After the downpours of May, we were itching to get in an alpine trip. Originally we were going to try a multi-day/multi-route trip with a base camp at Colchuck Lake, but some recent photos showed strong winter conditions - what a difference a couple of weeks makes but more about that later.

We ended up canceling the multi-route trip and decided to try a one day assault on Colchuck's North Buttress Couloir. Unfortunately we were turned around due to strong approaching summer conditions and only made it about a quarter of the way up the couloir in roasting temps. Our route is shown below in green and what we believe to be the remainder of the route in red (the route looks much different from this angle).


View of North Buttress Couloir from Colchuck Lake - green shows portion of route completed and red shows what I believe to be the route

During what seems like an extremely long early morning hike where we encountered snow patches on trail within 1/2 mile of Stuart Lake/Colchuck Lake trail junction and 100% snow coverage approximately 100 vertical feet below Colchuck Lake, we realized that the sun was rising much earlier than we had expected. Sometime around 3:30am we started to see signs of light and didn't need headlamps after about 4ish. At the lake we were slightly discouraged by how light it already was and still how far we were away from entrance of North Buttress Couloir. We also hadn't realized that the couloir immediately receives early morning light in June and by 6am nearly the whole couloir was in full sun. I guess ignorance isn't always bliss.

We followed a well-worn boot path around the lake and arrived at the base of the moraine. We soon put crampons on and made our way up the moraine, which appeared deceptively short.


Looking up moraine to Colchuck Peak - North Buttress Couloir entrance near center of photo

We followed the ridge of the right moraine, staying slightly right of the crest to avoid as much post-holing as possible on the more sun exposed moraine's left side, which already had 3-4 inches of corn snow. By this time the bottom of the couloir had seen sun for more than an hour and a half and our window was quickly closing or more likely closed, but we figured we would get a closer look at the couloir conditions, hoping for firm snow. However hope is not a strategy, or at least not an effective one.

Due to our chosen path on the moraine ridge, we ended up traversing steep snow slopes above a rock band, heading toward the couloir.


Above rock band near bottom of N Buttress Couloir - route seen and runnel

On the traverse, we encountered deepening corn snow, now approximately 6-8 inches deep. Previous scouting of conditions showed past slide activity on many couloirs, including somewhere on the Colchuck Glacier route.


Old slides from Colchuck NE Buttress Couloir and near Colchuck Glacier Col

With the temps near 65F at 8:15am and considering that the top of the couloir had seen sun for probably an extra hour, we decided to bail and down climbed a path approximately 50 ft climber's right of the North Buttress Couloir.


Descending about 50 ft climber's right of North Buttress Couloir route

We eventually converged with the North Buttress Couloir and down-climbed near the runnel to easier slopes, where a couple quick glissades brought us back to the lake and the ever increasing crowds at the lake and on the hike out.


North Buttress Couloir route - direct start


Aasgard Pass and a couple of old slides from Dragontail and elsewhere