Water ice was recently spotted and climbed for the first time in years in the Mendenhall Couloir (also called the Northwest Couloir, Y Couloir, and other names) on Mount Morrison. I was in luck and was able to get to it just before summer weather took its toll on the ice and snow.

Like many others, I have been impressed by views of Mt. Morrison (~12,241') when I've driven past it on 395. It just begs to be climbed, but virtually everything I have read and heard made the rock routes on its north side sound ominous ("The Eiger of the Sierra"). None of my regular partners could be talked onto it... With so many peaks and routes to climb in the Sierra, Mt. Morrison was barely on my list.

That all changed when I saw Gil's Ephemeral Spring post on Supertopo (May 29, 2011). Gil and Allen climbed the couloir on Thursday-May 26th - perhaps the first time the route had been climbed since John Dittli and Andy Selters climbed it in May 1996. (edit: since originally posting this trip report, I learned that The Chief and others also climbed it a couple times between 2000 and this year's freeze)

They had been preceded by John Mendenhall who climbed the couloir in 1931 - he called it class three. Forty years later, Yvon Chouinard, Doug Robinson, and Dennis Henneck found 200' of steep rotten rock blocking their winter access to the couloir. Mendenhall must have been quite bold and had one heck of a large avalanche cone to get past that steep rock. Impressive!

Gil's Ephemeral Spring post and ensuing thread showed the couloir to be in great condition with ice in the key lower section, apparently little rockfall, and "decently stiff snow" above the ice. After Gil and Allen, other teams jumped on it (Frank and partner, PeteC and partner, and Stewart Johnson --http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1523768/mt-morrison-couloir-june-7 ).The pics we saw and reports we read looked very promising. (edit: since originally posting this trip report, I learned that we were also preceded by Paul Teare, The Chief, and others)

Fortunately for me and partner, the weather in that part of the Sierra remained chilly with freezing temperatures overnight and cool days. Unseasonably stormy, too. Had just learned from one of my regular partners that he was ill and had to cancel out on his plans to join me, when another lad (who prefers to remain incognito) called to see if I was interested. Well.... heck, YES!

Coordinating our respective family and work schedules, and other commitments with the weather led to our finally heading over on Tuesday-June 7, so we could climb it the next day - one day shy of two weeks since Gil and Allen zipped up the route.

Now some (lots of) pictures...


Somewhat closer. The couloir in plain view. The snow leading up to the couloir, the ice, and the snow above the ice look incredibly, wonderfully steep when viewed straight-on, especially when using binoculars. Deceptive.


We drove up to Convict Lake (~7850') to take evening pictures of Mt. Morrison, scope out the approach trail before dark, and snag a campsite before heading over to an Italian restaurant for dinner in Mammoth Lakes. The rain, which we had left farther north in the afternoon, caught us in Mammoth and then followed us back to our camp. The rain finally let up around 10pm and the skies cleared. We did not have a thermometer, but while there was no ice on the bear box at 4am on June 8, there was ice on the picnic table.


The ice on the bottom right of the couloir appeared to start lower than the ice on the left, and it had an enticingly steep curtain of ice. The left side looked to be more of a steep snow ramp leading up to the ice. We chose the right side and the little curtain (was it 10' tall or taller?).



Moving up above the curtain. The ice was soft and plastic with some snow rot and air-filled voids. Excellent ego ice (easy to climb), if dubious protection doesn't bother you. With the camera in telephoto mode, the ice looks somewhat shorter than its almost 60m.




Looking back down. With the 70m rope, my partner was just able to stay around the protective corner of the buttress, until I moved up over the bulge at the top of the ice and onto the snow. Very impressive that, with a bit more snow, John Mendenhall had climbed this eighty years ago!

















If only the whole couloir had been ice!