| Pitch descriptions: | Photos: | Photo descriptions: | |
Approach | 3-4 hours Trail to Colchuck Lake. From there two options: (1) From the left/north: Cross outlet at north end of lake, follow climbers' path up and across timbered hillside to cirque below base of CBR. (2) From the right/south: Follow trail cc around Colchuck Lake, scramble up obvious gully above Jaberwocky Tower into cirque below the base of CBR. | a.  b.  c.  d.  e.  | a. Dragontail and Colchuck as seen from the outlet at the north end of Colchuck Lake. Cindy and I chose to approach CBR from the left/north via the climbers' trail that goes around the outlet at the north end of Colchuck Lake. This is the way I went when climbing the West Face and I think it is faster than going all the way around Colchuck Lake and approaching from the right/south. b. View of Mt. Stuart in the distance, Colchuck Lake below. Haze is from the smoke from Canadian forest fires. c. Cindy on the climbers' trail high above Colchuck Lake. This trail is pretty easy to follow and involves more 2nd class hiking than 3rd class brush-pulling as Cindy is doing in the photo. d. View of the west side of CBR from the basin below (photo taken in afternoon after climb, when the lighting was a bit better than morning). e. Resident mountain goats came bounding down the boulders when they saw us stop to take a break in the basin below. These guys have an amazing sense of pee-radar. |
Pitch 1 | 5.10a, 55m Bouldery move off the ground to right-trending ramps. | 1a.  1b.  | 1a. Looking up the start of the route, which follows the corner system for a couple of pitches. 1b. Cindy starting up Pitch 1. |
Pitch 2 | 5.10a, 50m Continue up ramp system to "Launch Ledge." | 2.  | 2. It seemed natural and most direct to continue up the corner for Pitch 2. However, the first half of this pitch seemed rather dirty and the second half seemed much more travelled, and I never had to do the "face traverse left into corner" halfway though the pitch, so I am guessing (?) the first half of this pitch starts a bit further right of the corner system, for some reason (better climbing perhaps?). The climbing in this corner was not bad, just grungy. |
Pitch 3 | 5.11c, 45m The Scoop. Steep and sustained finger and hand jams with good gear. | 3.  | 3. Cindy leading The Scoop. Because of the steep and strenuous nature of this pitch, this would be a very hard pitch to lead without at least one rest. Nice effort Cindy! |
Pitch 4 | 5.10b, 40m Stemming dihedral with thin pro to small roof to belay ledge. | 4a.  4b.  4c.  | 4a. Looking up Pitch 4. Pro is tricky and thin for the first 50 feet, but I managed to place a few very small cams and offset nuts. 4b. Cindy in the corner. 4c. The small roof at the end of the pitch. You can get good hand jams along the top and there is a key knob for the foot out left. |
Pitch 5 | 5.10a, 50m Step across on knobs left around large roof, climb crack in corner to easier ground. | 5.  | 5. The roof at the start of Pitch 5. There is a really fun stem across on knobs to get to the roof and then a fun 5.9ish crack on the other side. |
Pitch 6+ | 5.6, simul Path of least resistance to the summit below balanced rock. | 6a.  6b.  | 6a. Looking up at the final bit to the top. This is about 400 feet of 4th to 5.6 so we simulclimbed it. 6b. Cindy nearing the top. |
Pitch 7 | V1, ~3m Boulder problem to the top of the balanced rock. | 7a.  7b.  7c.  | 7a. As John and I had done when we climbed the West Face, we threw a rope over the top of the summit block to give a toprope for the exposed V1 boulder problem to the top of the summit block. 7b. Cindy at the top, getting ready to tie in to climb the summit block. 7c. View of Dragontail, Colchuck, and Stuart from the top of Colchuck Balanced Rock. |
Descent | ~45 min to 1hr to base Make a 30m rappel to east from slung horn, then scramble down scree or snow rightward (clockwise around peak) and back to the base base of the climb. | a.  b.  | a. Starting the descent down the scree and talus back around to the base below the west side of CBR. b. Another view of Dragontail at head of descent gully. |