[TR] Tattoosh Range- Unicorn to Castle Traverse 7/3/2005

[goatboy]

Climb: Tattoosh Range-Unicorn to Castle Traverse

 

Date of Climb: 7/3/2005

 

Trip Report:

Tamara and I thought we'd go somewhere new for the holiday weekend, and as I'm recovering from an injury we were looking more for a long hike than a technical ascent. I have long been interested in checking out the Tattoosh Range, and with the combination of weather, weekend crowds, and our available time, it sounded like the right thing to do . . . so off we went.

 

Approaching Rainier from afar is always breathtaking . . . the first glimpse of the mountain makes it seem impossibly huge:

 

After camping Saturday night, we awoke Sunday morning and found brilliant, crisp blue skies at Reflection Lake:

 

Hiking up from the Bench Lake Trail, we passed lovely wildflowers enroute to Snow Lake, where the elevation gain began, mostly on talus:

 

 

Soon, Unicorn Peak and its broad access gully (mercifully, mostly snow) swung into view (pictured here, as seen from Castle Peak):

 

 

The snow gully was in perfect step kicking condition, and before we knew it we were standing at the base of the Unicorn's summit tower (not quite as tall as Nelson's guidebook makes it sound -- more like 50 feet, I'd guess -- but still fun at 5.6!)

 

Tamara made short work of the pitch and I followed:

 

 

 

 

After chatting with another party, we decided to do the traverse over to Castle Peak and descend the maintained trail back to Reflection Lake. Here's Castle and Pinnacle:

 

 

Tamara atop Castle:

 

 

Driving home today, we stopped at Banner Falls near Mt St Helens:

 

 

All in all, a highly recommended high traverse and a fun rock scramble -- lovely area with great views of Rainier, especially fun with my favority alpine partner!

 

[Chad_A]

Very nice Glad you guys had a great time out there...and yes, Rainier does look pretty damn big coming up to it. Looks much steeper than it is!