Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2002 13:57:23 -0600
From: mark miller 
Subject: TR: Cold Stream Canyon

Cold Stream Canyon, south of Donner Pass NE of Lake Tahoe

Parked at the Sugarbowl lot and took the free gondola to Sugar Bowl
and after realizing we'd forgotten our wallets - hence no $10 lift to
near the top of Mt. Judah - skinned up the resort slopes for about 45
min.  to the saddle between Judah and Lincoln.  From there, it was
another hour to the cliffs.  (We traversed just atop the treeline; do
others advocate staying on the ridge, or else deeper in the trees, for
a speedier approach?  Or else taking a different route altogether?)

Found ourselves above the cliffs and so rapped off a tree to get to
the bottom.  Nice 3 to 4- line, 3/4 pitch, vertical icicles for about
10m, then much shallower grade with opportunities to play on thin ice
on right of flow.  Not bad for my fried Scott's first ice climb. (!)
And in tele boots, no less.  My big lesson yesterday, also climbing in
teles (T1s - ugh.) was that it's perhaps time to invest in some
randonee gear.  What are people's thoughts and suggestions on
waterfall climbing on various randonee setups?), or a snowmobile...

In any case, there was also an easier gully to left, and further, an
enticing smear/ mixed route.  About 2:30, after a snowmobile pulled up
just south of where we'd been playing on tr (yes, we're wooses), we
decided to explore, and saw a large expanse of ice not far away from
where we'd spent the day.  The guys on the snowmobile said the ice
wouldn't be around long.  Not sure how much of that is just talk and
how much is a statement about the precariousness of the ice, but I
post it here in case others can make use of the info.  FWIW, where we
were, just NW of the obvious berm separating the two flow areas, the
ice was thick and only slightly brittle (not counting the smear,
obviously), though we did hear water running under the climb in
places.  Two hours back up the backside of Lincoln and down the
Sugarbowl runs.

For what it's worth, the flows are at the obvious place on the Norden
USGS quad just SE of the "34" T&R markings.

  Mark