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| East Couloir   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: California, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 37.02080°N / 118.4214°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Apr 11, 2002 | Page By: wallpirate Created/Edited: Apr 13, 2002 / Object ID: 168550 Hits: 842 Loading... Page Score: 0% - 0 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Day One: Woke up in Los Angeles at 8 am feeling like a climb. Called a friend at work coming off a night shift and told him that I'd pick him up at 9:30 and we were going climbing. Drove to Big Pine up the 395 stopping at Carl's in Lone Pine (Key key key!) Got up to Big Pine and turned off to get to the trailhead up Crocker road. Spent the next hour wandering the desert like Moses looking for the damn trailhead, finally finding it (note, the mileage in Burn's Cal 14ers is a bit (0.2 mi) off or else my odometer is off.) We parked up the road from the sign (take the left from the bifurcation where the sign says right for the trailhead) which gave us direct and faster access to the trail, avoiding the sandy switchbacks which add at least half a mile and several hundred feet.
We left the car at 4 or so and started hiking up the trail. Despite claims to the contrary it was pretty well marked and maintained. The snow on the trail was fairly deep in some places and made going slow. It was fairly warm though there was some mild rain on our way up. Couldn't see Split Mountain from the trail until fairly late, but there was heavy cloud cover at about 12,000 or so. We bivied at about 10,200 just under Red Lake as it was getting dark. Melted some snow and ate dinner, falling asleep soon after.
Day Two: Woke up at 6 or so, got a slow start, melted some more water and ate breakfast. The night was fairly cold, but clear. Make our way across firm snow to the lake, filled our water bottles and started up the steep snow slopes to the main couloir. At this point the sun had come up and hit the slope, which turned it into a morass of waist deep slush. The climb from the lake to the couloir has to be one of the most painful, tedious, frustrating experiences of my life. We were literally grovelling, crawling up the slope. The thin crust would break, sending us plunging into the snow at the slightest provocation. We ended up on hands and knees, trying to spead our weight out enough to avoid breaking the crust, but even that was iffy. Finally made the shade at the base of the face and could stand on our feet like men again. As a musical score to our misery, the couloirs above spit out a cacophony of rockfall and icefall. As we geared up for the climb in a small recess below the chute, rocks and ice whizzed by, making small craters with a splat as they hit the snow. I cursed our hubris and lack of foresight in leaving the helmets in the car. Stupid stupid stupid. We climbed the steep ice at the entrance to the chute and the steep now above with no problem (except the projectiles hurling down from above.) Moving up the couloir we huddled like turtles under our packs when we heard the sound of debris from above, though there were times the only sound I heard was a whoosh as it whistled past my ear...
Reaching the first step we were met with disappointment. The promised ice on the right was lying in a pile at the base of the coulor far below us, leaving only a small stream of water. Making the best of it, we skirted it to the left up the chimney. It's not really a chimney as I thought of one. It's a split in the floor of the couloir about 15 - 20 feet deep that runs up for about 50 feet then ends in a wall of ice and snow. Our pain was magnified by the 3 or 4 steps inside the 2 foot wide crack which were covered in verglas and the crap coming down the chimney. I actually fell once surmounting one of these when the snow collapsed, my crampons and ice tools almost pureeing my partner below. At the end of the chimney, a cornice-like wall of snow capped ice coated rock like whippped cream, making things difficult. Above, the couloir slackened, though the bombardment did not. At this point we were running out of time, energy, and motivation.
Reversing the chimney was... interesting.
The rest of the downclimb was uneventful, capped by a long glissade down to the lake.
A few points for the next attempt: Helmet, start EARLY to avoid losing hours on the approach to the couloir.
A bit disappointed we didn't top out, but it's all about the experience of being out there, and it was gorgeous. I'd rather be there climbing and not finish than not be there at all. For me a trip well worth it and an excuse to come back to finish it!
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Palisades
