| N Buttress Couloir rte, Colchuck peak Trip Report |
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| N Buttress Couloir rte, Colchuck peak   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Washington, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 47.47850°N / 120.8452°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Nov 21, 2004 | Page By: leejams Created/Edited: Nov 28, 2004 / Object ID: 169727 Hits: 817 Loading... Page Score: 0% - 0 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Climb: Colchuck-North Buttress Couloir
Date of Climb: 11/21/2004
Trip Report:
Gear Notes:
2 60M ropes, An assortment (many) knife blades,bugaboo's,pins, Tricam's worked well, and nuts (a few) up to 3". Ice tools, picket. Most important gear was the puffy cause it was freakin cold up there! jayb brought the rack and would give you more details.
Approach Notes:
Could drive to the trailhead which was a huge plus. Trail was mixed hard snow pack with ice and dirt track. Brutal on the way out.
Camped Sat night at the lake and very cold but light wind which was great.
Got going around the not so early 8ish, and started gearing up at the last dead snag on the moraine ridge.
First pitch was a traverse over to the bottom of a cool little water ice pitch and probable the crux of the rte, once above this another little styrofoam climb to another little water ice part, and more snow, neve climbing. Once we regrouped above this it was pretty much snow,neve, simulclimbing to one last interesting rock band near the top of the couloir which was drytooling, crampon scraping govelling funness. Popped out at the col with the full force of icy wind, and could see weather moving in rapidly from Mt. Suart.
2nd section, we stayed roped up but an easy rising traverse around the ridge.
3rd section was 4th, one or two low 5th class sections and very interesting as it was now very dark, weather starting to really move in and the rock being thinly covered with sucker ice/snow is the best way I can describe it. Mark (alpine dreamer) were really glad we had Jayb as he had done this rte prior and knew the way out of this maze. The key is to keep going up and bearing to the right to where it looks impossible to go any further. Then presto a hidden easy ramp to climbers left which pops you out on the summit.
4th section was all the downclimbing over steep ass snow chutes, and of course more of the rock with sucker ice/snow covering. Ahhhh finally to the top of the colchuck col and plunge stepping all the way to within 50 yards of our campsite. And of course the longggggggg ass walkout over the treacherous ice covered trail.
This is an awesome rte with nothing super hard but sustained with a bit of everything thrown at you to keep you on your toes. Had a most excellent team of Jayb leading and rte finding, Myself, and Mark (alpine dreamer) who I had met on the climb and a great climbing partner.
Final thoughts, this rte would be completly different in spring conditons as I would guess it to be just a snow slog. However, this time of year well it took the three of us like 15 or so hours. I personally hit the wall more than once. Jay or Mark feel free to chime in as I may have left parts out.
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