[TR] Dragontail Peak - Triple Couloirs 4/12/2014

[StephenW]

Trip: Dragontail Peak - Triple Couloirs

 

Date: 4/12/2014

 

Trip Report:

Decided to take advantage of the good weather this weekend with a quick trip to the Stuart Range. With freezing levels forecasted to rise sharply after Saturday afternoon, we drove down to Leavenworth friday night and set off from the car at 3 am Saturday morning with the Triple Couloirs in mind. We made good time booting up Eightmile Road and much worse time continuing up to Colchuck lake. After a protracted break on the N end of the lake, we started up the hidden couloir at about 8:30 am. The right variation looked like steep, soft snow, so we followed some slabby water ice interspersed firm snow for a full pitch to gain entry to the couloir. The snow here was nice styrofoam, for a few stretches we weren't even leaving footprints. Someone had recently climbed the route, so there were some steps that disappeared about 30m up. Two long simul blocks with pickets and the odd piece of rock pro brought us to the top of the couloir where I discovered that our predecessors had followed the right wall of the couloir while we followed the left.

 

Top of the Hidden Couloir

 

We found the runnels to be climbable. Nelson and Potterfield's stated 70-80 degrees is about right. We found mostly snice, with a thin layer of real ice underneath. With some mining around, I managed to ferret out three screw placements on this pitch and brought Stamati up from a semi-hanging ice screw belay shortly before I ran out of rope. The second pitch had a few moves on thin ice over rock, then more steep snice. I ended up mostly excavating in-situ bail anchors then clipping them as pro for this pitch. The second pitch was probably the crux of the route. The third pitch involved more steep snice to a bomber nut placement before a funky corner. Feet were good in ice out to the left and I ended up chimneying along with my pack pressed against the rock to the right while trying keep the pickets out of my way. All of the sudden we had gained the second couloir.

 

Looking up at the bottom of the first runnel pitch

 

End of the second runnel pitch

 

One really long simul lead (I managed to find a fair amount of rock pro in the second couloir) got me to a nice corner and I belayed Stamati up from two solid cams. The snow in the second couloir was a bit softer, and I mostly followed the previous party's steps, diverging as needed to place pro. As we climbed the second couloir I was wondering if the route would eventually go right or left... definitely right.

 

Couloir numero dos!

 

A bit of down climbing from the good belay and I popped around a corner. The rest of this pitch was soft snow over rock. Our picks and crampons wouldn't catch unless there was some underlying rock feature. Past this, we continued up and right in the third couloir. We encountered the softest snow of the day here, generally sinking in to about mid-shin, and were glad to have preexisting steps to use. Luckily some cloud breaks came in and brought some brief, really light flurries. This kept the snow from softening too much even though the third couloir had seen some sun earlier. Overall, we didn't see any rockfall bigger than pebbles and the snow still seemed stable. After an airy traverse, we continued up a few hundred feet of more 40 degree snow (the third couloir is the least steep of the lot) to the ridge. In total, three simul leads got us from the bottom of the final couloir to the summit. We ended up topping out at 3 pm with great views of Stuart, Colchuck, and the Enchantment plateau. Lingered for a bit then made our way down to Asgard Pass mostly on good corn snow. The final section of the descent involved a frustrating mix of hard snow/ice and wet, mushy glop. We relaxed a bit at Colchuck Lake (we soon gave up trying to chase the last of the sun and instead settled on a nice boulder sheltered from the wind). I dropped my only lighter in small snow moat around the boulder so we settled for cold instant coffee and eventually started the slog back to the car, which we reached at 10 pm. A bright full moon made the walk as pleasant as such things can be. An awesome 19 hr day!

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

3 pickets, 5 screws (2x10cm, 2x13cm, 16cm), nuts, cams (BD 0.3-2), 3 pins. 60m rope. Used it all except for the 16cm screw.

 

Approach Notes:

Eightmile Road was still gated. About the bottom third of it has melted out. The trail to Colchuck lake was pretty beat out. No flotation needed.

[dave schultz]

Awesome!! Great job ticking that one off the list. Looks like lots of good stuff gave it up this past weekend.

[quikclimber]

pretty sure I saw you two walking across the lake. NICE WORK. That's and awesome route.

[goran]

I think we talked to y'all at the gate on Friday night --- thanks for posting a TR and congrats on a great send! Looks like we were walking out only a few minutes apart on Saturday night and if the timing had been a bit different, we'd have all shared the zombie slog together.

[sdizzle25]

My buddy and I climbed that thing friday morning (out by friday night). How did you like that pitch between the 2nd and 3rd Couloirs? We found it pretty terrifying. Did you have to excavate it much or did the rock get covered again?

[StephenW]

Hey Goran, that was us you ran into Friday night. We were debating if you'd beat us back to the car or not. When I was reading your trip report I came to the same conclusion, we were probably within 15 minutes of each other. Anyway, glad to hear you guys had a good day too and nice job tackling a proud route!

 

sdizzle- I can't imagine the conditions changed that much between our ascents because I could see where you guys placed a screw and a few of your tool placements between couloirs 1 and 2. On the way to the 3rd, I saw you guys tried to go more straight up then thought the better of it. I went pretty far down and right where it seemed you guys eventually went. So it seems doubtful that spindrift covered anything again since your footprints were still there. I dug out a crack for a 0.5 camalot (the only piece I placed on that pitch) but other than that was mostly climbing by feel. It was a pretty scary lead but luckily short- I only really climbed about 25 feet of snowy rock before I was able to gain supportable snow on the right side. I found our second runnel pitch to be harder but my partner disagreed- he thought that section was the crux of the climb. Regardless, I was definitely glad to see the base of the third couloir as I established the next belay!

Edited April 18, 2014 by StephenW

[kevino]

any of you guys snap a picture of the ne couloir on your way down?

[kurthicks]

I skinned past the NE couloir today. looked bony at the start, snowy rock up high. In fact, the whole of Dtail looks pretty bony this year.

[stamati]

This was some of the most fun climbing I've ever done, and the approach was a rude awakening. Time to get into shape.