Trip Report: Crescent Couloir, Round Top

This Winter was about the worst one to try to get into mountaineering, especially on the cheap! I heard someone say we only got 60% of the precipitation in the Sierra Nevadas than we usually do. Between working at the hospital, the poor snow quality, a broken back in January that took three months to sort out, and some other medical issues from some of the people I was going to go on trips with, I missed out on a winter backpacking trip and the opportunity to summit Mt Lassen and Mt Shasta. I’m hoping to make some of this up this Fall.

I spent a lot of time getting familiar with snowshoeing, different equipment setups, and exploring the mountains around Reno on my days off from the hospital. When my Shasta trip got canceled (a trip I was looking forward to since November), I took a day and attempted to make a winter ascent of Round Top, a mountain in the Carson Pass that is reasonably close to my house (about an hour and a half away) and has some areas to practice technical skills.

It was a disaster!

I learned a bunch on the trip and felt pretty positive about it, but it was a failure mostly due to my poor planning and over packing. Also, going by myself, I’m not very motivated. I hate not making it, and felt like I needed to try again. That opportunity fell into my lap pretty randomly from a guy I had just met…

Getting into mountaineering takes a lot of money, time, proximity to tall mountains, with being single or having a family that’s ok with you being gone a lot of weekends, time, and most importantly knowing someone who knows more than you and is willing to go with you and teach you. Having an abundance of any one of these things can often help offset a lack in the other aspects. I have minimal amounts of pretty much all but the proximity to tall-ish mountains. When I first started looking into it, I decided I needed to find someone who would do it with me and who was ok with my lack of mountaineering experience. Hours of Google searches left me with only one real lead - a year-old Reddit post from a guy who seemed to be in a similar position the year before and was looking for a partner.

I sent him a message, not expecting much, and over the pandemic, we started messaging and texting back and forth, basically feeling each other out. The pandemic made getting to know someone pretty difficult and it took months for us to finally meet in person. We met up over a few beers finally in May, after eight months of digital conversations. He’s a pretty cool guy. Over the last winter, he basically did what I did, but in the past 12 months, he had made friends in two different groups that went on outdoor adventures in the area and had gained a lot of experience really quickly. He also invited me to attempt Round Top’s Crescent Couloir with him on Memorial Day.

According to the Santiam Alpine Club, a “couloir” is “A gully, sometimes a potential route. A chute or bowling alley is steep enough for rock or ice fall to be a concern” (http://santiamalpineclub.org/mountain/climbing/terms/). Basically, it’s the ribbon of snow that lies between two higher points (ridges or rock formations). Crescent Couloir is not a famous or prestigious alpine climb, but it it a 1000’ chute that requires crampons, ice axes, and the courage to climb it knowing that if you slide, there’s the potential that you won’t be able to self arrest (stop) before hitting something hard.

I met my new friend at his house at 4 AM and we picked up another friend of his on the way. A team of three is a safer number if a rope is necessary. We got to the parking lot at Carson Pass at sunrise, assessed our gear at the car, and took off on a 2+mile hike to the foot of the mountain. Being the newest to this, and the person with the least amount of money invested, I had the largest pack, the heaviest gear, and the lowest-rated boots (though still mountaineering boots). I also carried the rope, which was a few pounds by itself (spoiler, we didn’t use it).

There were three main causes to my not finishing my first climb on Round Top - lack of good preparation and rest, lack of knowledge of avalanches, and having to snowshoe all the way to the bottom of the mountain. This time, all of these were fixed by: me planning better, the other guys understanding avalanche assessment, and not having to snowshoe to the bottom of the mountain, as most of the snow had melted. We hiked up relatively uneventfully to the base of the mountain and began hiking up through a mix of snow and scree to the highest scree field we could see that lay near the base of the couloir.

Just before we headed to the couloir, we reiterated our plan to bail if anyone felt they could not continue, we strapped on our crampons, checked our gear, and mentally prepared. For the first half, the other two guys took the lead. Due to my boots being somewhat flexible , and having the most weight on my back, they figured it would be easier for them to kick the steps. For me, the first half was like going up 500 feet of stairs, breaking between every 3-5 steps. About halfway up, the other guys were pretty tired, and the mental toll was getting to one of them. I wanted to try my hand at leading and offered to lead for a while. I started kicking steps and slowly made my way up.

Every few steps, I’d stop and check that the other guys were ok with me continuing, and also ask for feedback on the steps I was making for them. I felt great and was really enjoying it, but I started to notice that when I would look up, sweat was flowing down my face. I was having to blow out like a whale with each breath. Though I felt great and could have continued on, I decided it was time to give up the lead. By this point, both the others felt better after having a nice break. The top ended up being only like 100 feet from where I stopped, so from then on, it was pretty easy going (though for about 10 feet, the snow was so soft, it was like we were swimming rather than climbing). At the top, we talked to a hiker who had seen us climbing and ran to the top via the trail to see us come up.

After almost an hour's rest at the top, we climbed the rocky ridge trail back down the mountain, glissaded (like sledding, only your butt is the sled) a few hundred feet, and hiked the long way back to the car to some victory beers. The two guys were great. We seemed to make a good team and get along pretty well. I’m hoping to get to do more with them. It was overall, a great day of snow climbing, hiking, and good conversation. It definitely made up for a little bit of the stuff I missed over the Winter.

It’s always important to look back and see what you learned, what you could have done better, and what went well. All of my equipment had been purchased in the past year, and though it was heavier than theirs, it did the trick. If I had held out for better gear, I wouldn’t have made it on this trip. That being said, I definitely am learning what gear I need, what gear I’d like, and what gear I could live without.

The boots I have were worth every penny of the $60 I paid for them (La Sportiva Trango Tech Leather GTX - usually cost about $250) but for anything more technical or more icy, I really need some full shank boots. The Trango’s are boots that sit between a hiking boot and a full shank boot and do a great job for that. I was the only person not needed to get out of them once we got to the car. That being said, it would have been worth the extra weight for me to have brought my approach shoes for the hike in and out. I’d like some more technical boots - at least like the Nepal Cube’s, if not something larger and with a double boot. Unfortunately, these boots will cost between $500 and $800.

I could also use some better mountaineering pants. I bought some winter pants from Decathlon that were inexpensive (like $20 I think) and mated them with some fleece bottom layers. They worked, but I needed more stretch. Along with these, I need a shell jacket. I brought along a fleece jacket and a slim puff jacket and they worked great for this, but this combination would have really needed a thin shell layer if it was in colder weather. I have a great winter jacket that I’m confident would get me to the top of Shasta well enough, but the Cascades will need some better clothes.

I need a smaller bag. I have a great day hike bag that I bought for my wife and I to carry water and snacks. It wouldn’t have carried my gear. I brought my new expedition bag (Deuter Aircontact Lite 65+10L) which I think is amazingly comfortable. It worked well, but the other guys had much smaller bags (38L and 45L) which kept the weight in their packs closer to their bodies. I need a mid-sized bag like that. While I like having the gear with me, I’d like to move to a place where I can move faster and lighter with “what-if” gear and more know-how. I’ll get there.

I also should have had a second ice axe. I hadn’t got one because I hadn’t planned to do any ice climbing. Only having one axe on this created a situation where when I was moving, I could only have two points of contact with the snow. If one of those points had given, the other would not be enough to keep me planted. I felt safe the whole time, but still, safety gear is always worth the money.

These are the biggest things I’ve learned as far as how I could be better this Fall. I want to get into an Avalanche course and maybe do a class at Shasta, Hood, or Rainier. I want to have a better gear setup. I want to have more experience under my belt. I want to begin planning better.

What I brought:

• Deuter Aircontact Lite 65+10L backpack

• La Sportiva Trango Tech Leather GTX boots

• Grivel G-12 crampons

• Grivel Nepal SA ice axe

• Sterling VR9 9.8mm Dry Core 60M rope

• REI 650 Down Jacket 2.0

• North Face TKA Glacier Fleece (literally the best fleece in the world)

• Quenchua NH100 hiking pants (Decathlon)

What I have that I should have brought:

• Garmin InReach Explorer Plus