Basic Alpine Climb - South Early Winter Spire/Southwest Couloir

This climb was on 5/17/22.

Our group of 6 met at the TH at 6:30am and departed around 7am with snowshoes on.  It was easy following the many ski tracks through the trees.

The snow was firmer once we left the trees and the views of the spires were beautiful.

We kept looking for the SW couloir, but didn't realize one can't really see it until only a couple hundred feet before being at the entrance.  Red line showing the entrance.

Looking back.  The blue skies are trying to break through.

Entrance to the couloir.

Now a good view of the SW couloir.  

We find a flatter spot to take a break and rope up into 2 teams of 3 using 60m ropes.  Lori W leads off at about 10am carrying 6 pickets.  The clouds are lifting and it's going to be a lovely day.The snow is in great condition for kick stepping and getting a good self belay.  Entering the couloir.

At the intersection between the 2 couloirs.  We take the one on climber's right.Looking down.Nearing a constriction about 2/3 up.  People often start placing rock pro on the sides of the walls starting here, but we had so much snow that Lori continued using pickets except for the 1 cam placed.   She ended up leading the entire route due to all the snow and the easy climbing. 

 At the top of the couloir.Once at the top of the couloir, we unroped to scramble the 30' or so to the summit.  The climbing of the couloir had been easy, but it was this last part that was sketchy.  We had not anticipated to be so.  If the rock had been dry, it would have been easy, but with so much snow it wasn't.   Photo of the sketchy portion although it doesn't look that bad here.

Albert S was belayed up to set a fixed line.We did not know where I was standing was actually a cornice.  Someone broke through when coming up next to me.  Should try to stay left of where I am.  Right above where Albert is is a fairly large flat area for everyone to sit.

Once the fixed line was set, everyone prusiked up carefully.  Too many stunning views to post, but here are a couple.Ian and Rodica happened to be on the same route as well.  Ian's photo of Rodica taking our group photo.  Small world!

Heading down.
Albert is the last person down so I belay him down.  The others have already picked up the 2nd rope at the top of the couloir and are down climbing to the rappel tree about 30' or so below.  Photo taken from the rappel tree looking up.Only a few people can be at the rappel station at once so the rest are anchored at another tree above the rappel tree to wait their turn.

Once the 2nd rope is at the rappel tree, a double rope rappel is set up.  Lori descends first to check out the lower anchor where we hope to set up a 2nd double rope rappel.  It is good to note here that several people did a pendulum swing when rappeling down the fall line.  I took the rope a sharper skier's left to avoid that, but that might have been why the rope got stuck when being pulled later.  The rappel tree.Rappelling down the fall line where people did a pendulum swing soon after this.The lower anchor was in a sketchy place so everyone decided to down climb the rest of the way instead.   Unfortunately the rope got stuck when Albert and I were trying to pull it which wasted a good hour with me having to prusik back up trying to unstick it.  After many tries, I was finally able to about 3/4 way up.

A last photo as we head back to the cars.  Our leisurely climb took about 12hrs c2c.The awesome group who helped make it successful and fun.  Also, many thanks to Stephen Sugiyama who gave us a ton of helpful beta on this climb.   Thanks to many in the group for the use of their photos as well.