first ascent [TR] NF Colonial Peak - FA: "First Date" Gr.IV AI3/M3 2/21/2010

[Dirtyleaf]

Trip: NF Colonial Peak - FA: "First Date" Gr.IV AI3/M3

 

Date: 2/21/2010

 

Trip Report:

On Saturday Beau (pronounced "bow") Carillo and I (Geoff Cecil) headed up to the North Cascades to climb something on Colonial Peak. We had a few things we were very interested to climb. The trip came to together with the help of Wayne and a helmet that he let me borrow. Then I left it in the backseat of my car. I guess I'll climb something on the NF of Colonial without a helmet? The approach was too...awesome. We had an open bivy below the face. It was cold. Woke up to a perfect bluebird day! What were we going to do? Not Watusi Rodeo. My head would've turned into a smashed grapefruit on an ice route. So, we just started climbing straight up from our bivy site. We encountered alpine ice 3 for a few sections down low along with some steep (70-75) degree snow climbing. Got up into the unclimbed couloir. 60 degree snow which turned into some short AI3 sections along with some mixed climbing up top. We simul-soloed the whole route but brought a rope, ice and rock rack. Speed was our ally as I had no head gear and was paranoid of things melting and falling down on my head. We pushed hard to the summit and ran down and grabbed our packs and started the schwack/falling down over logs back to the car. A great route, beautiful day, and a great climbing partner! Thanks Wayne!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Tools, bivy gear, crampons.

 

Approach Notes:

Colonial Creek

[telemarker]

Kick ass Geoff!

[wayne]

Cool, Glad it worked out!

 

We got that route done on Pyramid. It's the right hand face of your 10th photo. Look for it on store shelves soon.

[NoahT]

Nice job! Is this one of the gullies right of the face?

 

 

 

[EastKing]

Excellent pics! Way to go!!

[Dannible]

Cool. Mountains can be neat sometimes. Your helmet has been in my truck for months. I figured you knew that.

[AlpineBEAU.509]

its the first gullie to the right of the face.

[johnson]

Way to go! Thanks for the TR.

[pup_on_the_mountain]

Awesome!!

[Dirtyleaf]

Maybe I should re-rate it AI3 M-Fag? It sounds more appropriate.

Scratching crampons on rock is pretty rediculous.

[iron]

wow. when we saw you guys climbing that face, i could hardly believe it. i need to upload some pictures i took, but here are some from my girlfriend: http://picasaweb.google.com/carriejohnson19/HeadedForSnowfield22010

[kukuzka1]

what couloir? and not to be a dick, but is it same overall grade as wtf rodio IV?

[Dirtyleaf]

No, wtf rodio is steeper and more sustained overall. It has a couple steeper ice sections about mid and the upper three quarters of the route. It looks pretty fat right now. It's the first couloir to the right of the main face. The second line to the right of wtf rodio.

[kukuzka1]

thanks, great job

[Dirtyleaf]

 

 

 

 

[iron]

guys. i put up a TR on nwhikers. in there, you'll find a photo or two of you climbing: http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7981553

[Dirtyleaf]

Cool. Thanks for sharing!

[TrogdortheBurninator]

Looks like fun!

 

in iron's pic, it looks like you guys are traversing into your couloir from much higher and further right than the line you drew. (below the next couloir to the right)

[JoshK]

Great TR-in-a-TR iron, I enjoyed the read. Proud trips for all 3 of the parties in that area at the time.

[Dirtyleaf]

That pic of us traversing is on our way down back to our bivy site.

[TrogdortheBurninator]

ah, that makes sense

[Pilchuck71]

Bad Ass! Nice work!

 

[AlpineBEAU.509]

Thanks for the pics Iron, beautiful weekend.