Telegraph Peak South Couloir 12-31-10

Dave G · Post by **Dave G** » Sat Jan 01, 2011 3:07 pm

Patrick (lilbitmo), Phil (lik2hik) and I climbed Telegraph Peak's South Couloir on a cold and windy New Year's Eve. A bit more (consolidated) snow would have made the approach less painful, but our troubles were quickly forgotten once we got onto the fun and challenging ~2300' snow couloir. After gaining the ridge and tagging the summit, we headed over to Cedar Cyn, put on our snowshoes and descended back to Icehouse Cyn, joining the Chapman Trail along the way.

A blustery day!

A variety of snow conditions, from fresh powder to hard ice

Phil near the ridgetop

Traversing to the summit

Patrick's knee deep in it in Cedar Cyn

More: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21042415@N ... 596953397/

lik2hik · Post by **lik2hik** » Sat Jan 01, 2011 5:31 pm

Dave, Patrick. What a great way to finish out 2010! I think we encountered every type of snow condition that there is, up the trackless couloir. Calm and sunny in the canyon and big time winds along the ridge.
Another 2' of snow would have been nice to avoid the bushwhacking, but I'm not complaining!
Looking forward to more climbs this winter.

hvydrt · Post by **hvydrt** » Sat Jan 01, 2011 5:54 pm

Looks like fun! What time were you guys in the couloir? I took this picture of Telegraph from Lookout Mountain about 2pm yesterday:

lilbitmo · Post by **lilbitmo** » Sat Jan 01, 2011 9:06 pm

hvydrt - we topped out before 2 PM and were heading down by that time, we might just be in that picture, if you know where the trail that comes off the first saddle is then follow that down through the trees, that's the line Dave lead us to Cedar Canyon, you have the original picture you might be able to find us in the lower section of the picture if you blow it up and look closely?

Phil and Dave, that was a classic day in so many different snow conditions that it's hard to describe them all, the spin drift was wicked on the ridges and summit but well worth it - to me the scariest part of the whole climb was the last mile of pure uneven ice along the ice house canyon trail between chapman trail and the cars, all that beat down trail from everyone tracking through there sent me on my butt twice - it was slicker than butter in a frying pan.

Cannot wait for the next snows to come in a fill in the rest of the areas so that we don't have to fight our way through all the brush and crap to get into the canyons and couliers for the next climb.

Great day, great fun, great friends - perfect way to end 2010.

My Pictures Here

EManBevHills · Post by **EManBevHills** » Sat Jan 01, 2011 11:57 pm

Kudos to y'all. Great way to finish out the year!

Post by **Taco** » Sun Jan 02, 2011 11:32 am

hvydrt, that couloir in the center of your pic is One Nut Wonder. They were off to the right, and only about a third of their route is visible.

Don't you guys love upper Cedar Canyon?!

James · Post by **James** » Sun Jan 02, 2011 12:18 pm

Awesome trip. Was a great weekend with more snow on the way!

mve · Post by **mve** » Sun Jan 02, 2011 12:53 pm

I didn't realize how much snow there is! What a great way to spend the 31st!

secondlizard · Post by **secondlizard** » Sun Jan 02, 2011 2:29 pm

It looks like you guys had a great. I hope the snow keeps coming.

norma r · Post by **norma r** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 5:08 pm

lilbitmo wrote: ...to me the scariest part of the whole climb was the last mile of pure uneven ice along the ice house canyon trail between chapman trail and the cars, all that beat down trail from everyone tracking through there sent me on my butt twice - it was slicker than butter in a frying pan.

Happy New Year!! glad you guys had a great day! can't wait to get up there again. so Patrick, does that mean you came back down IHC sans crampons? can't imagine that you'd slip while wearing pons.

lilbitmo · Post by **lilbitmo** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 5:20 pm

norma r wrote:
lilbitmo wrote: ...to me the scariest part of the whole climb was the last mile of pure uneven ice along the ice house canyon trail between chapman trail and the cars, all that beat down trail from everyone tracking through there sent me on my butt twice - it was slicker than butter in a frying pan.
Happy New Year!! glad you guys had a great day! can't wait to get up there again. so Patrick, does that mean you came back down IHC sans crampons? can't imagine that you'd slip while wearing pons.

Being so close to the car we just kept moving, I don't own Micro Spikes or Yaktrax but they would have come in handy, I slipped in the rocks that looked like they were completely clear of ice, only it was that super thin layer you cannot see in the shade - black ice, the rock looks wet but it's realy a super thin layer of ice, got me twice and I was taking baby steps the rest of the way to the car, my bad I was too close to being down to stop and put the full crampons on as there was mixed snow on the side of the trail that we tried to stay on to aviod the ice but in some areas there was steep hill on one side, running water down the middle of the trail and drop off to our left, only choice was to gingerly step on the rocks and the rocks won the battle twice - my bad on both occasions - so in this case "Sans Brains"

or "El Stupido"