Storming the Citadel
June 17, 2009
Spring couloir season is in full swing and, after running around like crazy last year not climbing anything, it's been a while since I did any serious mountaineering. Despite having been champing at the bit since April, 2009 hasn't gotten off to a really good start either. Thus, I scheduled a mid-week outing and even that had an inauspicious start: bad weather on the first attempt, then a rapidly changing and re-changing set of climbers and destinations, then Ben couldn't find his boots... Oy! But it all worked out very nicely in the end.
 Approaching the Citadel. The route climbs diagonally lower-right to upper left. |
Ben and I set out at 4:30 from the Herman Gulch trailhead and made quick work of the approach despite some mild AMS on my part and taking a long-cut to Herman Lake. There was still a good deal of snow above 11k, but it had clearly been a cold night and the going was mostly easy. As the sun rose, we got a good view of our elusive target. Up close, the Citadel and it's surroundings are reminiscent of the Nokhu Crags in setting and jaggedness of rock and the fact that the main couloir ascends to a narrow saddle between two rotten towers that make up the north and south (east and west?) summits. Another point of similarity was that there were modest piles of avalanche debris everywhere originating in the myriad little gullies and chutes around the cirque. Some big cornices had obviously let go on the southern wall in days past, but all of the slide debris looked like it had been there for a while.
 Ben takes the lead for the final summit push. |
 Ben scrambles the loose rocks to the north summit. Our tracks can be seen in the couloir below. |
Relaxing on the summit with the impressive south tower beyond.
Fortunately, the snow conditions were much better than during the narrowly-avoided disaster on Nokhu and the rock inspired mere trepidation rather than out-and-out, pants-wetting horror. We climbed a broad slope to a small platform below the route, donned gear, and started up the main event by 7:30. The couloir proper was around 500' of 40 degree snow, a bit soft on top, but fairly firm below, broad at the base, but narrowing to perhaps 20' wide at the top. It was also hot and we soon were sweating like hogs. Predictably, Ben was having a fantastic time on his first bona fide couloir climb and I made him lead the last hundred feet on firm, clean snow. We reached the narrow saddle at around 8 and scrambled up the loose, 3rd-class rocks to the very precarious northern summit. The rocks were shot through with wide cracks and overhung each other (or nothing at all) in the most alarming ways, yet the whole stack seemed solid enough. We ate a quick snack, admired the views, and then beat a hasty retreat before the laws of gravity could reassert themselves to our detriment.
 Ben starts the descent, kicking a nice boot track into the steep SW couloir. |
 Nice boot track! |
 Working the traverse under the southern cliff band. This was sketchier than it looks... |
 ...but not so sketchy I couldn't stop and take pictures along the way! |
Climbing the south tower looked feasible, but quite sketchy with steep, thin snow cover flanked by significant cliffs on at least three sides. Instead, Ben down-lead the steep snow on the other side of our ascent route valiantly kicking steps in the very firm snow and placing the occasional picket (yes, we used pickets and found them to be quite convenient). Then there was an easy descending traverse across the bottom of the cliff band and an exposed traverse across a steep open slope on some very firm windpack. I lead the latter and placed a couple pickets and a hex along the way to easier ground on the ridge. From there, it was a nice undulating, corniced ridge to the east with alternating talus, tundra, and snow. We paused for a second lunch, and then continued on the ridge, dropping steeply down into a saddle at 12,400' and then climbing back up Pt. 12671.
Herman Gulch was full of snow and looked like it might be stiff going now that things had warmed up a bit. Instead, we turned south and glissaded down a couple really lovely slopes into the adjacent Dry Gulch. Aptly named, Dry Gulch allowed us to hike out through a lovely valley along a stream, frought with wildflowers all the way to the highway... unfortunately 1.5 miles west of where we'd parked. The trudge back along the shoulder of the west-bound lane was no fun, but at least it was easy.
 Working our way down the east ridge with some lurking cornices. |
 Happy mountaineer. |
It was a great and much needed trip! Ben is always up for adventure and together we got in some good exploring and good climbing. The Citadel NE Couloir itself is pretty easy and nothing all that exciting (though pleasant enough), but the summit scrambling and descent was exactly the kind of mountaineering fix I needed. Fantastic, bluebird weather until the very end and good snow conditions were the icing on the cake.
Total distance around 9.5 miles and 3000' of vertical in 8 leisurely hours.
 Adventure Library |  Neithernor |