[TR] Dragontail Peak - Serpentine Arete 8/4/2015

[lutzman]

Trip: Dragontail Peak - Serpentine Arete

 

Date: 8/4/2015

 

Trip Report:

Went up serpentine this week. Approach was seamless making it to the base without touching feet to snow. Climbed four easy but relatively wandery pitches before getting to the black tower. After the crux pitches we pretty much simuled the remainder of the route, occasionally stopping to exchange gear or to reduce drag. I lead the second half of the route and picked the easiest line up the ridge veering right to avoid difficulties which kept the climbing below mid class 5 the entire time. Vast majority was class 4 however, rarely above it. I knocked a couple rocks loose higher on the route accidentally (sorry Janet!), teetering rocks were fairly abundant. All in all we spent 9 hours total between our camp at colchuck and the summit.

 

The descent was uneventful. Although the snowfield looked firm when we bypassed it the previous day, the booting was soft and did not require any gear, glad to have left pons and axes at the car this trip. I wore microspikes over my running shoes and my partner wore her hiking boots and we made it down to the pass fast and safe stress-free. Great trip.

 

Gear Notes:

full rack to 3"

[ilias]

Nice work!

[rbtree]

Very nice route! Besides the walk up from the Enchantments, it was my second route on Dragontail. Next on the list, about 1980, was Backbone Ridge.