[TR] Little Tahoma - East Shoulder 6/22/2008

[mkporwit]

Trip: Little Tahoma - East Shoulder

 

Date: 6/22/2008

 

Trip Report:

A group of us climbed Little Tahoma this past weekend. We hiked up to Meaney crest and found it to be largely melted out by now. The walled tent sites are dry now. The evening was very windy, and those were the conditions we woke up to at 12. We decided to check again in two hours.

 

By 2:30 the wind had died down, and the summits of Rainier and Little Tahoma would occasionally be visible through the drifting clouds. We left camp late, at 4am. The snow was good and took crampons well. There were a few crevasses open on the Fryingpan glacier.

 

The good snow conditions persisted on the Whitman. There are a couple of large crevasses open on it. The rock band marking the exit from the Whitman was iced over in spots, which made it a bit of a pain to get over. The little snowfield above that is melting out fast. The final gully to the crest is in good shape. We tagged the summit a little before 11 and headed down.

 

Since we had a couple of new climbers with us we rappelled the icy rock band to descend to the Whitman glacier again. There's a couple of slings left up there as a result of that. The snow had softened up considerably. The entire time we were above the marine layer and had pretty good sun, so we plungestepped down the upper 1/4 of the Whitman and glissaded the rest. Unfortunately the Fryingpan glacier was very soft on the way back to camp. We got in another 1500' of glissading down from Meaney crest to Fryingpan creek.

 

Gear Notes:

Standard glacier gear, some anchor material for rap.

 

Approach Notes:

The bridge over Fryingpan creek is damaged, but if it held me with a full pack it should hold anyone else. Just cross one at a time.

 

We were surprised to see that AT&T has full strength coverage on Meaney crest...

[KaskadskyjKozak]

 

 

Good job. Pics?

[pc313]

At@t gets it done!! nice TR.