Trip: Lane Peak - The Zipper 
  
Date: 1/28/2017 
  
Trip Report: 
I climbed Lane Peak yesterday with my friend Scott.  We arrived in Longmire well before the gate opening and hung out a bit - even chatted with some familiar faces. 
  
The gate opened pretty close to right on time and we got in the conga line.  The lot at Narada Falls had a few cars.  We headed up the hill immediately encountering 6-12" of fresh unconsolidated powder.  These were the conditions we encountered all day on the N side of Lane. 
  
We originally intended to climb Lover's Lane, but there was fresh avy debris under it and with the soft snow we figured it would be a time-consuming wallow at best.  We opted to follow a party of three up the Zipper.  They were 15 minutes ahead of us and setting a glorious boot path (thank you!) 
  
We made quick work of the zipper unroped.  At the col we noticed the other party doing a variation straight up, so we broke trail around to the normal ascent gully and up it.  The gully was mostly filled in with just a bit of thin slushy snow over rock just below the big rappel tree.  At the ridge we hesitated thanks to exposure and a bit of sketch, and opted to down climb to the rappel tree, build an anchor and belay from there to the summit. 
  
A party of two showed up and we shared our double rope rappel with them (we had brought 2 60 m ropes for the rappel in Lover's Lane - might as well use them!) 
  
The hike out was uneventful and pleasant.  We got to the lot at 4:50 and made it out of the gate before it closed. 
  
KK topping out on the Zipper: 
   
  
Scott traversing to final pitch: 
  
  
KK climbing the final gully: 
   
  
KK selfie at the rappel anchor:   
  
Scott on rappel: 
  
  
Raindawg on descent with a creepy lenticular:   
  
  
Gear Notes: 
Crampons, ice axe, 2nd tool nice but not required.  3-4 pickets if you are so inclined.  At least a 60 rope to rappel from the tree. 
  
Approach Notes: 
Soft unconsolidated powder over a hard layer