[TR] Dragontail - Le Serpent 8/31/2013

[YocumRidge]

Trip: Dragontail - Le Serpent

 

Date: 8/31/2013

 

Trip Report:

Although it is impossible to get bored of the beautiful Beacon rock, I decided to change a venue and headed to Dragontail over the Labor day weekend with my Seattle friend Gerry. The short approach is always appealing but the daylight is not as long as a couple months ago and the Stuart lake p-lot, like Heathrow airport, never disappoints: my faint attempts to get any sleep are pretty much zero. Coffee helped and we hit the trail at 3 a.m.

 

 

Beacon Rock, just twice as big, at sunrise:

 

 

 

 

There is still some ice connecting the lateral moraine and the base of Serpentine but no need for pons/axes as it goes well in the approach shoes.

On the approach from the car, cragging style:

 

 

Rolling on route at 7 a.m.:

 

We quickly simul-climbed the first 500’ below the steeper pitches. The fixed gear is everywhere - a good sign that we are on route.

 

In the awkward corner on p1:

 

 

In the OW on p2:

 

 

Gerry in the twin cracks on p3:

 

 

In the dihedral on p4:

 

 

We reached the Beckey pin, located the bailout slings and gear to the right and decided to climb left through the steep tower, way harder than anything below we just did, but managed to get back on route.

 

We simul-climb again on cl. 4/easy 5 trying to follow the arête before getting to a 3 way intersection. So far we moved pretty efficiently, until we did not. With the headwall in my face, my smart ass after having remembered the beta “to follow the arête and to bypass difficulties on the right” decided to go right towards the Bovine route and then up.

 

Do not do that – a major time sucker. It is amazing how fast things can change on this route from being good to poor. I lead an aweful dihedral placing micronuts that keep falling out and we loose more time.

 

 

At the base of the dihedral (pp8-9?) that needs to be avoided:

 

 

After Gerry comes up, he finds a better looking crack system going left and then right. He disappears around the corner but then announces that there are more blank headwalls above and requests to be lowered. Off a micronut. After rigging a 30 m rap, we get down on the easier terrain where we were able to traverse left.

 

It is not a hard 5 anymore, but not easily simul-climbable either. By the time we reached the blocky tower below the summit pyramid, the naturally triggered rockfall greeted us and necessitated some elaborate dodging. OK, so we dodge and manage to stay alive in the process.

 

Finally the terrain eases up and we go around the blocky tower on the right, then left, then right and left towards the Fin. Le Serpent.

 

Only at 7 p.m. we arrive on the summit ridge and surprisingly enough still have some water left.

 

On the summit ridge:

 

Gerry on the summit:

 

 

We hike down the trail to the notch for the snowfield leading to Aasgard just to realize that kicking in steps on the quickly hardening snow in the approaching darkness might not the be best thing in the world.

 

 

Rainier in repose:

 

 

We continued down south in the bowl by Witches tower and spent a few hours next to running water under the boulder while waiting for the sun. In not so cragging style.

 

The goats running those icy slopes like it is not a big deal whereas I had to rely on my Neanderthal self-arrest rock:

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

A set of stoppers, singles 0.3 - 0.5, doubles 0.75 - 3

 

Approach Notes:

Colchuck Lake

[KaskadskyjKozak]

 

Nicely done! And cool pics!

[OlegV]

Very nice work! Aaron and I were worried about you guys! We were ready to go and rescue you!