[TR] Mount Colchuck - Colchuck Glacier 3/20/2010

[RokIzGud]

Trip: Mount Colchuck - Colchuck Glacier

 

Date: 3/20/2010

 

Trip Report:

Eastking, Jimbopo and I got to the gated road at around 9 AM on sundayand started the 4 miles of road walking. The snow was solid enough that we didn’t need snowshoes. When we started on the actual trail we were greeted with an icy trail. It was pretty icy until we got to the foot bridge. We reached the junction to Colchuck Lake and Stuart Lake and took a quick breather. Jimbopo went ahead of us to get a jumpstart on setting up the tent. I was grateful when I reached the frozen lake but I wasn’t quite sure where Mike was setting up the tent so I decided to head to the end of the lake at the base of Dragon Tail peak. I was feeling tired when I found Jimbopo but I felt a lot better after I ate and drank some water. EastKing made it to us in short time and we talked about our plan. EastKing and Jimbopo were feeling a little tired but Eastking gave me the go ahead to start up. I didn’t really want to plan a summit bid for the morning because there was supposed to be bad weather on Sunday.

 

 

Mtn. Climber, his son and a friend cooked up some awesome steps that I ate right up. Without the steps they kicked it would have been a lot tougher for me on the glacier. I didn’t have to put crampons on until I reached the col after awhile of zigzagging my way up. I met Mtn. Climber at the Col. He took a quick picture of me gave a few words of advice and I headed up the crux. The crux was pretty fun. I met up with Mtn. Climber’s son and friend as they were headed down and they told me I was about 25 minutes from the summit. That last 25 minutes or so was really interesting along the summit ridge. Seeing all the snowcapped mountains around me was pretty great. As I was approaching the summit block a couple was coming down. It was a great day to be on Colchuck. On the summit I took a bunch of photos, enjoyed the view of Stuart and other srounding peaks and started my way down. When I was heading down the crux I noticed a climber on the col. At first I thought it was Mtn. Climber but another figure came into view and it was Eastking and Jimbopo! I wished them luck, gave them my camera and headed down. The glissade was quick. It probably took less than 20 minutes to get from the Col to our tent. I went and hung out at Mtn. Climbers camp. Meanwhile on the top of Colchuck; Eastking and Jimbopo made the summit and had an awesome view of the sunset. They also had a great night glissade. From the sounds of it I missed out.

 

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcZlyVqLs7c

 

 

I met up with them at the bottom and we got into Jimbopo’s little tent. It was a tight fit and the wind kicked up pretty hard that night. I was almost worried the tent would collapse but it was staked down with ice axes and trekking poles and held tough trough out the night. When we woke up in the morning it was still pretty windy. We hung out, not wanting to tackle the weather quite yet. Finally we got our stuff packed and prepared for the 8 mile trek back to the car. The wind was pretty strong as we were crossing the lake. A couple times it made me a little off balance. The rest of the way down was pretty good. The last mile of the trail seemed to take forever and on the road we started getting some rain. All in all it was an awesome trip! I want to thank EasKing for inviting me and Jimbopo for carrying the tent. It was truly great company.

You can check out EastKings trip report and read more about their night glissade at;

http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=606488&type=vote_comments&discussion_id=370717#370717

 

Edited March 23, 2010 by RokIzGud

[needtoclimb]

Nice trip report. Teresa and I saw you guys coming down the road Sunday afternoon. We were headed up in the rain and met you on the road just past the gate. She was hiking a little ahead of me. Good work getting up there.

 

As for current conditions, we spend Sunday night at the south end of the lake. It snowed most the night with very strong winds. We woke up and found almost all the tracks obliterated. We crossed the lake, punching through a lot. I would recommend snowshoes or skis. Our plan was to do the Coulour on Colchuck, and headed straight up the glacier moraine. All the kicked steps were gone. Without being able to find any pre-kicked steps, we had to make our own.

 

It was some of the toughest hiking I have done in a while. 2 inches of powder covered a crust layer, and below the crust was about 1.5 feet of powder. The crust was just hard enough to kick onto, set 3/4 of my weight before it broke, post holing up to my knee. Without snowshoes, this quickly became quite irksome. It took about 1.5 hours to get from the lake to the moraine. On the moraine, the snow was deeper still, breaking through the crust and plunging past the knee. I know there are steps out there somewhere, but everything was filled in. We got to a little below the start of the coulour, and realized it would take many more hours at that rate to get up, and we still needed to hike out today. Not wanting to do the long hike out exhausted and in the dark, we headed down.

 

Crossing the lake again to our tent, I punched through about every 3rd step. Teresa, being a bit lighter, managed to stay on the crust most the way across the lake, but I couldn't. The trail from the road to the lake is all hard-packed and quick, its the upper portions that were very powdery

[RokIzGud]

I remember you guys. It looks like you just missed some good conditions. Good luck on future climbs!