Monday, May 23, 2016

3/31/16 - Temple Crag N Couloir

The week before we looked up at Temple Crag and saw a number of lines that were worthy of a return trip.  The most obvious was the North Couloir.  Info was sparse but from what we could gather there was a rock/ice pitch in the middle.  We came prepared with heavy packs full of climbing gear and made our way up.  
Temple Crag from the East

North Couloir
 Andy said he was feeling "sendy" so he took the first lead.  When I said heavy packs earlier what I meant was packs with the lightest ropes and the scantest rack imaginable.  So with that light rack Andy ran out of gear maybe a hundred feet up.  He belayed Tom and I up and I took the next hundred feet.  Both of our leads felt much harder than they should have but we certainly aren't in any sort of climbing shape.

Pitch #1 - Tom Goth Photo

Photo - Tom Goth
About 500' after the rock pitches we took a dead end left hand turn that we ended up skiing back down.  Once back in the North Couloir proper we scrambled past a few easy rock bands and ended topping out at a notch.  We had hoped for the summit but now we all weren't feeling as "sendy" as before so we settle for a couple thousand feet of steep powder skiing.  All in all our expectations were blown away.

Andy at the top of the wrong turn
Skiing back to the main chute
Back on track
Andy at the notch
Andy skiing down from the top of the chute.  Tom rigging a short rap b/c we were to scared to down climb a 10' rock band. 




After the rap


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