IceFrog Posted December 9, 2009 Posted December 9, 2009 Trip: Leavenworth - Drury Falls 12/8/09 - Drury Falls Date: 12/9/2009 Trip Report: Picture of Drury falls on December 8, 2009 Looking big and fat, I can not do it this weekend so good luck. It looks like the perfect time to do it, hardly any snow in the gully and the ice is phattt! Happy hunting IceFrog Quote
AlpineMonkey Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 So many choices...To bad its going to be shitty this weekend. Quote
pdk Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 Does this require fording the river? Or am I thinking of something else out that way? Quote
goatboy Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 Yes, you need to get across the river somehow. boat? Quote
Dane Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 I "think" a couple of leavenworth Monkeys did it today. Quote
Jens Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 No cars parked at the pullouts on my way over to the icicle. I did see one sunk rubber raft at the bottom of the river but it looked like it was from last ice season. Quote
AlpineMonkey Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 Did you guys get a look at the drip? Quote
Sol Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 Did you guys get a look at the drip? rumor is that it's not even close to forming. Quote
Jens Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 What Sol said. ----------------- and... The pencil has almost no ice so far this year. Not enough water? Quote
Wild_Bill Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 Was also in the area yesterday (Dec 8th). Didn't look like any way across the river in the Drury area without flotation. Looked like you might be able to cross a little ways (a mile or so) west with some knee-high rubber boots and trekking poles...if you were really desperate. Got on Hubba Hubba, as did another party behind us. Thin at the start (left side fatter by the end of the day than the morning), but certainly climbable. Left and Right of Hubba Hubba were also "climbable" but not too inspiring. The road was nearly bare all the way to the campground. Something else across Icicle and up just a little ways also looked formed. Quote
montypiton Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 (edited) Drip was not even close to the ground on Tuesday. Fat ice at the top if you can dry-tool the lower half... The party planning the Drury attempt that day are neighbors, and they haven't called to gloat, which is a suspicious sign... Most of the Old Farts like to wait until the flowpath is completely covered, because the Waterfall Wall functions as something of a heat-sink due to its sun exposure. Alan Kearney and I had screw placements falling out of soft ice when the air-temp was around 0-F on one ascent back in about '83... Our solution was to shorten pitches so the leader would establish the next belay anchor/stance before his protection screws started pulling out!?!? Scary... Lotsa short stuff in in the Icicle Canyon, though - spent yesterday (the 9th) working out the kinks at Rainbow gully. FWIW, I prefer my Rebels to the new Cobra - I was climbing on my son's Cobras because my replacement Rebel isn't due until January... The hand-support at the base of the Cobra actually compresses my mongo fingers, and is enough bulkier than the Rebel support that I kept banging the grip against the ice; also, it lacks a triggerfinger fitting, and I missed the "power-steering" effect. Most likely operator error, and I'd get over it if I used the tools for a while. I guess I'll get to see between now and January... -Curtis-the-Haireball Edited December 10, 2009 by montypiton Quote
CascadeClimber Posted December 11, 2009 Posted December 11, 2009 (edited) The lower tier, which looks short but is actually more than a 60m pitch, looks super thin in that pic- you can see the rock showing through most of it and it's open in the middle. The upper section (2.5-3 pitches on a 60m) look okay, but definitely not fat- you can see the dark rock showing underneath still. The top pitch, even in fat conditions, usually has a thin section with a high volume of water running behind it. I'm not saying it won't go, just that it's not fat. On the up side, the avy risk appears to be nil; the gully can be a death-trap, not unlike the Night-N-Gale approach in Lillooet. Some pics from 2003 here: Drury Falls 2003 Edited December 11, 2009 by CascadeClimber Quote
montypiton Posted December 11, 2009 Posted December 11, 2009 Finally called the neighbors, & have their report: they didn't even try for Drury... felt it was just "too cold" and that they didn't want to work up a sweat on the approach and then freeze all day on the climb. So they went to Hubba Hubba and climbed the Funnel instead - said they had a great time... and do listen to CascadeClimber: Drury is not a "fun" climb when you see rock showing through the flow from the highway... Quote
Sol Posted December 11, 2009 Posted December 11, 2009 The Drip has formed a ton more new ice in the last 5 days. Still not as phat as it usually is later on in the year. Did see a car parked at the pullout today on my way to work though... Quote
spiderman Posted December 12, 2009 Posted December 12, 2009 That was my car, it isn't touching down. Still has about 9-12 feet to go, and it's running(raining) down water at a rate of 5-10 gallons per minute. If it forms, and is pouring down water the way it was when I was there, I still wouldn't touch it. Check out Merciful Fate's photo's in another thread, he's got a close up shot of it posted. Quote
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