Drift SE couloir question

[pak]

Bill:

Thanks for chiming in, and for posting the photos!

From what I've gleaned from Roach and Cooper, the traverse from Fletcher to Drift has 1 notch that is possible to rappel; about 30'. Is this notch the one you reference with the arrows showing the correct route? If so, is there a solid block for setting an anchor?

Thanks!

[Chicago Transplant]

I put up the route description on Summitpost, it is most definitely a different gully than Kevin's trip report. We descended back towards Fletcher off the summit, then dropped the gully. It is the gully marked on this photo that I took. The one Kevin too is much farther to left in the shadows.

We came to Drift via Fletcher, sticking to the ridge at first then dropping to northwest around a 3rd class rib and then up a narrow gully to the notch, which is probably the notch in Bill's photos, before going on to the southeast side of Drift and then working back up to the ridge. We backtracked the ridge to the top of a gully that I called the Southeast Gully on my SP page and dropped it to the basin below. It was loose 2+ climbing, wear a helmet and be careful of your partners below.

Drift SE gully

210875.JPG (280.37 KiB) Viewed 1564 times

[BillMiddlebrook]

Bill:

Thanks for chiming in, and for posting the photos!

From what I've gleaned from Roach and Cooper, the traverse from Fletcher to Drift has 1 notch that is possible to rappel; about 30'. Is this notch the one you reference with the arrows showing the correct route? If so, is there a solid block for setting an anchor?

Thanks!

You absolutely rap that pitch, but there's no need if you want to leave the rope at home. To get around out it (going from Fletch to Drift):
You can't see the notch unless you climb the point before it and abrubtly stop at the top and you'll know when you're there - straight down, 30-50 feet. Retrace back down the steep slabs and then swing around to the right to locate a small notch and drop into a rubbly couloir that leads northwest out of the notch. From the couloir, cross and climb the steep white rock on right side of the ridge. That's the crux. regain the ridge after some steep, Class 3 climbing. walk over to the summit of drift.

Here are a few photos (going from Fletch to Drift) that show the work to get around the deep notch, keeping the route Class 3:

1) Approaching the point before the notch. You can't see the notch. If you go to the top (orange), you'll see the drop-off. To bypass the difficulties, go around to the right and look for a small clump of white-ish colored rocks, slightly down to the right:


2) At the small clump of rocks there's a small notch where you can descend into the gully that follows:


3) There are a few eye bolts, with rings, in this area from previous mining activity:


4) Climbing down an easy pitch from the white clump of rock. This puts you in the gully that leads from the deep notch, which you're bypassing:


5) The Class 3 terrain on the other side of the gully. This is all on the west (actually, northwest) side of the ridge:


6) Ascending the Class 3 terrain on the way back up to the ridge. Once back to the ridge, the bypass of the notch is complete.

[IHikeLikeAGirl]

Thanks everyone!

Yeah, I thought that gully was different, but you never know. Thanks pak/Phil, for getting more info on the ridge. I think I have plan B covered.

See you Saturday! And yes, regardless of routes, helmets will be packed!

[pak]

Bill:

Thanks so much for the detailed info! Have a great evening.

[BillMiddlebrook]

My pleasure!

[kmensch]

I climbed Fletcher and Drift yesterday from the east (Blue Lake TH). I wish I had seen this post and pictures before I went because it was an epic day. I went solo with my dog and climbed Fletcher with no issues. Finding Drift and the right couloir was a fiasco. I must say that Gerry Roach likely did not climb Drift from the east or the description would have been clearer. The ridge has several peaks that all appear to be the highest from below. Since Roach describes a Fletcher-Drift saddle, I first climbed the most northern peak, which is obviously not the highest when you are standing on it. I then descended and ascended a couloir just to the left of the obvious geologic “X” in the pictures and above remnants of a mining shack, knowing it would not be 300 yards south of the summit, but it appeared to be easier than the other couloirs. My dog did ascend this couloir with me, even though it is class 3+ at the top. He was exhausted when we reached the saddle and I climbed both peaks to the north and south to see which was higher so I could find the class 2+ couloir 300 yards to the south (according to Roach). Drift is south of the “X” couloir I ascended. I put my dog in my pack and searched for a descent couloir and picked the center “notch” in Bill Middlebrook’s posting on Aug 5, 2010 at 2:16pm. This is a serious couloir and required 5th class climbing to descend. Not knowing if it would cliff-out and carrying my 25-pound dog in my pack made it very difficult and committing. I knew I could not re-ascend the route and had to continue down: epic indeed.

I think describing the recommended couloir could be better in Roach’s book. You need to descend all the way into the basin below Drift and find the southern-most couloir in the cirque before it curves to the east. I don’t know if this couloir is class 2+ (it seemed loose and dangerous from afar), but it is far better than the middle “notch” which was loose, full of brittle rock, contained icy snow in places, and held huge chock stones requiring a desperate person like myself to down climb (5.6 in places). I ended up in the bushes at the start of the route very late and without a headlamp that I have always carrier in the past, but thought this would be an easy day (another lesson).

[kaiman]

I put up the route description on Summitpost, it is most definitely a different gully than Kevin's trip report. We descended back towards Fletcher off the summit, then dropped the gully. It is the gully marked on this photo that I took. The one Kevin too is much farther to left in the shadows.

We came to Drift via Fletcher, sticking to the ridge at first then dropping to northwest around a 3rd class rib and then up a narrow gully to the notch, which is probably the notch in Bill's photos, before going on to the southeast side of Drift and then working back up to the ridge. We backtracked the ridge to the top of a gully that I called the Southeast Gully on my SP page and dropped it to the basin below. It was loose 2+ climbing, wear a helmet and be careful of your partners below.

210875.JPG

This sounds pretty close to the route that I did a couple summers ago as well. Traversing first northwest from Fletcher around the rock rib and staying on the southeast side of Drift kept the difficulties at Class 2+/3 and the backtrack to what ChicagoTransplant calls the "Southeast Gulley" definitely was loose but not too exposed, plus it put me in a good position in the basin for the hike out.

kmensch - I think this is the route that Gerry Roach is trying to explain in his description, but ChicagoTransplant's route description does a much better job...

[kmensch]

Yes, I ascended the couloir with the red arrow in Chicago Transplant's photo, but it is not the right notch in Bill Middlebrook's photo, which I down-climbed. If I was smart, I would have down-climbed the same couloir that I ascended, but Roach describes a class 2+ couloir/gully that I wanted to try to find to make the descent easier. The couloir Roach describes is actually the notch on left of Bill's photo. No one would climb the notch on the right if you looked at it from the base, but I picked it from the top thinking it was the notch on the left (south). I will have nightmares about this mistake for a while. Hopefully the saying is true that the things that don't kill you will make you stronger...

[USAKeller]

I have some good shots of USAKeller scowling at me on some of those exposed portions. Great stuff.

OMG Bill! I didn't know you released this to the public. Had someone not revived this thread today, I would have never seen that! I totally forgot about it, got a good laugh, and am quite embarrassed!

[BillMiddlebrook]

Sorry!!!
I laugh every time I see that photo