yngeagle

I guide for a small company that is based out of Eatonville. The company is called Tahoma. The programs that we run are like outward bound. We take 14-18 year olds out backpacking and climbing for 10 day trips. Its great work, the kids are great. We will be running a good chunk of our trips this summer in the Sawtooth area. So, if any of you are up there this summer and see us come say hi. The kids would dig it! I will keep in touch with you guys that are looking at doing the traverse, I think it would we a sweet trip!

The mind game is what its all about! Conquering your fears and pushing through it is one of the most rewarding aspects of climbing. No fear no fun. Cheers

Sorry for the confusion on the pass. I ment needle pass. I was back up there over this past week. I guided a trip up through flapjack-black and white and back through Gladys divide. We were up there for 4.5 days. Black and white lks is still under snow, but the trail is good from big logs camp and also from the flapjack side. I climbed the needle while staying on Gladys divide....enjoyable climb. i was even able to top rope it for the people I was guiding. Anyhow the place is SURREAL. Right now I am thinking about doing a complete ridge traverse of the sawtooth with a buddy. Anybody done it? Johnathan

I wanted to pick some of your guys brains that have been to the Sawttoth Ridge from the Mildred Lakes approach. I wanted to know what the usual approach time is and what kind of condition the trail might be in this time of year. Plus, what is the trail like during the summer if you know. Right now I am trying to send to different groups in from Flapjack lakes side and Mildred Lakes Side. And my question is: what would be the best way for the two different teams to cross paths and go out the opposite starting point? If this topic has already been discussed could you point me towards any relavent threads? ThanX Johanthan

Myself and another guiding buddy of mine went up to check out Flapjack Lakes and the Sawtooth Ridge area for this summers guided trips. I was very impressed with the area, very serial and majestic. I made it up and through Cruiser Pass. It wasn’t very difficult to get up to the bass of the Needle. I just kicked stepped the whole way up without crampons or ice axe. There was snow just below Flapjack lakes. And from there we used snow shoes up to the bass of Cruiser Pass. It was pretty slow going from the lakes up to the pass, because of a fair amount of snow. Plus, it was our first time there and we had to route find our way up, since there was no trail or even a boot track. It seemed as if we were the first party up in this area this year. I wish we had more time up there, but we wanted to be back in town for our moma’s. I would have loved to have hung out up there and tagged a bunch of summits. If any body plans on going up there anytime soon and go all the way to Cruiser Pass you might enjoy skiing down, the only skiing I got in was on my butt! Johnathan

ThanX for the great Post. It is refreashing to read such a nice post. It is great to see someone sharing the outdoors with their kid and making him a priority, he is going to remember that trip for along time! Matt 19:14-15 14 Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." NIV

MAN! this is sad. No one has any personal beta on climbing trips into the Sawtooth Ridge area? I guess this place never sees much traffic. Why? The Rock....The approach.......Easy Routes..........What is it?

I was mainly looking for personal experiences in the area.I already own the guide book. I am just trying to snag some extra beta that is not in the olyimpic guide books. Has anybody climbed the fin, horn, Mt. Cruiser or any other peaks in that range. If so, beta would be appreciated. Regarding the rock, routes, but mainly are there areas to set top ropes for groups. ThanX

I was looking for beta on climbing around and on the Sawtooth Ridge just above flapjack lakes. (i.e. rock quality, single pitch, multi., areas to set top ropes for groups, approach issues, etc.) ThanX Johanthan Kurth

-Bowl of Oatmeal -OJ w/protein mix -2 potched eggs on toast Lasts most the day

I would have to agree on the Ushba ascender. I've been using mine for years now and I love it, its great for doing laps and training. I also like it for doing and making problems higher up the wall where most of the boulders wont go, plus mainly because it doesn't wear on rope like the other ascenders that use teeth do. If your looking to buy one or look at it Nelson's shop in the U-district usually carries it.

Thanks guys for the nice comments! Thanks for taking that picture- shuksan. Am I the little blob about 5/7 the way up the route on your attachment, where I ran into the rock climbing sec? Were you the two snowshoers that I ran into at the base of Lane Peak?

Ya no proablem Phil I will surly credit you as soon as I can figure out how to save it as a J-peg or something like that. Oh ya nice pic. unfortunatly I didn't get a chance to snap any new ones. JK

I have posted the TR under the Rainier Sec. I couldn't figure out how to attach the thread to this forum. Anyways, enjoy! JK

I tried too, I am not sure how. It says the picture can't be uploaded because its not in the right kind of format. Could you tell me how to put my attachment into a file that is acceptable for uploading to the Gallery? Plus I was woundering how can I forward this thread to someones email? ThanX

I didn't see it earlier this season, but to answer your question I would say it looks fat enough to climb. I would like to go back and climb it. Did you read my post on climbing and skiing Lovers Lane? If so, do you know if Lovers has been skied before?

I ran across a sweet ice flow just east of Lane Peak- The Peak and valley it runs on is nameless, but the peak/valley is just east of lane peak and on the N side. About 45min from Narada Falls parking lot. I have current conditions under the Rainier sec. look at the thread - TR-Solo lovers Lane (lane peak). Enjoy Johnathan Kurth

Man what a sweet line- I don't think I have ever climbed and skied a better route\line! Lovers Lane is the furthest left chute on the pic. I attached The pic I attached is from another year and todays conditions where not exactly what is on the pic., practiclly the same except less snow. Anyways, the Peak is in the Tatoosh range just S of Rainier. i parked and skined from Narada Falls and made it to the base of Lane Peak in about 45min. I was puzzeled at first, because Lane Peak didn't exactly look like I had seen it before but I new I was in the right spot. I ran into two snowshoers who were debating on if they were going to try Lovers or the Zipper which is just to the right of Lovers- Zipper has been done by the mountaineers a few times. The conditions for avy was good so I decided to make an atempt solo. I split the climb into 3 sec. The first startes below where the chute startes. In fact it starts alot lower than what you see in the pic, the first funnal I ran into was sketchy, because I only brought one tool and my crampons. And the first sec was fairly thick alpine ice and almost verticle for about 5-6ft, and it would have been nice to of had my second tool. Some mixed climbing was also apart of this first sec. I would say this was the crux. After I made it through, you go up the widest part of the chute, which looks like a tear droop. I then came to another funnel where this time the only way through was to do some rock climbing and it was the same as before about 6-8ft, and it was proably around 5.7 sandbag because of ice and snow. Oh ya at this point I left my skis here. At this point I am proably 2-3 hundred ft from the top of of the chute, thats just the last upper part of the chute on the pic. Getting to the to of the chute was preety narrow and steep. About 5ft across through most of the last part of the chute, thats the main reason why I left my skis, only 5ft across. I had originally thought it might have been a little wider towards the top, but thanks to mother nature she kept the chute pretty tight and not to much snow as compared to past seasons. I finally reached the top, I took in the view and headed off down climbing to the rock climbing sec., I tide a pieace of webbing between two rocks that were pinched together. The pieace of webbing was only 3ft long so I tied a few loops in to help me lower myself through the rock sec. Once I was down and at my skis, I felt pretty good, but I knew I still had to ski down plus deal with the ice sec, which I couldn't down climb without having two ice tools. So, I clicked in and tied everthing down nice and tight on the pack. I said a quick prayer and then I was off making hope turns with only a few ft to spare on each side of the skis. So the hops where super snappy and the snow was awesome, my skies bit in perfectly. There was about 3-5 inches of new sluff on top of the consolidated stuff, so that ment I couldn't ski to fast because I would get cought in my sluff. Especially once I entered the wider tear drop sec. I made some sweet GS turns in that sec., the sluff was the worst in this part. I was now at the top of the ice sec, which was a 5-6ft drop with plenty of acceleration to go with it. From the begining I planned on taking the drop, because the landing looked good even though it was sort of tight, but not to bad if you hit it right. After the drop it then fans out very nice into sweet glad skiing. I stood there for a while getting my head together and planning my line and the landing, plus where I needed to have my weight positioned so I would land on my feet balanced. Finnaly I counted my self down like I was used to in my ski racing days. 3..2..1, I pointed the sticx down the line I wanted, got some good speed which came real fast, I launched off postiooned my weight according to the slope angle and land it on my feet, however I was accelterating super fast through the fan, and I didn't want to waste the good turns so I skidded a little ways to bring myself to a stop. I made some nice last turns to the base. I stood back and looked up in excitment and joy. I looked at the line I skied and critequed it, humed and hawed untill I decided it was time to get back to the car. I skined back to the car around 6pm with a sweet sunset on my back. It was now time for the drive down off of Mt. Rainier and of course I got stuck behind slow traffic comming from Paridise. Well, this line I skied has been eating at me for a little while now, so I am glad I finally taged it. I know that it has been climbed in the winter before, back in january I think, but does anybody know if this route Lovers lane has been skied before? I love to know if someone has, plus to see if I snagged it before anyone else did. ThanX Johnathan Kurth 145307-Lovers Lane.doc

I was woundering if anybody had some beta on climbing or skiing the N Face chutes on Lane Peak. I plan on doing Lovers Lane tomorrow which is the left most chute on the N Face. Any Beta would be awesome! ThanX Johnathan If all goes well I'll give a TR of the Tatoosh

Does anybody have beta regarding skiing or climbing the N Face chutes on Lane Peak. I plan on doing Lovers Lane tomorrow Left furthest chute on N face. Any beta would be sweet. ThanX Johnathan

You know it Baby! Second times the charm.

Well guys heres the up date on Unicorn I promised. I did go and make an attempt for the summit. We approached Unicorn from the ridge running east and west that connects with pyramid and some other unamed peak that summits around 6,500, we approched it from pyramid. My partner and I made it to one of the last peaks before heading down the col and up Unicorns North exposed rib. However, with the large low front, thats as far as we were able to go. As we continued up towards 7,000ft we were getting hammered with everthing from 30-50mph gusts of snow, slet, freezing rain, plus the clouds had came in and set right on top of us only allowing us 10-15ft visabilaty. Since we had already been in this area we were able to get around fairly well as long as we stuck to the ridge and used the map and compass with altimator. So, anyways I wasn't able to get close enough to Unicorn to get any more beta on route potential and approach hazards. However, I do know for a fact that taking the ridge we took is much safer and possibly just as fast if not faster than if you were to approch from the gulley leading to the South face of Unicorn. Other than that we dropped out of the clouds and had a blast goofing around down around 5,500 ft. The skiing is just incredible the chutes and glades are great plus there are lots of good cornices to drop from. Having no one else there was a nice bonus. There was only about 3-4 inches of new and yes it was heavy and we ended up doing alot of slope cuting to get ride of the avalanches. We really enjoyed that part alot. Anyways, good time and fantastic skiing since it wasn't to deep. I plan to get up there again as soon as the weather starts acting like winter again. So other than that, not really a ton of new beta on the ice, but just a fun day playing in the snow. Johnathan

Details: Unicorn Peak is in the Tatoosh Range just south Mt. Rainier. The approach to unicorn is around 3 hrs. give or take an hour depending on if you need to brake trail or not. The formations are very large hanging water ice flows. There are no glaciers because there are no hanging glaciers in the summer on the south side. The potential looks like there could be up to possibly 3 pitch routes directly below the summit and just to the right of the east ridge. When I made the observations back on Sunday I was skiing just west of Unicorn. I am going back up there tommorrow morning to climb and ski Unicorn. While skiing it I am going to get closer to the ice to find out what and if there is going to be much danger getting on to the flows. I will try and remember to take some pics tommorow, anyhow I will give an up date to the ice and route potential tommorow evening. Johnathan K.

There is some great ice on the south side of Unicorn.

I was just at Narda falls on the 20th and there is no ice at all.