[TR] Dragontail Peak - Serpentine Arete 6/30/2008

[rob]

Trip: Dragontail Peak - Serpentine Arete

 

Date: 6/30/2008

 

Trip Report:

Friday, Scheissami and I left to do a few days of cragging in Leavenworth before tackling Serpentine on Monday. We arived around noon, and it was fucking hot. After wandering around private property for a while looking for poison ivy crack, we decided that our brains would melt if we tried to climb this south-facing shit, so we headed up to pearly gates instead. Scheissami led Dog Ate My Topo. We were going to finish up with that second slabby pitch above it (Scene is clean?) but we decided we'd rather get punched in the dick than do more slab climbing, so we went over and I led Loaves of Fun, where I managed to find a way to totally gumby up the top of the climb, trying to avoid the 5 feet of protected slabby moves by traversing over and up some shitty grass-infested choss to a higher anchor

 

Scheissami took the next lead on Celestial Groove, where he fell off the bouldery start onto a yellow camalot. He failed in his attempt to land on his head thanks to the vigilance of his extremely talented and attractive belayer, and after a few more tries we decided that it was too hot for anymore of this bullshit, so we went into town and had beer and german food at Adreas Keller and retired to the nearly full dirtbag lot -- thank god we had reservations!

 

The next day we woke up early and climbed around Barney's Rubble (in the shade) until it got too hot, so we went to sleep until the evening when we ventured out again to alphabet rock where Scheissami styled dogleg crack. We TRd that 10-ish sport climb to the right of dogleg, and then TRd meatgrinder. I belayed Scheissami on a TR lap of z-crack and then we went for beer at Ducks and Drakes, where Scheissami was hit on by a crazy woman.

 

The next morning we woke up early-ish and lapped classic crack a few times until the sun peaked over the trees, and then went into town and watched Germany lose to Spain. We figured we couldn't put it off anymore, so we packed up and headed up to Colchuck Lake in the afternoon, where we set up camp in the boulder field near the moraine.

 

Up early the next morning, we sauntered our way up the moraine to the base of Serpentine when the coffee started doing it's magic. Take it from me, there is a new cairn near-abouts with a special little surpise inside. I wouldn't kick it apart if I were you.

 

We found the start of the climb allright but had some route-finding trouble lower on the route, on our way to the top of the pillar. "How far off route do we have to be before it's a FA?" I asked, as I scoped out a lichen-covered slab above me. Scheissami has posited "wandering retards" as the name for our new variation.

 

From there, things went smoother. The crux pitch fell to Scheissami, who styled it. I freaked out a little bit on the easy friction traverse over the the start of the thin 5.7 cracks (you all know how much I LOVE friction climbing), where I panicked and put in too much gear down low and had to run out the last 20 or 30 feet of facey climbing to the belay. We simul-climbed most of the rest of the route, stopping every so often to belay the occasional mid-fifth step, which gave us an opportunity to re-rack gear and drink water. Tons of fun scrambling on this route, with huge positive edges and blocks to pull up on.

 

About 2/3rds of the way up, the thunder clouds came, which really put the pressure on us to haul ass. Luckily, they stayed a few miles out, and we never had any rain or nearby lightning. Climbing to the sound of thunder kind of sucks.

 

I ran out of water, which is a near-disaster for my body, and started bonking. Scheissami led the last 5.7-ish variation to the summit, where we celebrated with candy and photos, and booted our way down to aasgaard pass. I stopped at a tarn to drink deep of the watery goodness.

 

Booting down the rubble that is Aasgaard Pass sucks ass. We ended up hitting the moraine at nightfall, and wandered around for a few hours trying to find our tent, which we had cleverly positioned behind a boulder, sheltered from wind and from view. We were pretty beat when we finally found camp, so we ate some food we stashed earlier, and crashed out. We hiked out the next morning and picked up a few double helis at heidelburger and bathed in icicle creek. We drove out to WA Pass later that night for more fun and games.

 

Gear Notes:

DEET

 

Approach Notes:

Hide your tent behind a boulder.

[builder206]

This TR makes me want to run out and re-create your footsteps.

 

JK

 

He failed in his attempt to land on his head thanks to the vigilance of his belayer

 

'nuff said about that

 

But seriously: that's a nice bag o' crag & I hope you are tanned and tuned now.

[rob]

I hope you are tanned and tuned now.

 

Burned and spurned?

 

Scheissami is supposed to post pictures, but I think he's been too busy drinking beer and being Austrian.

[scheissami]

My head hurts. Definitely too many beers. I'm still drinking away the sorrows of losing a soccer match to Germany. Ugh.

 

Well, I apologize in advance for the photo assault. This climb is spectacular and very picturesque, even if the climbing itself isn't incredibly sustained.

 

Definitely bring DEET for the approach and climb. I was surprised how high those blood-suckers made it up the route...

 

Anyway, the goods:

 

The line on the hike in:

 

 

Alpenglow at camp the night before the climb:

 

 

Above the lake ascending Colchuck glacier:

 

 

The base of the route. If you're a hardman, you probably wouldn't rope-up for this, but Rob and I don't qualify for that title. The exposure was pretty significant so we decided to break out the rope and simul-climb.

 

 

This is where we started getting lost. We tried to follow Beckey's description and got a little confused. I would say, once you make it up the upper slabby stuff, follow the rightward trending gulley until it ends in a giant pillar. Traverse around that, and you should be at the base of the crux pitch. We think this is the 5.6 OW pitch described in Beckey's...Rob at the OW section:

 

 

Me heading out on the crux. Thanks to Rob's picture taking, this looks pretty wicked; the route is not overhung and is maybe 80 degrees. Very fun pitch: weird fingers to bomber hands.

 

 

Rob making his way across the slabby start to the subsequent 5.7 pitch and the last of the real sustained difficulties. Pro was awkward on this pitch and the climbing spicy but interesting.

 

 

The sight that greeted us at the top of the pillar...time to scramble the rest of this. We stayed roped and simul-climbed just about all of it, belaying a few spots of low 5th class.

 

 

Though exceptionally beautiful, neither Rob nor I really appreciated the views of oncoming storm clouds. Thankfully, the storm never made it to Dragontail...

 

 

Rob topping out:

 

 

Hydrating on the descent down Aasgard:

 

 

Due to our route-finding issues and general slowness, we made it to the bottom of the pass just at dark, in time to enjoy prolonged searching for our campsite. Oh, well, all fun has it's price.

 

Although the climbing isn't sustained, the money pitches are fun, and the route has a big-mountain feel. As soon as I brush-up my off-width skills I'd like to tackle Backbone ridge....

 

 

[kevbone]

Sweet....good job guys.....

[JoshK]

Wow, Rob, I'd hate to bushwhack with that long of an ice-axe.

[rob]

you're just jealous of my long shaft. I get that alot.

[ivan]

Wow, Rob, I'd hate to bushwhack with that long of an ice-axe.

might be worth pointing out too that the route can be done sans axe and crampons now, though having a big shaft at all times does have it's rewards

[denalidave]

Seems like most folks bring axe & pons then never use them, not that I don't believe Ivan *cough*, should we leave the axe & pons at home for this route this weekend?

[ivan]

sounds like the rap stations survied the recent rockfall, so leave'em at home!

[tvashtarkatena]

I've notified the proper authorities of your failure to make use of a your blue bags.

Edited August 19, 2009 by tvashtarkatena