Trip reports

• 5/26/2015
  • Snow/ice falling from death cornice, one even hit them
• 6/26/2011
  • Rock fall + death cornice
• 7/1/2006
  • Death cornice
• 7/16/2006
• Rocks falling down + death cornice
• 8/19/2014
  • Rock fall

Drive

• 3 hr drive from Redmond

Distances

Starts at 3,500 ft

• 4 hrs: Car to camp (6,100 ft)
  • 5 miles, 2,837 ft gain, all on trail
• 3 hrs: Camp to pass (8,236 ft)
  • 1.25 miles, 2,139 ft gain
• 2 hrs: Pass to summit (9,082 ft)
  • 0.3 miles, 1,060 ft gain
• Traversing on 45 degree snow and then 45 degree snow to summit

Rock fall and death glacier

May

5/26/2015: We bgan to discuss that we should stay on the side of that chute when the massive cornice on the up slope began to fail and released some giant snowballs which quickly gained moment and brought a fair amount of debris down the chute. We hadn’t wanted to climb this late. We were supposed to be heading back to camp by now. But going back across the traverse would be more dangerous. We had to climb. Damien took charge at this point and pointed out a large rock near the top of the face on the left side of the chute. This rock would divert debris away from us if we climbed under it. When were were most of the way up we would shorten the rope and run across the chute to the other side. It was agreed that this was the safest way to mitigate the risk… Ivan saw it first, the cornice was collapsing some more. We called out a warning as giant snowball hurdled down the chute beside us. I ducked my head and dug in my axes. I got grazed by a bit of snow. Ivan got hit by a pretty big snowball. Stephan and Damien were untouched. Source

June

6/26/2011: I led the second pitch and was treated to rapidly steepening terrain, a few mixed moves, and rockfall. After a kegerator sized boulder (as Niki called it) whizzed past me, I decided to pull everyone in at a protected spot, reset the lead, and make sure we moved quickly through the next section as to not get hit by any rock falling off the mountain… “The Death Cornice” was present and in a glorious way. I’ve never seen a cornice as big or scary as this one as we quickly crossed under it’s path. We could see fracture lines in the top of it once above, so it’s getting ready to go. Going to make a mess once this bad boy comes down Source

July

7/1/2006: The infamous death cornice that had freaked everyone out a year ago was still there, albeit smaller. Its path appeared quite clear though, and it only put us in danger for a few seconds as we crossed its runnel (they skii’d it) Source

7/16/2006: The death cornice was mostly melted out but there was a big block of ice sitting on top waiting to come down. There were rocks falling down every now and then. We had to keep moving Source

Mid-Aug

8/19/2014: By far the biggest danger on this route is the frequent rock fall at this time of year. In particular, we had one instance of a fridge-sized rock thundering down and intersecting the lower part of the climbing route. One climber in our party saved his own life by diving into a moat a split second before the boulder flew past where he was standing! Source

Gear

One trip report used 6 pickets, another used 12 pickets, plus rock gear in the exposed rock

Plans