mkporwit Posted February 21, 2009 Posted February 21, 2009 Trip: Lane Peak - The Zipper Date: 2/20/2009 Trip Report: My friend Henry and I took advantage of the good weather and avalance forecast and tagged Lane Peak via the Zipper today. Left the car at 9am on slowshoes, and we were at the base of the climb at 10:30. Floatation was handy once we started climbing up from the creek to the base of the climb. Me approaching the start of the climb The snow was ~15-20 inches of soft stuff over hard crust, so we decided to skip roping up and soloed the couloir. It took a little over an hour. We had lunch at the top, took in the views, and relaxed for a while. Visibility was great, with St. Helens, Adams and Hood all being out. We had a hard time not staring at Rainier -- the Tatoosh make for a great vantage point. Henry in the couloir Me on the top of the couloir We thought about heading up that first (climber's right) gully to the summit, but decided to traverse to the west where we found what was the normal summit route. We tagged the summit, rapped down and started our descent by 2pm. On the descent we forgot about the bit of info that Layback75 posted about taking the leftmost gully and it took us a while to find the right place to descend. We were at the car a little after four, with the whole trip taking a tad over seven hours. Gear Notes: We brought a bunch but didn't use any of it. Approach Notes: Another couple of days like today would consolidate the soft snow in the couloir and make the climb perfect. Skis would have been good. No flotation necessary 'till the meadow. There is an obvious snowshoe track. Quote
KaskadskyjKozak Posted February 21, 2009 Posted February 21, 2009 You guys lucked out - we had no views of Rainier during our climb. Quote
gary_hehn Posted February 21, 2009 Posted February 21, 2009 Nice, looks like you made one fine day of it, and what a fine day it was. Quote
Layback Posted February 21, 2009 Posted February 21, 2009 Nice job Marcin. Sounds like you thrashed around in the woods on the way down. We would have done the same thing had the party in front of us not given us a heads up. Oh well - at least you had a ton of daylight. Looks like you had an outstanding day!!! Shortest approach ever, no? Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.