Lane Peak - The Zipper 5/4/2008
Trip: Lane Peak - The Zipper
Date: 5/4/2008
Trip Report:Not feeling all that excited about miles of snowed over road plodding to get to my usual season opener on Mt Washington in the Olympics, I cast about for an alternative solo outing and recalled some TR's here for Lane Peak.
I did my research and decided to go look at The Zipper. I hemmed and hawed, contemplating bringing my snowboard, some slowshoes, poles, but decided to stay simple and light for a first foray into an unfamiliar spot. In retrospect, poles would have been great, snowshoes might have been handy, and some sliding device could have been entertaining as well, but I appreciated the light pack and had a great day.
Here's an overview of the north side of Lane. The three prominent couloirs, left to right, are Lovers Lane, The Zipper (partially hidden and slanting to the left), and The Fly. It was pretty clear that they all were really well filled in.
Here's a detail of Lovers Lane and The Zipper taken from the Narada Falls lot, where you can actually see into The Zipper.
I left the car at Narada Falls and headed up the slope to intersect the road to Reflection Lakes. The size of the avi debris all over the slope made me a little leery, but all became clear when I popped over onto the road: they have plowed the road down to bare pavement and that was the source of the debris. I walked down the asphalt until it was time to pop over the edge and descend to the creek. With the road not scheduled to open until May 24th, a smart person might park where the Reflection Lakes road leaves the Paradise road and ride a bike.
The snow was not as consolidated as I'd hoped, mostly shin deep postholing. At the bottom of the hill I turned right and headed towards the base of the route. As I started up the cone towards the gullies the snow got deeper, more like knee deep, I'd been contemplating doing Lovers Lane instead, since the rock steps on other trip reports were clearly filled in, but the soft snow nixed that idea and I continued around the corner, wallowing away towards The Zipper.
It was discouraging that the snow was not firming up as the angle increased. There was a light crust, it had clearly frozen the night before, but it wasn't enough to support anyone. I began to encounter moments of crotch deep despair and engaged in a little internal dialogue. "This sucks, but I'll get to that next chunk of debris." "This sucks, but I'll get around that corner to get a look." "This sucks, but I need the workout." Distracting the Couch Potato with this line of bargaining banter I slowly made my way up the couloir.
As you can see, the gully was full and the climbing casual, if laborious. As I got to the upper third, a crust developed that would support me with care, if I took pains not to punch through it. This eased things along until I popped out into the sun at the notch.
I relaxed, ate a little, scoped out the views, dried out a sock (Sportiva Trangos are
not very waterproof), and waited for the party of five who'd started up the couloir behind me. My crafty plan was to let someone else break trail to the summit.
Met the nice party of Mountaineers from Olympia, and naturally had some social overlap with them, though we hadn't met before. They headed up directly towards the summit with a looming rockband, eschewing the traverse across the slushy slope to the summer south gully summit route.
The strong sun had softened the snow considerably, and any number of wet snow slides were beginning. I followed the fresh steps up the steep slope, but as a few moats began to appear and it looked like a bottleneck would develop at the rock step, I veered left onto a rock rib and scrambled up some 4th class loose rock to the top of the false summit. From there it was a sweet walk along a snow rib and some more sketchy steep glop, then the summit proper.
My old friend and partner on the summit
Peak 5919 to the south has an interesting line on it
Did I mention wet slides?
I plunge stepped down the gushy stuff and encountered the group who was retreating from their nasty rock step (looked sketchy to me when I looked down it) and they traversed over to follow my descent line up to the top. Bidding them farewell, a combination of sitting glissades and sloggy marching led me down to the valley. Where other reports remarked on cliffy zones and bushwacking, I encountered a snow covered BW-0 route with just a little steep snow. I wrapped up with a march back up stream and back up to the road.
Walking back along the road I encountered a curious older couple who really wanted to share their excitement about rolling snow balls down the slope below the railing. This was all very charming until the gentleman expressed his wish to have a tire to roll down the hill.
Anyway, it was a great day out in the mountains. The snow will only consolidate over the coming weeks, and there's ample coverage to keep this side of Lane Peak appealing for awhile.
Gear Notes:Axe
Crampons (didn't need 'em this time)
Should've brought poles with snow baskets
Approach Notes:Parked at Narada falls, went up slope to road, walked on freshly cleared road until road bends to the left. Go over the side, descend to creek, walk down creek valley until below peak.
