Superstar Couloir

From the top of St. Mary's Glacier, head NW across an alpine meadow and then drop down into the cirque on the east side of James Peak. Head SW and go around the south side of James Peak lake. Climb the scree slope up into the bowl half way up the eastern face. The climb begins up the obvious, deeply inset couloir on your right.

Once in the couloir, the route is obvious. Follow the snow slope up. The snow conditions were excellent and we chose to climb the entire route unroped. Depending upon the time of the year, the entire couloir may be snow filled or there may be sections of rock to climb. The rock sections are rated 5.4 in Roach's guide, though what rock we climbed didn't appear that hard. The crux of the climb is at the top where a cornice may be present. When we climbed in July '02, the last pitch was all rock, with the easiest line on the right side of the couloir. There was one move around a block which gave pause. Other than that, and stepping over the moats from the rock back onto the snow, everything was straight forward. The top of the couloir empties out onto the hiking trail running up the NE ridge. Head left about 400 yards to the top.

We carried a small rack of nuts, hexes, and 2 pickets.