June 17, 2011, Colchuck Peak via Colchuck Col
6/17/11
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
3423
4
Incidentally, according to Amar's neat script run in February, this is my 100th TAY Trip Report!
We were one of three parties able to find an all snow line off the summit of Colchuck yesterday back through the Col and down to the lake, for a nice 3000 feet descent.
We were sure "talking the talk" Thursday night about an Enchantment trip, but our crack of 9:15AM departure from the Stuart Lake trailhead had us wondering about our true level of ambition. Dave, bless his heart, chose to try it out on an ankle he rolled in a basketball game earlier this week. All went well for him in his tennis shoe approach to Colchuck Lake.
FYI: almost no snow all the way to the 5000 foot mark on the Colchuck Lake trail, then 2/3 well compacted snow the final 1/2 mile to the lake. A dozen or so blowdowns to negotiate on the way in that the USFS trails folks or a wilderness ranger must have come in and logged out (bucked and removed) while we were up on the snow! That made for a much pleasant hike out with the skis on our packs.
Back to the trip: once at the lake, Dave threw his ski boots on and quickly realized there was no way he could handle the boot pressure on the swollen ankle. So he opted to head back.
Usual laborsome booting around the lake shore, then able to ski from the base of the slope. Skinning went well on less than an inch of thaw at around noon---precisely when we should have been descending, not ascending! With ski crampons we were able to comfortably skin the entire glacier to the Col. From the col we followed a nice boot pack through the steep roll over and then continued on skis to the summit. Days of a complete line off the summit are seriously numbered--like tomorrow or the next day could be it. Not that it isn't still worth a couple brief carry-overs for lots of great skiing.
The south side steep step above the col was absolute mush that we were able to easily send hissing down. Still turnable though, we quickly arrived back at the col.
The run from here was absolutely awesome on smooth corn, even if we were a couple hours late! From 8000 to 6500 ski penetration was a couple to three inches, increasing to up to 4 inches from the 6500 foot moraine area to the lake.
For a couple of lazies, overstuffed on a huge slow-cooked breakfast, Jake and I did OK to make a summit out of the day for my 100th TAY TR!
We were one of three parties able to find an all snow line off the summit of Colchuck yesterday back through the Col and down to the lake, for a nice 3000 feet descent.
We were sure "talking the talk" Thursday night about an Enchantment trip, but our crack of 9:15AM departure from the Stuart Lake trailhead had us wondering about our true level of ambition. Dave, bless his heart, chose to try it out on an ankle he rolled in a basketball game earlier this week. All went well for him in his tennis shoe approach to Colchuck Lake.
FYI: almost no snow all the way to the 5000 foot mark on the Colchuck Lake trail, then 2/3 well compacted snow the final 1/2 mile to the lake. A dozen or so blowdowns to negotiate on the way in that the USFS trails folks or a wilderness ranger must have come in and logged out (bucked and removed) while we were up on the snow! That made for a much pleasant hike out with the skis on our packs.
Back to the trip: once at the lake, Dave threw his ski boots on and quickly realized there was no way he could handle the boot pressure on the swollen ankle. So he opted to head back.
Usual laborsome booting around the lake shore, then able to ski from the base of the slope. Skinning went well on less than an inch of thaw at around noon---precisely when we should have been descending, not ascending! With ski crampons we were able to comfortably skin the entire glacier to the Col. From the col we followed a nice boot pack through the steep roll over and then continued on skis to the summit. Days of a complete line off the summit are seriously numbered--like tomorrow or the next day could be it. Not that it isn't still worth a couple brief carry-overs for lots of great skiing.
The south side steep step above the col was absolute mush that we were able to easily send hissing down. Still turnable though, we quickly arrived back at the col.
The run from here was absolutely awesome on smooth corn, even if we were a couple hours late! From 8000 to 6500 ski penetration was a couple to three inches, increasing to up to 4 inches from the 6500 foot moraine area to the lake.
For a couple of lazies, overstuffed on a huge slow-cooked breakfast, Jake and I did OK to make a summit out of the day for my 100th TAY TR!
glad to see the snow still lingers. Hope the turns were good.
Looks like Friday was the day to be up there. A buddy and I went up yesterday so no reason to put up a full TR. Coming through Cashmere at 6:30 we had enough rain to make us reconsider but still drove to the TH which was thankfully dry (and the last of the rain we saw for the day). The snow hadn't re-frozen overnight so it was a little on the sloppy side down low. We didn't see evidence of a skin track but there were several mountaineers who had put in a nice staircase so we opted to just boot straight up the 'glacier'. About 1/2 way up we saw just an outline of the skin track but the booting was just too fun to quit. Foggy up top and trying to wetly snow so we didn't push to a summit or linger. Snow was good the upper 2/3, slightly over-baked corn, but the bottom was pretty mushy and grabby. All in all a fun day in a location I hadn't been to before.
Happy 100th John!
I swore I was done with Stuart range this year but I think you convinced me to go for one more shot. Conditions on colchuck where still great, but no longer able to ride for the summit block, but about 100' below... unless you want to side step through rottensow on talus.
nd way to get up there as well CW!
I swore I was done with Stuart range this year but I think you convinced me to go for one more shot. Conditions on colchuck where still great, but no longer able to ride for the summit block, but about 100' below... unless you want to side step through rottensow on talus.
nd way to get up there as well CW!
Nice 100th TR, John!
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