McClellan Butte-North Gulley

Trip Report

I thought I would share the trip I did on the North Gulley of McClellan Butte in January… I know its really late but some people might be able to find some beta in it. My buddy Josh, Stewart, Mark and I started from the trailhead at about 8am (this was our first time climbing together) and quickly started gaining elevation. We actually started up the wrong gully skipping over the one we wanted to be in. We quickly fixed our mistake and started up. We immediately put on our crampons and took out our ice axes. This was a winter assent so there was quite a bit of snow. As we started up we encountered some lowish angle ice and then it would switch to snow. It went like this for most of the way until it turned to just snow. Spindle drift kept coming down on us but we thought the avy danger was pretty low. We had brought a rope and rack which included screws pickets and ice tools. When we reached what would be a class 4 scramble in the winter, was now a hard mixed route for our ability. Mark and Stewart each gave a try of leading it but could never find any placements for pro. We decided to turn around after several tries. We did a mix of down climbing/glissading/walking down and made it to the car around 5ish? It was a nice and fun day. Were still not quite sure the pitch we tried was the right one… I guess we’ll have to find out next winter. Heres some pictures and little video…

Images

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