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Posted (edited)

Trip: The Tooth - S. Face

 

Date: 5/26/2008

 

Trip Report:

Today Fairweather, Mountainguy01, BundledUpSurfer, and yours truly went up Das Toof. I will add that this was after a bunch of back and forth about destination. We had settled on Whitehorse, then thought the weather too iffy, so we went for a closer outing with an easy approach. A good choice, as it turns out...

 

We got to Alpental around 8 am and headed up, making good time to the notch on the left of Pineapple Pass. the entire approach was snow covered, with slightly mushy, well-consolidated snow. It was dry and cool out, with overcast skies (fog). The only other bit worth noting was a sketchy snow-bridge right at the notch. First you had to make 2-3 staircase moves on the edge of the bridge (with a moat below on your right - don't fall), and then step down on a thin bridge over nothing. It will not last long.

 

We got to pineapple pass to find like 10 people ahead of us. 8 were from a group and 2 other climbers. The group was almost all beginners, and they were lowering a rope to top-rope each of like 8 followers. The group of 2 and we asked to climb in between top-roped folks from this large group. By this time the sky was partly sunny with broken clouds.

 

Here's FW and MG01 chilling:

The_Tooth_-_May_2008_001.jpg

 

Mountainguy01 led FW up the first pitch, and alternated pitches with him (3). I led all the pitches for BundledUpSurfer. The first pitch was a full rope-length up to the dead tree. The second pitch was mostly scrambling up to just below the catwalk. I put in maybe 2-3 pieces near the end.

 

Mountainguy01 led the final pitch straight up since the large group was on the catwalk at the time. When I arrived the catwalk was clear and I headed up that way.

 

KK and BUS on the summit:

The_Tooth_-_May_2008_016.jpg

 

Other shots/mountain pron:

The_Tooth_-_May_2008_024.jpg

The_Tooth_-_May_2008_019.jpg

 

We hung out for 30 minutes, and rapped down via double ropes. We then endured a rappelling clusterfuck of around 90 minutes while the group of 8 (or more?) rappelled two single rope rappels. It was painful and interminable. At this point the clouds were moving in.

 

FW and BUS waiting to rappel:

The_Tooth_-_May_2008_026.jpg

 

We finally rappeled down and had issues with pulling the rope. Another clusterfuck. It proceeded to rain giving our ropes some extra weight. A new party helped us out with the snag. We then had had enough of rappelling and decided against a rap down pineapple pass, so we recrossed the sketchy snow bridge on foot and hauled ass out of there.

 

We wrapped the day up with pizza and beer in North Bend.

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Ice axe, trekking poles, small alpine rack.

 

Approach Notes:

Snow from car to pass. One sketchy snow bridge at the notch.

Edited by KaskadskyjKozak
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Posted (edited)
Nice...I wish I had made it out today (stupid work).

 

Did you need skis or slowshoes for the approach? Was the S. Face snow-free?

 

Cheers!

 

 

No flotation needed on the approach. There were some skiers enjoying themselves - both in the basin and at Alpental (it's apparently still open).

 

The route was snow free. There was one small snow patch on the summit, and another patch in the flat area in the trees and that was it (as far as I remember).

 

Edited by KaskadskyjKozak
Posted

I use 600 x 800 for trip reports. For gallery photo's, 1024 x 768 is more ideal and the software automatically creates a mid-sized photo for the trip report.

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