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Trip Report    

Basic Alpine Climb - Dragontail Peak

A late July trip to Dragontail Peak via Colchuck Col.

  • Road suitable for all vehicles

We started out from Stuart Lake TH at 4:30am. There were already tons of people in the parking lot including what seemed like vans full of thru-hikers. However, once we got above the col we saw remarkably few humans for how many vehicles were in the lot. 

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It was smooth sailing up to Colchuck Lake, where we got our first look at the col; the glacier there was not as iced out as we had feared it could be, which inspired confidence. We proceeded counterclockwise around Colchuck Lake and began ascending the boulder field, following the right edge of a triangle of trees. We scrambled all the way to the top of the moraine, where terrain levelled out a bit and took some nice photos. 

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At the top of the next crop of rocks we found a nice running water source to top off with and then roped up in to two teams -- one of three and one of four. We decided to use this approach in case we wanted to set up running belays. The slope and snow conditions were manageable without fixed lines. We were able to navigate up and around the ice patch without incident. There is evidence of, and we saw at least one, rock fall on climbers left as you ascend the col.

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We took a food break at the top of the col, then proceed to our left up a dry scree field littered with boulders. I am told this section is more pleasant when there is some snow. I witnessed a couple of oblong beachball sized rocks gain some momentum after being dislodged and was on high alert after that. 

This was followed by some class 4 scrambling in mountaineering boots (some of us), and weighty packs. There were decent hand holds the whole way. The notch next to Pandora's box was melted out enough to walk along side the snow, and I used the rock next to it for hand support.

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This led out into a nice snow traverse over to the final ridge to scramble for the summit of Dragontail Peak. Two of us decided to forego the last 100 feet of the route in favor of an extended break at the notch above our descent path into the Core Enchantments. From there, we observed a steep snow slope with icy runout that ran about 80% across. We watched a trail runner with crampons and an ice axe self-belay down to a relatively gentle boot path in the snow and then proceed across and down. 

When the rest of the group joined us there, we talked amongst ourselves and decided to rappel it. Jon crafted an excellent bollard that we all checked out and felt was fit to utilize. We were thankful for the pickets that we brought, initially with the thought that we might use them on Colchuck Glacier. With those, we were able to put in a nice anchor for folks to set up their rappels.

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The bollard rappel got us about a third of the way down the slope, and from that point we only needed to traverse about 15 feet to be clear of the icy runout below. It was a soft snow descent to the boulder field below, three of us had to arrest at some point but it was easy enough to do. We took another break before descending to Aasgard Pass.

At the top of Aasgard we topped off on water again. We saw a baby mountain goat and its mama on the way down. After arriving to Colchuck Lake again, the bolder members of our group took cold plunges into the turquoise waters while the rest of us made our way to the far side of the lake. After this last break we made our way down the trail, knowing we would have to stop and get our headlamps out soon. 

After it got dark, some of us temporarily got off trail and had to backtrack. Leaders were thankful to have walkie talkies to help us account for everyone after getting scattered and separated in the dark. All arrived back to the cars between 10pm - 10:30pm. We were tired but satisfied after a long adventurous day.