UN 12584 [LoJ] Northeast Couloir, Mod. Snow

I've been looking at this couloir on the east side of UN 12584 up South Mineral Creek near Silverton--whose benevolent north face has blessed us with so much quality ice climbing--for some time. Being a lower-elevation climb, it melts early, so I expected it to vanish even sooner this season. And since the stats are minimal, it seemed like a good first foray above 12K' since late fall.

The initial crux was waking up at 4am, which is late for a snow climb in Silverton. The next crux was crossing South Mineral Creek, which I didn't feel like wading barefoot at dawn o'clock with all the fresh ice on the rocks. So the adventure began with a splash and mildly soggy boots.

For the approach, I opted to hike up along Cataract Creek in hopes the ice climbing walkoff looker's left of the creek was somewhat consolidated. It wasn't.

Upon reaching the clearing above the waterfalls, snow quality improved. Continuing along the creek until there was a place to sneak around the willows guarding the apron of the couloir, I donned crampons and started up.

The lower couloir faces due east, so the snow was good for cramponing. But I was late (7am) for full sun on this aspect, and the surrounding crumbly red cliffs were shedding some. After 500' the couloir steepens, bends to the south and maintains a northeast aspect for the remaining 700' of climbing. Conditions were as expected for northerly snow in May, which had a more wintry feel and offered ankle-deep booting through a neat leaning narrows. Just below the top I encountered a fork, opting left up a dihedral ramp with some fun, scrappy, low-angle thin ice to climb.

I continued along the northeast ridge to the summit, then walked down the south ridge a bit to an open snow bowl which glissaded nicely back down to the east. A cliff band rings upper Cataract Creek around 11800', but I located a steep tundra sneak just below the descent bowl.

Following the watercourse and my route back down Cataract, I enjoyed some gravity-assisted postholes and finally splashed back to the road.

Route notes: Max steepness is probably 40 deg. or less. Going left at the top makes it AI1/M1. Rockfall hazard is a consideration. Ideal season would be mid May through early June in a normal snow year. This would combine nicely with the ranked 12ers/13ers to the south, especially as a ski tour.