Telegraph Peak South Couloir 12-31-10

TRs for the San Gabriel Mountains.
Post Reply
User avatar
Dave G
Posts: 321
Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2008 9:51 am

Post by Dave G »

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!
Image

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

Phil near the ridgetop
Image

Traversing to the summit
Image

Patrick's knee deep in it in Cedar Cyn
Image

More: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21042415@N ... 596953397/
User avatar
lik2hik
Posts: 82
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2007 8:46 am

Post by lik2hik »

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.
User avatar
hvydrt
Posts: 494
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:18 pm

Post by hvydrt »

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

Image
User avatar
lilbitmo
Posts: 1092
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:44 pm

Post by lilbitmo »

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
User avatar
EManBevHills
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:40 am

Post by EManBevHills »

Kudos to y'all. Great way to finish out the year!
User avatar
Taco
Snownado survivor
Posts: 6036
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:35 pm

Post by Taco »

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?! ;-)
User avatar
James
Posts: 79
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 3:28 pm

Post by James »

Awesome trip. Was a great weekend with more snow on the way!
User avatar
mve
Posts: 414
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2009 12:53 pm

Post by mve »

I didn't realize how much snow there is! What a great way to spend the 31st!
User avatar
secondlizard
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2010 1:22 pm

Post by secondlizard »

It looks like you guys had a great. I hope the snow keeps coming.
User avatar
norma r
Posts: 707
Joined: Thu Nov 06, 2008 4:22 pm

Post by norma r »

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.
:D 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.
User avatar
lilbitmo
Posts: 1092
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:44 pm

Post by lilbitmo »

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.
:D 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" :D or "El Stupido" :shock:
Post Reply