Colchuck NE Couloir variation?

[Maxtrax]

This past April myself and my friends Brittany and Matt climbed the NE Couloir of Colchuck. At the constriction near 2/3rd height we roped up and I first tried to force the left-hand (standard, I believe) line but was turned back by sugar snow, overhanging snice and a thin veneer of ice delaminating from the rock on the left.

 

To try and bypass the direct line through the constriction Matt led out to the right and up for about 40m on M4/AI2 ground until he gained a steep snowfield and could find a belay. We continued up the snowfield trying to get back left to the standard finish but kept getting turned back by unconsolidated sugar snow on top of rotten AI or kitty litter choss and in one case an overhanging chockstone. In two simul leads we got to the top margin of the snowfield and found our way blocked by a relatively short rock face with a few crack systems and one prominent corner on the left with a bit of an ice smear in it.

 

We weren't sure exactly where we were in relation to the standard notch or the summit but it looked like the best option to get out of the couloir. The pitch was about 50-55m long and in the conditions we found it, it went at ~M6 X. To my surprise but elation as I pulled over the small cornice at the top it had topped out about 5m from the summit.

 

I'm curious if anyone else has climbed this variation or if they found a better exit if they got forced into the right-hand fork of the couloir. We found one pin on our first roped pitch at 2/3rd height and I managed to fix a #5 Bugaboo on the last pitch but other than that there were no signs of a previous climb.

 

Thanks,

Max

Edited September 10, 2009 by Maxtrax