I had read only a brief description of the Early Winter’s Couloir route in the Beckey guide, but I was keen on doing mixed routes and this seemed like it would be a nice one. As soon as the North Cascades Highway opened my partner and I headed over to have a go. We were unable to park at the hairpin turn so we parked at a small pullout across from the Blue Lake parking lot and hiked down the road. We made our way to a steep ice step and belayed from a bush. The climbing was mostly on 55 degree snow with some steeper ice patches, the cruxes coming in the way of large chockstones that had to be surmounted by mixed climbing. Five rope stretching pitches and a bit of 75 + degree snow deposited me below the cornice, overhanging the route by 20 feet! Belayed from the cave underneath I aide up the left hand wall. A good cam got me to a flake. I nailed the flake with a KB. The flake promptly broke and fell off into my lap. I nailed the stump and weighted the piece. It shifted 90 degrees, facing straight down but held. Hooks would have been useful, but I had none. Fortunately the cornice kicked back to 95 degrees and I was able to aid the sugar snow with pickets. Four placements later and I flopped over the top. My partner followed on prussiks. We bailed down the other side and hiked around to our car.
|
