TR Little Tahoma Peak 11,138' August 14, 2001 Mount Rainier National Park, WA
Mike Mahanay
Or text:
Little Tahoma Peak 11,138' August 14, 2001
Dan Cervelli and I left the Fryingpan Trailhead, 3,900', on the Wonderland
Trail by headlamps at 4 am. We had spent the night at the trailhead to
ensure and early start. The moon was just rising in its first quarter, but
it was dark in the old growth forest.
In 4.2 easy miles we were at Summerland. The trail is in great condition.
There were quite a few hikers camped, but they were all still sleeping.
Summerland is a beautiful place, just at treeline. There are rumors of lots
of Marmots, Elk, Mountain Goats, and even Black Bears. We can only confirm
the Marmots.
We put the headlamps up and headed up below and then to the right of Meany
Crest, 7,000'. Finally, from the top we had great views of the Wonderland
Trail going up to Panhandle Gap. There are good campsites at 7,500' and the
last of the bare ground before the Fryingpan Glacier.
We roped up on the Glacier and headed up and over to a saddle in the Whitman
Crest. There were no tracks in the snow so we made our own route across the
Glacier zig zagging around crevasses, doing occasional end-arounds and
backtracking from dead ends once in a while. I was shocked at how broken the
Glacier was.
About 9,000' we crossed the small scree and rock notch of the Whitman Crest
over to the Whitman Glacier. Smoot shows the route up the right side of the
Glacier, but on this day that would take us right into a debris field. The
Glacier in this area was brown and dirty from the rockslides! Luckily, Becky
said go to the left. We traversed the Whitman all the way to the south side
and then started up past many crevasses to the top of the Glacier at 10,500'
. Although we were near the rock crest that separates the Whitman from the
Ingraham Glaciers, there was no falling rock on this side. Apparently, it
all falls to the Ingraham below. There were great clomps of angular rock
stacked up to great heights, with nothing holding it together but gravity.
Finally, at the top of the Whitman Glacier, we unroped to climb the final,
50-degree snowfield. It was slow and steep, Dan and I exchanged compliments
on our step making abilities.
We reached the rock and began climbing up a rock chute, past a step, then up
loose talus. Eventually, we turned right to climb to the Whitman Crest and
the unbelievable views off the other side down on to the Emmons Glacier.
Following the Crest for a few minutes left us looking directly at the true
summit, 11,138' on the other side of an exposed notch. We carefully free
climbed over to the true summit, arriving at 1:40 pm. The third highest peak
in Washington. Nine hours forty minutes from the Trailhead.
The register, placed in 1994 by the Mountaineers, was not even full! It was
almost 8 years old. The last party to sign the register was the first part
of July! Little Tahoma does not seem to be a popular climb? J. B. Flett and
H. H. Garison are credited with the first ascent on August 29, 1895 from
Summerland. The second ascent was not until the Mazamas arrived in 1919.
Although the sky was hazy from high pressure and fires in Eastern
Washington, we had fantastic views of Camp Schurman, Disappointment Cleaver,
Ingraham Flats, Camp Muir, and even Paradise way below. It was fun to sit
and watch the tiny specks that were climbers coming down the main peak,
Mount Rainier! The little blobs of color were tents. We were in awe at how
broken the Emmons Glacier was, and a great piece of the Ingraham was
missing!
It was late to be on any summit, so we signed the register and prepared for
the round trip. We both wanted a belay for the exposed scramble back off the
peak. It is 2,000' straight down to the Emmons Glacier.
Again, down the rock, we stayed apart in case one of us dislodged any rocks.
We found the steep upper snowfield a bit icy and had to carefully self-belay
down. There were a few inches of soft recent snow on top of a harder, icy
layer. The soft snow would ball up on our crampons.
We roped up again at the Glacier, and carefully descended weaving around the
crevasses. There was lots of water running, and we watched many boulders
bounce over the right side of the Whitman Glacier. If one doesn't like the
sound of rockfall, this is a bad place to be. Back on the Fryingpan we were
stopped in our tracks by tumbling boulders and rocks above us but luckily
there was a crevasse that they rolled into!
Back at Summerland, the Marmots were browsing in the alm and the hikers were
enjoying the wonderful beauty of evening and cooking their dehydrated meals.
Dan and I headed back down the trail, and arrived back at the trailhead at 8
pm for a solid 16-hour day! About 16.4 miles and 7,200' for the day. Becky
says, "Little Tahoma is popular because of its height, individuality, alpine
quality, and the rewards of its magnificent position."
Mike Mahanay
Sparks Family
Nice TR! I was up at Summerland last weekend with my wife. I
knew that it was used as an approach to Little Tahoma but it wasn't
clear where to head up at.
Dave Sparks
"Mike Mahanay" <mi...@grandcanyontreks.org> wrote in message news:99802304...@news.zipcon.net...
Bob
it seems like you had a grand day out in the hills ...
Little Tahoma is a dangerous climb and, unfortunately, I don't think it is
recognized as such. I had a similar experience to yours with rockfall on
Little T. many years ago; I refused to go on after numerous boulders (up to
refrigerator size) sprayed the slope above the shrund and tumbled over our
rope. A number of other reports I heard also mention horrendous rockfall (I
can recall at least 2 other instances). I am actually quite surprised that
guidebooks do not make a bigger deal out of the potential for rockfall on
this peak or even suggest that it is an okay climb. And I am even more
surprised the Mountaineers still take students there. All in all it is
probably a good thing the summit register has few entries.
Have fun and be safe out there.
"Mike Mahanay" <mi...@grandcanyontreks.org> wrote in message
news:99802304...@news.zipcon.net...
Mike Mahanay
Interestingly enough, the volcano's guide, by Smoot, makes it sound like an
easy walkup. The round took much longer that we expected, and with lots of
crevasses and all the rockfall it was very challenging. Luckily, our route
stayed away from the worst of it.
I would definitely not want to be on any of the rock with a large party
above. That would be very dangerous.
"Mike Mahanay" <mi...@grandcanyontreks.org> wrote in message
news:99802304...@news.zipcon.net...