Abrams Mountain [LoJ], North Face, Mod. Snow AI2-3

This is another itch I've been wanting to scratch for years; always, it seemed, several weeks too late for conditions in the inset lower couloir, which harbors a short drop that tends to be a waterfall by early June. The line starts immediately off the Engineer Pass road (CR 18 south of Ouray, as for Poughkeepsie Gulch and Mineral Creek)--often avalanches run full track down it and cover the road into spring--and goes for 2,900 feet directly to the summit, making a rare prize of firm snow from the starting elevation at 9,900' all the way up.

Recent experience on aspects with sun exposure was positive, so despite a system bringing a few inches of new snow to the range, we decided to go after the first clear night. Arriving on target at 6am, we could see ice on the drop--a good sign. We parked right at the base of the couloir and walked 10 feet to gear up on the apron, then started cramponing up the galley. The snow had an excellent hard-freeze crust on the latest avalanche interface and we made quick work of the first 1,000 feet approaching the ice step.

There we found a 20-foot cliff capped by a chockstone, with a standard alpine mess of delaminated ice and water running behind a lens down the center into a rocky moat. The only reasonable line was right of the flow, traversing back into the watercourse at the top. It was mostly unprotectable, and we hadn't brought gear anyway.

After that fairly gripping sequence, the couloir opens up to the face, and early sun. The snow became more variable, but still good as we passed through piles of snice balls from the previous day's localized avalanches in the new snow. Just over 900 feet led to a shallow fork where we trended left into the well-defined, shaded upper couloir.

Here snow conditions became unsurprisingly blue-collar for the better part of 500 feet before the couloir opened again to the sunny slopes of the upper face. We strayed a bit left and could have met the east ridge shortly on that trajectory, but the snow on the face was supportive and the proper apex of the climb, found another 500 feet up at the left edge of a relatively mild cornice wall (this year), was directly off the summit.

We descended the south ridge to the first obvious saddle at 12,500', which had been recently used by a snow-climbing fool of a bear, and glissaded most of the 2,200 feet down to the Poughkeepsie Gulch road for a largely snow-free hike back to the truck.

Route notes: Snow steepness is mostly 40 deg. or less with a few steeper rolls. Difficulty of the ice step could vary from AI2 to wet M-awful. Though we didn't have an issue with the early start, any rock or other debris falling down the face funnels into the lower third of the route. Look for this one mid to late May.

Road notes: CR 18 is rough and sucks even more in the spring. Bring a 4WD with decent clearance, and there's an obstacle just before the couloir that your vehicle may not enjoy. Parking just below this doesn't really incur an approach penalty.