called the cops/rangers to perhaps check on us. It seemed like by the time we had arrived to our car they were starting to make some plans to check up on us. Many thanks for the quick support from them and we apologize for any inconvenience. Next time we will make sure that our call backs don’t get too worried if we missed our primary return time but still haven't reached our offical call back deadline. That is just how it goes in the alpine environment. ohh yeah, we both then ate some darn good burgers The snow conditions on the route were really good. As we kicked steps on the coulouirs I could not feel any crusts, or layers. Most of the time we were climbing, the snow was really well consolidated. As we reached the south side of the mountain however, the snow was heavily wind loaded. On Sunday it seemed that the top of the TC was heavily wind loaded from the storm and it seemed like it had a top layer crust so I bet avy danger has probably gone up since then. Gear Notes: We had a set of nuts, 0.75 to #2 BD cams, 5 pitons, 4 ice screws medium size, 2 pickets Frankly, the ice screws were really useless. The ice was not thick enough and most of it was alpine ice. I placed 2 ice screws on the whole route and those were mostly psychological pro. We found pitons, nuts and cams to be the most useful. Approach Notes: Walk up the road to the lake. Nothing special about it. Quote
madeinmontana Posted February 26, 2008 Posted February 26, 2008 Rascom did an amazing job leading the second pitch of the runnels. Very thin ice over rock!! Be ready for some mixed climbing to get around the corner. The storm that night dropped about 5" so avy danger has definitely increased (some cracks formed as we traversed the summit slope in the morning). Snowshoes would have helped to get to the river crossing on the way back down. Still a pretty good trail the rest of the way down but long after a shitty bivy. Quote
TrogdortheBurninator Posted February 26, 2008 Posted February 26, 2008 sounds like a good adventure. nice working getting it done. Nice talking to you guys in the morning. Quote
alpineyeti Posted February 26, 2008 Posted February 26, 2008 Yowwzah!! Way to get after it! Nicely done! Quote
Cornfed Posted February 26, 2008 Posted February 26, 2008 We were watching you guys from the Lake and thinking we didn't see you come down Saturday night. Good to hear you made it out okay. I think we saw your gear stashed at the edge of Colchuck Lake as well. Here is a photo of you on route -- I think we've got you circled in red. Quote
Bug Posted February 26, 2008 Posted February 26, 2008 You guys just went up for the photo ops. Campaign season IS in full swing. Quote
goatboy Posted February 26, 2008 Posted February 26, 2008 Wow -- so different than conditions I've seen in the past which was basically thick ice and neve the whole way.... What a different experience, climbing it in these mixed conditions.... Nice work! Also, a big day from the car in the short days of winter!!! I bet I would have been exhausted too.... Quote
jbyers Posted February 26, 2008 Posted February 26, 2008 Nice work! I got some pictures of you heading into the Hidden Couloir. Those middle gullies looked really thin even from the lake. We were nervous for a while because we saw you two head up, and then one person came out and was heading down pretty quickly but it was just the solo guy. Makes me feel lazy for just going up and skiing! Quote
madeinmontana Posted February 26, 2008 Posted February 26, 2008 Pretty standard bivy gear. Light down jackets, zero degree bags (heavy but totally worth it), basic bivy sack, racsom used his pack/rope for a pad and I had a small inflatable. We had ditched our stove at the lake so no melting (I don't think we would have anyway). Considering the conditions we stayed pretty warm all night. Just had to unclog the bivy mesh every 10 goddamn minutes and make sure we didn't take a ride off the summit ridge. Quote
Bug Posted February 26, 2008 Posted February 26, 2008 That sounds fun. I love climbing fast and light but as I get older and less impressed with myself, I value the oddly placed bivies more and more. Quote
fenderfour Posted February 27, 2008 Posted February 27, 2008 Way rad fellas. I am really hating my work schedule right now... Quote
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