Trip Report
Basic Alpine Climb - Colchuck Peak/East Route
Sucessful summit of Colchuck with perfect conditions
Peter Tran
- Sat, Jun 17, 2017
- Basic Alpine Climb - Colchuck Peak/East Route
- Colchuck & Dragontail Peaks
- Climbing
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Trail is clear of snow but muddy in some points. Snow exists climbers right on the talus field up to the moraine. Crampons needed to ascend from the moraine to the saddle. Scramble up to the summit crosses two snow fields, both of which are very soft and easy to post hole in. Summit block snow free.
Camped overnight at 8 mi campground. Met up with everyone at the trailhead at 0430 and started moving up the trail at 0500. Reached the lake around 7 am and the talus field at 730. Had to walk around the lake as it is no longer snow covered. Refilled water and hiked up the snow field to the moraine. Reached the saddle around 1115 and the summit at 1230. The snow on the talus field was soft enough for kicking steps, however the snow in the couloir was extremely hard and required crampons. Once past the saddle the snow was very soft again.
The descent was tricky as it was just soft enough where you could glissade, but hard enough where the glissade was very fast. Plunge stepping would have required crampons. A leader did the glissade first to verify the conditions would allow people to stop, and everyone took separate tracks to avoid polishing a route.
We reached the lake around 1400, topped off on water, and headed back down. Reached the cars at 1740