scottgg Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 Trip: Dragontail - Gerber-Sink North Face Date: 2/17/2008 Trip Report: Before I scrambled up its ridges or kicked steps up its couloirs, Dragontail Peak captivated my imagination through the pictures and descriptions in Nelson's Selected Climbs book. After seeing pictures of its northwest aspect from Colchuck Lake, a winter route instatntly jumped out to my novice eyes: an asthetic line starting at the face's lowest point and continuing through steep gullys and exposed snowfields all the way to the summit. Turns out this route had been climbed in August 1971, by Eric Gerber and Charles Sink. Somewhere along the line, someone figured their rock route would be pretty spectaular when seasoned with snow and ice, and while the route is not as popular a winter/spring objective as the neighboring Triple Couloirs, its still gets climbed occasionally. Such was the case during this past Presidents Day weekend... Mark Bunker had a sailboat race on Saturday, and figured that would be the perfect warmup for a mid-winter romp in the Stuart Range on Sunday. He had climbed this route before, in both summer and spring, yet convincing him to climb it again proved easy. Hit the trailhead at 3:30am, stoked about the starry skies and crisp temps. Made good time up the road, then through the forest, and finally across Colchuck Lake. Started up the route at 9:45 and boy is it a fun one! Super stellar climbing led up thin gullys, exposed snowfields, and steep chimneys before joining the last of the "Triple Couloirs". Must do route for anyone enjoying long moderate mixed climbs! Marko starting the first pitch Alpine Bliss: Entering the 3rd Couloir: On Top: Headed down: Back to the car at 10:30pm, then off to McDonals for the requisite caffeine. Quote
pup_on_the_mountain Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 Awesome job!! Thanks for the stokey I sat on by butt and got fat ... Quote
tvashtarkatena Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 You can climb, but you cannot hide: Taken yesterday from Colchuck Lake. Quote
dbb Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 nice work gents! I was wondering if that was coming in yet.. Quote
spicoli11 Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 Great idea!! This provides reason to get up that way in winter. Too bad the weather is moving back in this week. Quote
OlympicMtnBoy Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 Sweet! Nice pics all around too, I love the climber dot pic. I was just bruising my hands on basalt columns, glad someone was out getting bigger stuff in the stellar weather. Quote
jordansahls Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 What would you say about the difficulty of this route with the conditions you had? Quote
ken4ord Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 God damn that just looks like a ton of fun. Good work. Quote
kevino Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 I think we saw you crossing the lake as we were leaving. There was another group we broke trail with on saturday, are they on here? Quote
ivan Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 I think we saw you crossing the lake as we were leaving. There was another group we broke trail with on saturday, are they on here? that was me and tvash fawking awesome watching that route get done! Quote
sweatinoutliquor Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 Damn that's nice work gents! Way to get after it with the nice weather we had! Quote
kurthicks Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 how'd the Cotter-Bebie route look? (between Backbone & Serpentine) Quote
TrogdortheBurninator Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 Looks great!! what'd everybody else up there climb? Quote
ivan Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 Looks great!! what'd everybody else up there climb? north butt coulior of colchuck - in fantastic skiing shape at the moment Quote
John Frieh Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 Nice climb guys! Great pics and narrative Scott Where is the road gated? @ the bridge? How was snow travel? Slow going post hole session? Any tracks up to Stuart? Quote
ivan Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 gated at the road - excellent track in now all the way to the lake - it was slow putting in the track up to the lake as no matter how many goddamn times i go up there in winter i manage to find the stupidiest path possible (very happy to let those 2 young'ns do most of it there were ski tracks going off towards stuart and one of the skiiers i met who'd come from there said they'd been to the lake and ran into somebody who said they were going up mountie creek, but that maybe they didn't? Quote
ericb Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 how long did it take you to get from icicle creek road to the lake on skiis? Quote
ivan Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 how long did it take you to get from icicle creek road to the lake on skiis? i wasn't skiing there were 2 guys who went up to the lake on skiis, no clue how long it took them... Quote
Hendershot Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 I was wondering the same thing, but think Scott answered it in his description. Trip: Dragontail - Gerber-Sink North Face Hit the trailhead at 3:30am, stoked about the starry skies and crisp temps. Made good time up the road, then through the forest, and finally across Colchuck Lake. Started up the route at 9:45 and boy is it a fun one! I would interpret that to be 5 hours from the road closure (trailhead) to the correct side of Colchuck Lake. Quote
dberdinka Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 I feel...so fat...and lame..... Nice job. Quote
cfire Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 Great work Scott! We'll have to get out again sometime and get some alpine. Quote
Off_White Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 For those of you who have already done the triple couloirs and are contemplating this outing, you can finish the upper part of the Gerber-Sink route by following the top of the Hidden Couloir route up along the ledge at the bottom of the fin, across some ribs and and such, then up to the summit, making a completely separate outing rather than following the third couloir. Nice to see this TR, way to seize the moment. Quote
tvashtarkatena Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 I slept in the tent all day at Colchuck enjoying the tail end of the flu. It was a struggle to raise...my...weighty...camera...skyward... I was wondering how much sketchy climbing (thin ice on slab) etc there was on the route, if any? Quote
Climzalot Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 (edited) Scottgg. Nice work on the climb and thanks for the trip report. How was the last pitch of climbing on the face before you got into the 3rd couloir? A friend and I climbed it in lean conditions a number of years ago. The face seemed to funnel up into a narrow gully which eventually turned into pure rock. At the time I remembered thinking that this last pitch just before the 2nd Couloir was one of the spicier pitches I had lead in the mountains. One good stopper right off the belay, and then 40+ meters of slabby, unprotectable, crackless granite and silver-dollar size pieces of frozen turf to a snow seat belay. Did you find anything like that, or was this section fairly snowed/iced up? Again well done! Edited February 20, 2008 by Climzalot Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.