Split Mountain East Couloir
Nov. 2005
Timing is everything. And I timed this climb just right. Pavel and Kris joined me for this trip but they climbed as a team and belayed the ice pitches while I soloed. We got a pre-dawn start and I met them on top - barely. I was just about to head down because I was getting very cold on top waiting when I saw them coming up into the notch between the north and south summits. Pitch 1 held a short pitch of WI3, then a little slogging to the crux ice pitch. About 100 ft of WI3 followed by several hundred feet of ~WI2 slabs. Then onerous post holing to the summit. I descended while Kris and Pavel were still on the summit. We met back at our camp at Red Lake and hiked out to the car.
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| Sunrise and headlamp |
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| Approaching pitch 1 ice with pitch 2 visible above |
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| Approaching pitch 2 ice |
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| pitch 2, steeper than it looks |
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| Looking down the ice slabs |
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| My tracks coming up out of the couloir at the notch |
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| Looking down St. Jean couloir on the descent |
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| Looking across at the route from the descent |
