I just knew that last weekend, Sept 24-25, 2005, was going to be a blue-sky weekend. So I made last minute plans to get my 20 mile training run in on Saturday morning, pack up some gear and take off for Rainier N.P. on Saturday evening.
Because the weather was going to be so nice I decided to try to do the Tatoosh Traverse for the first time. Since I was going to be alone and the traverse is basically a one-way trip along the majority of the Tatoosh mountains I decided to stash my bike at the exit trailhead for Pinnacle Peak. I would then need to ride back down the road from Reflection Lake to Longmire. I was looking forward to this ride as it would be fast and almost all downhill!
I snuck into the park late on Saturday and caught some zzz's in the back of the car. At around 7 A.M. I hid my bike up in the trees near the trailhead and zoomed down to Longmire for the start at the Eagle Peak trailhead. While hiding my bike near Reflection Lake I was not surprised to see that several people were arriving and setting up to take pictures of the sunrise and Mt. Rainier. Although it makes great sense to try and get good photos at sunrise it just seems so weird to me that people would drive all the way up (probably from their campgrounds or from home!) just to get some early morning photos. I figure if you are going to get up early to see the beauty of the morning, why not start a hike, get away from the pavement by at least a few miles and actually try to see something few others get to see. Anyone, and sometimes it seems like almost everyone, captures that postcard view from Reflection Lake. Sometimes it seems like photos, no matter how well done, mean nothing without a real experience to act as a caption. A little pain and suffering or epic adventure doesn't hurt to embibe that photo with some spirit. But I am getting off-topic. Being the hypocritical elitist that I am, I quickly took a couple of horribly exposed photos of the Mountain prior to starting my adventure.
It seems like it took forever to get started on Sunday morning. At first I had a hard time trying to find the actual trailhead for Eagle Peak. And then I spent a good twenty minutes trying to figure out how I was going to carry water, food and minimal gear. Somehow I had forgotten my backpack at home but managed to bring all kinds of other gear, including the bladder for my Camelback and alot of food. In the end I made do with a small MSR bag and a webbing strap which I could drape over my shoulder. My jacket and fleece had to be worn or tied at the waist.
Around 8:30 AM I finally took off up the trail in a hurry. The section of the traverse I was doing was supposed to be only 10 miles in length with 7000 feet of elevation gain, but around 6 miles of this was off-trail bushwacking and scrambling. I was planning on scrambling up 7 peaks: Eagle, Chutla, Wahpenayo, Lane, Denman, Plummer and Pinnacle.
I made it to a saddle between Eagle and Chutla just before 10 AM. At 10:15 I had already climbed Eagle and made it back to the saddle! I was a little surprised that Eagle was so short and relatively easy, with maybe some 3rd to 4th class scrambling. I was surprised to see two guys top out at the saddle just as I was getting ready to head up Chutla. They said they were doing the traverse too. At least one of them had done a portion of the traverse from the opposite direction. I wished them luck and told them I would probably see them later in the day. I never saw them, except for when I was descending Chutla and I spied them finally topping out on Eagle.
Chutla was even easier than Eagle with a decent scramble trail all the way to the top. I was feeling a little confident that I could complete the traverse. I knew from looking at a topo at home and talking to the other climbers that there might not be a doable traverse over Chutla. So I spent only a minimal amount of time looking for a way down the opposite side before giving up and heading back down to some meadows. From there I had to climb back up to a saddle between Chutla and Wahpenayo.
I spied a couple of goats as I ascended Wahpenayo. I was surprised that as soon as they saw me they clambered away in a hurry. I was at least a couple hundred yards from the goats. Unlike in the Enchantments and some other places I have been, the goats were actually scared of people. I took this to be a good sign that the park is still a little wild.
Made it to the top of Wahpenayo and wished I had time to sit down as there were quite a few nice warm boulders on which to take a lunch break. But I didn't spend more than three minutes on top before I was picking my way down to the west ridge. From this point until Lane peak I had to travel cross-country or on game trails as the route was not at all clear. I clambered down some rock fields and through some meadows until I was at a tarn below Lane Peak. I finally found a human trail, albeit a thin and overgrown one, at a small pass on the southwest side of Lane.
I started up Lane with some worries that I was running behind and that the peak was a little too dangerous for me. I made it about a third of the way to the top before I scared myself on the loose steep rock (some 4th class with loose rock) and turned around. I decided this would be a terrible place to have an accident since it appears that very few people visit this peak, in the middle of the traverse.
Soon after giving up on Lane I had scrambled up Denman and Plummer which were both easy hikes. Several people were at the top of Plummer which indicated I was back into the well-travelled backcountry. I dropped down to the Pinnacle and Plummer saddle and noticed a large group up on the rocks of Pinnacle. From where I was it looked like they were doing some serious climbing, with helmets and ropes. Since my guidebook (a piece of junk: 75 Scrambles in Washington) indicated the route headed northeast up the peak I traversed to the south side of the peak to look for an easy route. Of course this traverse was a waste of time just like so many other directions I have taken from this book. I ended up heading up to where I saw the climbers earlier.
The climbing got fairly serious with alot of exposure and relatively steep rock. I was a little surprised and definately a little scared. But since the rock was not loose, for the most part, and because a group was on the route I felt a little more secure. Soon I came upon their fixed rope hanging down the route. I stopped a couple of times to consider the danger but continued climbing next to the rope, knowing that I might be able to grab the rope as a handline if need be. I made it to the top and met a group of probably at least 10 students and a couple of instructors. I found out the group was from PLU and was part of a class. Since they were preparing to descend and I didn't want to fall behind the group I set about downclimbing in a hurry. I didn't really get to enjoy the view from here, but I know that this is a peak I should come back to for a relatively airy summit perch with an awesome view of Mt. Rainier.
The descent went quickly and I was back on the short Pinnacle peak trail before I knew it. Another mile down to my bike and I had completed 6 out of 7 summits of the Tatoosh. I definately felt that I had accomplished something. And I had done it on a gorgeous day in an absolutely beautiful setting! The icing on the cake was getting to zoom down the road on my bike. I am sure the park service frowns upon biking down the narrow road, but this was definately one of the highlights of the trip. I am already starting to wonder how to do the entire traverse which includes at least a couple more peaks on the south end of the Tatoosh range.
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