[b00]

dragontail 5-18-2019

quick and dirty route info: hike to colchuck lake and then to the top of the colchuck glacier to the col. from the col traverse se and then ascend the broad, then narrowing, obviously gully to its top, then retreat ~50' and find a crease/gully climber's left that you can ascend class 3/4 rock to the ridge. traverse class 3 ridge ne toward dragontail summit until you can find easy access to snow and then traverse to dragontail's sse ridge. ascend class 2 rock to summit. descent - descend sse ridge to top of dragontail glacier, then ene to aasgard pass and take the trail back.

i had been interested in the pandoras box route on dragontail for a while, but never had an opportunity to do it. the first time i did it with iron and t going to the little annapurna/dragontail col and then over - awesome trip. so was the next one, when iron, carrie, brian, gabriel, lindsay, superwoman and i met on the summit. the question was, could i do this without iron :>) forecasts had said there was a lot of new snow above 7,000' and that would pose a risk. also, the amount of time it would take. i was not sure how fast our group would be. i estimated, based on t/r's it would take 11-15 hrs, which meant we could avoid the car camp and come out before darkness if we left seattle at 5am and did this in the middle of the range or under and if we hit the high end, 15 hrs, we would still make it back to the trail before darkness and then walk the trail by headlamp. the plan was to hit the colchuck/dragontail col and decide there to do dragontail or colchuck: no new snow up, the group fast enough to that point and decent snow conditions, would tell us if we could dragontail. ian and i talked and he liked my plan. i then gave him a challenge/option. if he wanted, he is fast enough, he could split from the group at the bottom of the colchuck glacier, boogie ahead, do colchuck and then meet us at the col. he boogied. while the rest of us walked up to the col, we ran into three parties coming down from colchuck summit. i asked all three the same questions - was there new snow up high and did you notice any signs of snow instability? i got 3 different answers :<( ian was there before the last of the group made the col, which by then him and i had talked, he found no new snow and the route looked great. three of the group wanted to do something mellower, colchuck. so we made a plan to chat by walkie-talkie and then re-group in leavenworth after. we had no trouble in finding the route over and up the broad snow gully to the top of pandoras box. since ian was going to be faster and was ready for it, i sent him up ahead along with luka to scout out and find the gully that i had read about in t/r's. the snow was excellent and because of that, it did not feel that steep cramponing up. ian quickly found the gully, which to me did not seem much like a gully and we all scrambled spread out behind him up the class 3/4 terrain to the ridge. before heading up, i had talked to ian about putting up a handline there, but no one needed it. when we got to the ridge, ian and luka had broken out the rope, but the rest of us just walked the easy terrain. then ian made an anchor, with luka belaying, ian led out on some easy class 3 along the ridge. i just walked over toward him, but stopped when i realized i should keep an eye on the others while they play with the rope. it was a pleasant place to wait. they all got a chance to practice putting a prusik on the line and before the last came over, i walked over. then we all traversed over to the summit. i had felt pretty strong the whole day, but someplace on the traverse over, i ran down a little and made the summit a few minutes after the others. unfortunately the summit had no views, but the group of us had really dug the route and the vibes were awesome. ian again took the lead and led us down to aasgard pass and back to the trail near colchuck lake. we made the car without rushing, before dark, about 13 hours after we left, exactly in the middle of the expected range. it always feels great when everything works out. of course a lot of what made it work out was ian leading, getting nice conditions and being with a very enjoyable crew. we met the others at sheryl and rick's place(thank you wonderful hosts!) in leavenworth, got to hear about phil surviving a broken ski boot(and still getting to ski :>), gave jeremy his birthday spanks, enjoyed birthday pie and ice cream and finished off a great day in the mountains happy and healthy, surrounded by great friends :>) 13.74mi 5645' gain 7:20 car to summit (4:50 car to colchuk col) 0:21 summit stay 5:24 summit to car (2:53 summit to , 2:32 trail on sw side of colchuck lake to car) 13:05 car to car equipment: helmet, crampons, ice axe, harness, #1 cam, #2 cam, 50m rope(could we have done without the rope? absoloutely, but if it would have been different conditions, i would have wanted one) equipment brought, but not used: 2 pickets

[DadFly]

SWEEEET! Did that loop about ten years ago and loved it! We bivied on the moraine at the base of Colchuck glacier. Then climbed to the col, dropped our packs and summitted Colchuck. Then went on to the summit of Dragontailand bivied there. Great spot! Next day we hiked out even though we had one more night on our permit. Yes call me bitter.

[iron]