Argonaut - NE Couloir 3/17/2008
Posted By: tvashtarkatena in Alpine Lakes
Trip: Argonaut - NE Couloir
Date: 3/17/2008
Trip Report:Argonaut, NE Couloir March 17, 2008
The pelting woke me up again. It hadn’t stopped for several hours. By now I was looking forward to sleeping in before casually brewing up some tea and cream of wheat, packing up, and strolling back to the car.
“I slept through the alarm. It’s 5:20.” Don said. “It’s clear out.”
Damn! Back to work. Don slipped into his ancient Galibiers. The only synthetics on these medieval war horses is the duct tape holding the inner boots together.
We started up at first light. It was windy, but relatively warm. Stuart and Sherpa were keeping the clouds at bay.
The climb can be broken up into five sections: The approach slope (which is most of it), the couloir, a short mixed pitch above the top of the couloir, the upper snowfield, and the summit ridge traverse.
The approach slope went much easier in snowshoes. The couloir itself offered fine, secure step kicking, with one little bottleneck requiring a few easy ice moves. What little ice we encountered other than that; small amounts between rocks, was grape nuts. We attempted a bypass to the upper snowfield about 100 feet below the top of the NE couloir, but sugar snow over slab returned us to the couloir proper. This sugar snow/grape nuts ice combination characterized all the mixed climbing on the route.
Don spotted a descent route which wound up going easily: after a single rope rap down a shitty gully (and climbing back up shitty gully to get my forgotten ax) to Colchuk’s large south slope, traverse the Argonaut – Colchuck ridge for a short ways to a snow capped ridge heading north. Traverse and descend that ridge for a 100 feet or so before dropping off it’s west side and back to the base of the NE couloir.
All day we enjoyed being in the eye of the storm; plenty of wind, surrounded by clouds, but blue bird skies above. No precipitation fell during our visit, although there was quite a bit of wind deposition going on.
Thanks to Jiri, Kevin, Dave, Keith, and Eric, all of whom we saw in our way in, for beta on the conditions.
“These snowshoes suck”. Don ascending to the base of the couloir
Sunrise on Sherpa
Argonaut
Don in the couloir: asleep or frozen solid?
Don topping out on the mixed section
The author ascending the upper snowfield
Don reaching the summit ridge. Colchuk in the background
The author demonstrating his signature Enumclaw technique on the summit ridge traverse
The author negotiating the final Obama Step to the summit block
Don: tanned, rested, and ready for anything on the summit
Architecturally, you can’t beat Argonaut’s summit
Don descending
Sherpa
Gear Notes:We broke out the rope for 2 single rope raps; one down the mixed pitch below the upper snowfield, and one to get down to Colchuck's southern slope.
Somebody might take a pencil up for the summit register. The lone pen is either frozen or kaput.
Approach Notes:We skied the road, stashed them, then switched to snowshoes, which were most helpful after the Colchuk/Mountaineer's Creek trail junction.
