Trip Report
Clyde Couloir to Starlight Peak (02June, 2012)

by ElGreco
Saturday June 9, 2012 3:33am
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Credit: ElGreco
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Here is a video from our climb up Clyde Couloir last weekend.

[Click to View YouTube Video]

Conditions are great in the Palisades! The Clyde Couloir has several pitches of ice, and the crux section is filled in. Melting fast though. Above the crux is soft snow, and below is a mix of ice and snow. No suncups on the glacier and no mosquitoes yet! Bergschrund easily passable. U and V notches look in good shape. No visible ice in the V. Climbable ice in the U, but can also be avoided.

The Clyde was a great climb. We didn't witness any rockfall, but the bottom of the couloir bears the marks. A Sierra classic!

  Trip Report Views: 4,094
ElGreco 		About the Author
ElGreco is a mountain climber from Athens, Greece who lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Comments
Hoots

climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
  Jun 9, 2012 - 10:18am PT
Great video guys, conditions in there looked perfect!
Charlie D.

Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
  Jun 9, 2012 - 10:39am PT
awesome, thanks!
east side underground

climber
paul linaweaver hilton crk ca
  Jun 9, 2012 - 11:06am PT
Did the Clyde couliar / Starlight w/ Graber and John Mark Baker. JMB skied from the ice pitch to the Bergschrum then launched huge air over the abyss. Very cool.
yosguns

climber
  Jun 9, 2012 - 11:16am PT
Nice! It's so beautiful up there. A trip to remember, for sure.
Dick Erb

climber
June Lake, CA
  Jun 9, 2012 - 12:00pm PT
Thanks ElGreco. It was fun to watch a video of a climb I did with DrDeeg 44 years ago. I"m sure that if there was any ice like what you found, we climbed around it on the rock. We didn't summit Starlight but traversed N Pal to the U notch descent.

East side Underground, It has been over twenty years since John Mark Baker was a ski patroller at Mammoth Mountain, but there are still a few of the old lifers who remember him as one of the more outstanding skiers to ever have the job.
Dirka

Trad climber
Hustle City
  Jun 9, 2012 - 01:21pm PT
Awesome video, TFPU.
east side underground

climber
paul linaweaver hilton crk ca
  Jun 9, 2012 - 02:55pm PT
You got that right Dick, skied with him a couple of years ago and he still rips, cool you did the route with Dr. Deeg, my prof at UCSB and a friend for about thirty years. Cheers, Paul Linaweaver
PellucidWombat

Mountain climber
Draperderr, by Bangerter, Utah
  Jun 9, 2012 - 03:09pm PT
Wow! It looks like you timed the conditions perfectly! Thanks for sharing, George.
viejoalpinisto

Social climber
Pahrump, NV
  Jun 9, 2012 - 03:39pm PT
BRILLIANT! THANKS
ElGreco

Mountain climber
Author's Reply  Jun 9, 2012 - 05:28pm PT
Yeah, I wish I could ski that thing too... Maybe one day!

Thanks, guys. Yes, conditions were great - we got lucky (and started early). The cold spell the previous weekend must have helped. It was 100F in Bishop when we came down and we were ice climbing - eviva California!

The line is awesome. The guidebooks have given this a bad reputation, referring to fatalities and the like. Does anyone know any details about these? I've never been able to find anything that backs it up.
ElGreco

Mountain climber
Author's Reply  Jun 9, 2012 - 07:43pm PT
Ron, thanks. We did knot the ropes on the critical rappels. This was the last one, on low angle snow and I was keeping a close eye to the ends. Good to avoid the snag potential when possible.
Mark Rodell

Trad climber
Bangkok
  Jun 9, 2012 - 10:13pm PT
John Mark...the chef in Mammoth...?
Vitaliy M.

Mountain climber
San Francisco
  Jun 9, 2012 - 09:26pm PT
Although I told you 20 times already, GREAT VIDEO!
east side underground

climber
paul linaweaver hilton crk ca
  Jun 9, 2012 - 10:16pm PT
Do you mean chef? JMB lives in portland, hasn't lived in mammoth for many years.
Doug Robinson

Trad climber
Santa Cruz
  Jun 10, 2012 - 01:58am PT
Hey, really nice video!

Took me right back there. I remember once cutting steps on the side of the ice pinnacle at the crux when it had melted out and didn't connect, and then was too thin to bash on. Then off on the rock to finish the pitch.

And DON'T tie knots in the end of your rap rope. Kinks the f*ck out of em. Safer anyway to back up your rap with a prussic above your belay device (not one of those dangerous autoblocs -- No!)
Mark Rodell

Trad climber
Bangkok
  Jun 10, 2012 - 01:34am PT
Don't want to take the focus off this great TR. And I too love the video but have to say another word about JMB. Walter he and I skied Mt.Shasta once and later I visited him in Mammoth to get better at skiing the steep. He was, as was said upthread, outstanding.
Sam R

climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
  Jun 10, 2012 - 09:20am PT
Really great video! Man, think about Clyde soloing that thing back in the 30's for the first ascent. There might not have been that much ice, but still...
Ezra Ellis

Trad climber
North wet, and Da souf
  Jun 11, 2012 - 10:22am PT
AWESOME TR,
Thanks, Gneiss ice!
JEleazarian

Trad climber
Fresno CA
  Jun 11, 2012 - 01:18pm PT
Very nicely done! Thanks for the TR -- and for the mountaineering sense to climb this so early in this soon-to-be-dry season.

John
ElGreco

Mountain climber
Author's Reply  Jun 11, 2012 - 02:15pm PT
Thanks guys.

DougR, kudos to you guys for running up these routes (and much, much more...) without the beta or the gear that we have today. What we "achieve" today pales in comparison. The beauty stays the same though, I hope. Glad this brought back memories!

As for Norman Clyde, he moved right onto the buttress and out of the couloir after crossing the bergschrund, basically soloing a bunch of low 5th class terrain to the top. I found the Milk Bottle a b*tch. Harder than the Thunderbolt summit block, but then again we wore climbing shoes for that, whereas we were in fat boots for the Milk Bottle and most of it is friction. Still, Clyde lassoed it and got himself up, alone. The man was 130% B.A.D.A.S.S. !
elliott.will

Mountain climber
Wasilla, AK
  Jun 12, 2012 - 01:30pm PT
Awesome! I'm new to CA—how late in the year can you climb ice couloirs like this?
pell

climber
Moscow
  Jun 12, 2012 - 02:47pm PT
Thanks! Seems this weekend is a great time to do some climbs there.
ElGreco

Mountain climber
Author's Reply  Jun 12, 2012 - 03:55pm PT
Generally, if you're looking for couloir ice, late season/fall is thought to be best. The less snow in a given year, the earlier you'd want to hit the couloirs. If you're looking to avoid ice, then go early.

I think the Clyde is different in that it melts out early and exposes rock. It's reputed to come into shape early season, but I haven't monitored it. We were fortunate!
climbrunride

Sport climber
Golf Wall, CO
  Jun 13, 2012 - 12:27am PT
WOW! Super cool video!
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