[TR] Das Toof- 10/17/2004

[ken4ord]

Climb: Das Toof-

 

Date of Climb: 10/17/2004

 

Trip Report:

Well on Saturday my friend (one time poster lylabob) and I talked about getting out and doing something if the weather looked ok, maybe even climb the Tooth. Hell there was, what, 100% chance of showers, could it really rain the whole time, no way. Well then, before I knew I sucked down a couple glasses of wine with my roommate and I was back on the phone saying we should go even if it was raining. How bad could it be?

 

Well we got a urban alpine start leaving Seattle somewhere around 8am. As we were driving across the floating bridge it was pouring out and I was beginning to wonder what I was thinking the night before, obviously, I wasn't thinking the night before. As we reached the pass though, the weather had cleared, well not really, but it wasn't raining. I definitely felt a little more optimistic, even though we couldn't see any of the mountains through the soup that surrounded us.

 

After a little discussion on which way to go, we decided to go up the cat track trail, which is the only way I have ever gone. It also happens to be the only time I have ever climbed the Tooth was when there was snow all the way down to the parking lot. The trail was quite soupy, but wasn't bad. Within no time, sooner than I thought it would take, we were headed up hill. It was slicker than shit, and for the most part we were hand over handing our way up the vegatation. All of sudden we were off the trail and the bushwhacking began. I was having fun with it, some reason I like bushwhacking. Lylabob on the other hand wasn't too keen on it, but she is a trooper and continued uphill. Eventually we made it through all the thick vegatation onto some talus, what a relief.

 

Looking around though, the drainage look much narrower than I remembered it, but I figured it was because I'd always seen it filled in with snow. We still couldn't see any mountains to orient ourselves. Eventually though, we got to where the talus levels a bit and the clouds started to break up a bit, things were not right. Where was the Tooth, why did the basin looked so small, where was that cliff band on the left? Well we realized that we had cut up hill too soon, oops my bad, oh well luckily for us we were up in the talus and it was much easier traveling. We traversed the slope across a couple of smaller drainages on talus. As we were hiking across, the weather kept improving, I kept thinking this awesome, we hit it just right. With 20 minutes or so we were standing in the right basin below the Tooth. Few more minutes hiking and a slight detour to climb the Pineapple, we were at the base of the Tooth.

 

It was little more breezy in the pass between the Tooth and the Pineapple, but not too bad, though it started to drizzle. I started up the first pitch and reached the belay in no time, I was sopping wet at the time from our hike in, and now it was starting to really rain, I just had to laugh. I belayed lylabob up and she looked cold, but again no complaint, just went to work at getting her gloves on. I took off and climbed the next pitch. The higher we went the worse the weather got. By the time I reached the end of the second pitch the wind was blowing the rain sideways. I was shivering because it was cutting right through me, but kept up appearances, joking around on how humid it felt, singing Mr. Rodger's neighborhood song, and other types of insane things in the face of adversity. We eventually reached the last pitch and the weather didn't let up.

 

We did a quick summit tag and prepared to rappel. The rappels went smooth, but man I was getting cold. At this point it was sleeting and still coming at us horizontal. All I could think about was getting to my pack and putting on my only other layer that I had left in my pack. I got to my pack and picked it up and it felt heavy, real heavy. I turned it upside down and poured out about 2 gallons of water. It turned out I had put my pack in a corner and it filled with runoff. Oh well, hiking was soon to come and that would warm me up. On the hike out, we opted for the normal summer approach/descent trail. In no time we were back at the car with the heat cranked. Good day even though it wasn't a good day out.

 

Gear Notes:

6 cam, set-o-nuts, 7 slings and 8.8 mm rope.

 

Should have brought snorkle, drysuit, and face mask.

[Dru]

[Bug]

Dude. A classic tooth ascent. Why would anyone do it on a sunny day?

[chris_w]

One way to avoid the crowds

[dryad]

What crowds? I was up there maybe a month ago on a Sunday under sunny bluebird skies. Other than our party, there was only 1 other guy there soloing. Everyone likes to diss on da Toof, but dammit, it was a fun little climb that really got the newbies excited.

[Alex]

way to go Drayad and friend, winter alpine suffering awaits you with open arms!

[lylabob]

So now I'll be a two-time poster... You did keep up appearances pretty well, Ken, but I could tell you were jealous of my dry clothes. (Rain pants are useless--ha!)

[ken4ord]

Hey it all about appearances, right? Also, I still don't believe you stayed dry in those rain pants, ha. Either way good day in da hillz. We still go to do the renactment photo shot sometime.

[Dr_Crash]

Nice. I climbed the Tooth with chriss a while ago under rain and snow, and it was sweet. My first alpine climb, and the conditions made it feel so much 'alpine.'

 

drC