DragonTail Peak Back bone ridge w/fin direct

Backbone Ridge With Fin Direct. 

My climbing Partner and I hiked out to make a base camp at Lake Colchuck on Tuesday night, looking up at the 3000ft face of Dragon tail with a healthy mix of anticipation and fear. The next morning at 430 we started the route taking the easy snow and scramble ramps up left and then back right towards the first rock pitches. This time of year our snowpickets came in very useful when my partner slipped and took a good fall on an exposed ramp. We rested on the large ledge before the first pitches and the 5.9 offwidth stood above us. My partner led the pitch but fell twice on the anchor once past it and over the ledge, thank god that anchor was so solid that was a seriously scary moment. On his third attempt he got past the tricky start and got good protection in up to around 30ft up when the rock steepens and the crack in unprotectable without the #6 cam. Here we realized the mistake of not hauling bags up the pitch as its impossible to correctly wedge into the crack with a bag on, we made the decision to take off the bag and clip it to the rope below dropping it onto the last piece. The runout here is really bad so this was tricky already and then when he dropped the bag, the strap ripped and the bag came hurdling down towards me ice axe ripping off and clipping my shoulder before going over the edge into the void below along with our stove, water, his boots, crampons, food, lighter, fuel, gloves, and puffy. Needless to say this was a fucked up moment and we both recognized the danger we were now in. He finished the pitch and I followed and cleaned. At the ledge we sat down and tried to figure out a plan. With a descent being to long and wandering we decided we had to summit that day and find the pack the next day on the low pitches. We simuled up the easy stuff after the 5.8 section and going left at the miniroof trending left and following easy crack systems with good pro to the base of the fin. Here it started getting dark and weather rolled in. Winds were very high maybe up to 50-60 and temps were low with freezing rain cutting our faces and hands. We knew we couldnt summit and after experimenting with an awful steep crack bivy spot with serious rockfall danger we retreated via 3 rappels and down climbing to a large ledge with a boulder on it we crawled under for shelter. we piled rocks to guard from wind and huddled in a emergency blanket that ripped in the wind eventually giving up on that and crawling deep as we could under the boulder. Niether of us really slept tht night, its a blur of wind and rain and horrible leg cramps from the awkward position. we were frozen, wet, and pained. In the morning at 430 the conditions hadnt let up but we decided if we didnt move we were sure to die of exposure. The decision was made and we continued back up. Our rope has gotten stuck on the last rappel the night prior so after an hour we freed it and started traversing to the third couloir on bad rock and snow. My partner had lost his boots and tools so we rapped his climbing shoes in waterproof socks and I kicked steps for him. We rappeled into the couloir and immediately were hit with a big rockfall scaring the crap out of us but we had no choice but to keep moving up. I led up the 70 degree snow for maybe 90 feet to the notch between the Fin and the left features. Here the rock and ice fall became serious problem and both of us got struck in the helmet multiple times. We climbed slowly and carefully through these pitches of fairly difficult mixed terrain with inconsistent ice and seriously bad choss. My partner ripped a big hold off and was struck in the chest and shin. After 12 hours of climbing we reached the final snow ramp and ran to the summit. My partner despite having only climbing shoes and a snow picket kicked the steps up this section, eager to get up so we could begin the descent and return to safety. At summit we rested briefly and planned our route down, choosing the rappels from the second set of slings after an easy downclimb section. with our map being lost in the bag we stumbled around the glaciers before finding azgard pass and descending through it (we wanted to find colChuck but had no luck and had to do azgard) We glicaded down the pass and drank water from a runnoff stream. first water in two days felt amazing. It was dark at this point so we scrambled through the boulder field quickly trying to get back to ur base camp with only one headlamp and no feeling in our limbs. We saw headlamps after the boulder field and they yelled to us "Christain, Shneur, Rescue!!" we were so happy to hear that. they came to us and gave us food and water beforenhelping us walk back to camp in the dark. We both suffered from frostbite and hypothermia as well as other bruises and cuts but we didnt care we were so happy to sit safely in our bags with food and warm socks knowing we would be helicopter evacuated to the hospital in leavenworth the next morning and our ordeal would be over. Cant thank Mike and Steward from Chelan County SAR enough and cant say enough how happy we are to have lived through this and please be careful out there. 

P.S: dont let anyone tell you you dont need the #6 cam it would have been a fucking godsend.