Trip: McClellan Butte - North Face
Date: 1/31/2010
Trip Report:This was an awesome adventure that will keep me satisfied for a while, until next weekend.
It all started when Stewie from Cascadeclimbers.com was looking for partners, my friend Mark was interested in joining him on a trip. They decided on McClellan Butte. It so happend I caught on the conversation, and soon enough I joined the trip. Another member from cc named Marc came up with a great idea and created a group called "Teen Climbers in the PNW" (Pacific Northwest) which we rounded up members to join for this trip. The standard route sounded fine and dandy exept Mark got recommended for the North side by someone, turns out it was a good idea. The participants of this trip were Me, Mark, Stewie, and RokIzGud.
The trip took place January 31, 2010. I woke up a 6 in the morning and could hardly wait for Stewie to arrive at my house, this would be my first snow climb in a long time. We met up and Stewie drove us to the trailhead to meet up with Collin or know as RokIzGud.
The trail going up started out fairly easy, and I was impressed that the group paced them selfs pretty good, I was worried I would be the slow one. It was a foggy day, but atleast it was not pouring down rain, when looking at the foggy mountains it did not look like there was much snow.
As we hike up the trail we finally decide to go off so that we catch the gully or Couloir. There was a little bush wacking involved on light snow, but after a while we find the trail. We find out that the trail is going away from our route so we head back and west, soon we find the Couloir.
It was a rather interesting place on the mountain, there was snow balls all around, when snow conditions are bad this would be a major avalanche zone, but we made sure avalanche danger was low. As we head up we had to put on our crampons because of ice or as Mark calls it Snice, a combination of snow and ice. It was interesting how it seemed like the snow changed in one foot from snow to ice. At this point we also put on our helmets because of falling snow, when I looked up once I had snow hit me and it hurts a little bit, so a helmet was very nice to have.
As we kept going up the steep snow slope the feeling of the mountain became very alive in me, it almost felt like I was not me, and like I was some guy from some story heading up a misty mountain. But now I was living the adventure. Many folks my age would not be going out doing this, climbing mountains, especially in foggy weather, but thats there loss.
The slope felt so constant, in a good way, as we took a rest we could look over to the side and see much snow constantly falling because it was melting out of the trees, but looked rather interesting because at one point it was like a river of snow traveling down hill. As we got higher we finally reach a part that appears to be the summit block.
At the summit block we attempt to find a way around it, no luck, just steep and dangerous sections, so what appeared to be the only way was going up the summit block which looked atleast class 4 with snow and ice. We got out our harnesses and snow pickets to set up for a belay. Mark went up first, but later did not like the feel of it, and went down. Stewie gave it a try, did not like that route.
As they were getting ready for the resetting up of the route I had to remove a locking carribeaner and I tell you with really cold hands and when they are jammed they are just super difficult to remove. Collin helped me unlock it which he found out was also jammed, and then we waited for a while enjoying the mountain atmosphere with all the mist, snow, and slope around. It sure beat being at home, infact it was better than most summit hikes.
Mark Leading the Way
They got about 50 feet from the summit but it was unprotectable rock so they decided to make the right choice and turn around. They said they could have done it, but would have been unsafe, I am glad they were responsible. I was around 100 feet from the summit, to me it's kinda funny how a lot of times I end up just short of the summit. :embarassedlaugh:
On the way down we looked for one more possible way which we just could not find. We had some snacks and then got ready for the decent. It was amazing how much snow goes down, the "snow river" as I call it because snow was going down a lot, created what looked like a glassade trail, if it were not so steep I would have probably went down it.
Mark let me use his ice tool on the way down which was very helpful, and I treated my ice axe like a ice tool so it was kinda like having two. When it got a bit icier I had to be careful, but using both the axe and tool was just a blast. At one point I had to make a quick ice axe arrest due to falling, but fortunatly the slope was not bad at that part. Soon we reach the bottom of the gulley.
From here we put away our crampons and such and head for the trail. As I prediected it feels a lot longer going down the trail than it does going up, even if we are making better time going down. Part of it I believe has to do with expecting the trailhead to be near, and on the way up everyone is just excited about going up. We acually saw a few later comers on the way down of the trail. When nearing the trailhead we found a pair of North Face gloves which are decent, if anyone is missing a pair from this hike please let me know. At the trailhead I took off my boots and as I was doing this I had a horrible cramp, trust me when you get them this bad I'm not exaggerating. One of the hardest parts of the trip was getting back up into the car which was very painful, fortunatly it got better. From here we went home.
Special Thanks to Everyone who came, especially Stewie who drived us there, Mark bough me food, and Collin gave me some chocolate. All in all it was an awesome trip, you guys were an awesome team and I would love to get together again soon to go for another adventure.
"If your going to go down, go down in flames!" -Simon