Tuning fork beta anyone??

[Karl_Manzer]

I'm planning on heading in to the Chehalis this weekend. Does anyone have good beta on the Tuning Fork?

Karl

[specialed]

Beta:

1. Pick another route b/c Tuning Fork is overrated and uninspiring.

 

If you must go:

 

2. bring a tank. Or atleast a seriously high clearance vehicle. Or an old beater pickup you don't give a shit about.

 

3. Bring knifeblades

 

4. You don't need crampons.

 

5. Climb fast, b/c doing the route and the descent in a day covers a lot of ground.

 

6. Consider climbing Hidden Piller instead - it looks way better. But if you do bring crampons and axes, b/c there's a big crevasse between you and the start of the route.

 

[dberdinka]

Here is a completely untested idea based on second-hand accounts of access and routes but it might be worth considering.....

 

Evidently there is a class 2-3 route up the south side that blasts straight up from easily accessable 2wd roads. It follows a long slab of granite (ala Darrington's granite sidewalk) to reach alpine slopes on the south side of the peak. An acquantance did this route in an easy day rt. See bivouac.com for details.

 

Anyway bivi high on the south side. In the morning do the descent off of Ratney first then climb the route walk down to your camp and descend.

 

If you went this way you'd be adding an extra 1500' vert to your trip but it might be preferable to the screwed up roads and what sounds like a nasty thrash of an approach.

[Dru]

"easily accessible 2wd roads" good one darin!

 

where is the sandbag graemlin?

[dberdinka]

So I was full of it. Evidently the road is a little worse than 2wd.

from bivouac.com...

I was able to handle the 4WD Skwellipil road with my Nissan Frontier for about 2 ½ miles to where I scraped the back bumper in a couple of dips and decided to park and walk. set off at 8:40, about 3 hours after leaving home and had only to walk about ¾ mile of road

[Karl_Manzer]

Thanks for the beta but we went to Slesse instead.

Karl