Cathedral Peak - 13,943 ft

Date:  6-18-2005

Climbers: George Barnes and Doug Shaw

Route:  "Foolhardy Couloir", Class 3, Steep Snow

RT distance: ~9.0 miles

Elevation gain:  4,100 feet

Coordinates of TH:  39° 2.56'N, 106° 48.49'W

Coordinates of summit: 39° 2.06'N, 106° 51.53'W

USGS Quadrangles:  Hayden Peak
 

Trip report written by Doug Shaw.

Trip Report:

The alarm went off at 0330h, but we staunchly resisted escaping the warmth of our sleeping bags. Finally pushing 0500h we forced ourselves to get up and start getting ready. Neither of us seemed particularly motivated, but we decided to head up as far as Cathedral Lake and see how we felt.

TH departure came at a late 0545h, but so be it. We adopted a steady but not particularly fast pace up the "relentlessly steep" Cathedral Lake trail (although I thought it clearly relented in a few spots).

After 1hr 45min we were "near" the lake but we stopped at a small saddle to eat, drink, apply sunscreen, and be harassed by a couple camp robbers who we were sure had a system worked out in which one distracted us while the other tried to sneak off with the goods. Ha ha, but we outsmarted them puny birds!!
 

Our routefinding from the lake left a bit to be desired and we ended up having to drop some elevation and contour around by the base of Cathedral's impressive east ridge.

Between unconsolidated snow in the rocks and talus hopping our forward progress slowed dramatically, but eventually we found ourselves standing on the last rock outcropping before venturing onto continuous snow above us in the upper basin.

Standard Route                            Foolhardy Couloir

(right couloir)                                (right branch)
 

While we geared up here, we had been eyeballing a closer couloir that was directly in front of us and which seemed like a longer climb, hearkened with an apparent top-out a bit higher on the ridge, and definitely exhibited a more alpine-like appearance based on the bifurcations and constrictions we could see further up the chute. Did I mention it was closer?

We could see that the snow stopped short of the ridge, but it looked like about 30 feet of climbing on rock to get there. If we got up and somehow couldn't get to the ridge, we'd descend if we had to. Regardless, it should be interesting.
 

George led off. While I was taping my heels and ankles and finishing gearing up he climbed about several hundred feet up the couloir! Fortunately I was able to catch up to him pretty quickly by following in his steps. His waiting for me to catch up so that I could lead for a while also helped.

Although there was evidence of a decent amount of rockfall melted into the snow surface, to our knowledge we didn't experience any rockfall into the couloir the entire climb.

As we reached the upper couple hundred feet of the couloir we were faced with a decision: a rock tower split the couloir. Right or left? Right looked steeper and earlier on we had said we'd go left for that very reason. As we got closer our comfort levels increased and we stopped for a couple minutes in a sheltered spot before starting up into the narrower right branch.
 

The initial few feet up into the right branch consisted of climbing through a ~5-foot-wide constriction between a rock and the couloir wall, then combining kicking steps intermixed with stances on a little alpine ice, all at about 50-55 degrees.

I climbed through and once I was out of the constriction I moved out of the fall line and George followed me up.

Another choice: the couloir split again. We discussed left or right - we hadn't seen this split before; what was now our left branch was the right branch we'd seen from lower down. Since we didn't know where this right fork went and since the left one looked exciting we opted for it instead.
 

George took point and not too far above he reached the second constriction, a small neck 20-30 feet tall with the snow angled at (we estimated) about 60 degrees. There, he was overjoyed to find very soft snow. He was able to kick and compress steps and work his way up the constriction and not too long after he climbed out of sight I heard an expletive. Always encouraging.
 

I climbed through the (with steps) now-innocuous constriction, made my way to where George was. The snow ended, and it was a hell of a lot more than 30 feet to the ridge! To add insult to injury, the left-most branch of the couloir continued on up to our left another 100 feet or so.

As we left the snow, the Snail Brothers got an edumacation in classic Elk rock. Loose third-class scrambling with jack-s**t for stable handholds. I consider that a mixed blessing, though, as it prepared us for the bad stuff which was coming: a couple hundred vertical feet of talus and scree poised very near the angle of repose. We adapted the rest-step technique to this terrain but called it the pray-step. One step forward, two steps back, etc... you get the idea.

I can't speak for George but I had two incidents where my step caused enough rocks to shift that my other foot placement started to go as well, and only by performing some sort of black-magic "talus dyno" was I able to avoid sliding down with the rock.

We angled for a patch of snow - "anything to get off of this hellish slope..." one of these days I'll learn about having thoughts like that.

Of course this snow wasn't even remotely consolidated, and at times we were plunging in up to mid-thigh, at others striking rock only a foot below the snow. Near the top of the snow there was an ice step to be overcome/manipulated with the adze, then it was not too much further to the bona fide ridge. From the end of the couloir's snow to the ridge - maybe 300-400 vertical feet - took an hour and fifteen minutes!

Once on the by-contrast-incredibly-solid rock on the ridge, we were able to finish the final 300-400 feet to the summit in ~20 minutes.

We spent just long enough on the summit to eat, drink, re-apply some desperately needed sunscreen, get some pictures, and coin a name for the route - "Foolhardy Couloir." Then we noticed clouds building to the east and decided we'd better get a move on.

Clouds building... time to get down!

We descended the ridge to the low point of the saddle before the northern-most tower and slowly glissaded down the normal route, then hoofed it back out to the lake and eventually back to the car.
 

The snow climb was probably the most enjoyable and exciting such climb I've done, but the memory of this trip is marred by the horror we found above the snow.