[TR] Mesahchie - Icefall and couloir 10/19/2008

[cbcbd]

Trip: Mesahchie - Icefall and couloir

 

Date: 10/19/2008

 

Trip Report:

z-man and I hiked in on Saturday to the bivy basin and got an early start Sunday on the route. The neve was firm, the weather just cold enough, and the snow continuous.

After topping out on the couloir, the gully systems heading up were mostly covered with snow, with rock steps here and there. After a nice (but after we looked down on it, probably unnecessary if you went around on climber's right) rock pitch lead by the man to the top of the last false summit we agreed to current satisfaction and decided to start making our way down.

In all, very fun route and perfect conditions.

 

 

(click pics for bigger version)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

rest of pics:

http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showgallery.php?cat=500&page=1&ppuser=15545

 

Gear Notes:

3 screws, few nuts, few tricams, 1 cam.

 

Approach Notes:

Go up the grassy slope from Easy Pass to 7000ft and start traversing.

[goatboy]

Nice job and thanks for the pix and conditions report.

 

In reconning this once (it was not in shape at the time -- bare and snowless, in fact) it appeared to me that this route makes for a fairly short climb before gaining the ridge crest...

 

Is that true, and do you have any pix of the formation showing where the route goes?

 

Thanks!

[cbcbd]

hey goat,

It took a lot less time than we expected to go from Mesahchie col, drop to the glacier, walk around Cub peak, climb up the ice fall and up the couloir to the ridge. We were taking it easy and it took about 2h 30m from col to the top of the ridge.

 

Sorry, no pics from me of the route before the ridge, we topped out at 6:30am so it was dark through the ice fall/couloir section. Some good pics of it here:

http://www.summitpost.org/route/160438/mesahchie-icefall-couloir.html

[goatboy]

Okay, thanks a lot for the info.