icmtns Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 (edited) Trip: Tatoosh: Pinnacle Peak - North and East Ridge Date: 2/28/2010 Trip Report: Shannon Pahl, Geoff G and I went to the Tatoosh range to climb Pinnacle Peak via the north ridge. This turned out to be wonderful adventure with lots of interesting challenges, a full moon, fantastic views and the break in the few month of summit attempts for Shannon. (Pinnacle Peak: East ridge to the left, North to the right. Photo JT) Approach The approach on Saturday was in clouds and we broke trail in deep snow to our 5400 ft camp. We easily found the location in the thick cloud cover using Shannon’s GPS. Hoping that the weather forecast was accurate for Sunday, we set our alarm for 6am so that we could catch the sunrise. I watched my barometer and optimism drop as it continued to snow. Shannon said the GPS wasn't going to get us to the base, because his prior trip didn't go to Pinnacle, we'd need clear skies. A bit of hope appeared with the light of the full moon breaking through the cloud layer around 9pm. Sometime during the night I woke up to clear full moon view of Rainier, the Castle and Pinnacle, spectacular, thank goodness for drinking that quart of water before bed. Then I awoke again to the mountain and everything else enveloped in clouds. Not very optimistic for the morning views, I fell asleep. 6am came, with the beginnings of a very spectacular sunrise. Lucky! (Sunrise at our camp. Photo SP) North Ridge Our approach to the north ridge was in knee deep snow with snowshoes. Stepping out of the snowshoes landed us in at least waist deep conditions. We managed to wallow up the initial entrance coulior, as quickly as we could, keeping our eyes on the menacing cornice overhanging above us. (Heading up the Coulior. Photo GG) (Photo GG) The last 5 feet we roped up due to sketchy conditions on thin unconsolidated snow. (Photo SP) The next section required a very exposed, marginally protectable climb up a chute with a ugly top out. In the right conditions, a fun climb. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the snow conditions, and an attempt would be exceeding our luck, so we determined that we should bail the route. But we were all happy with getting to break out our ice tools. (NR Photo JT) We down climbed the route via a ledge and then a reverse trip of the entrance gully. East Ridge Our optimism for unlocking the peak not waning, we decided to checkout the east ridge. The snow conditions on the east ridge seemed consolidated so we took a risk and left our snowshoes at the base of the rock. At around 1:30 we were soloing the first bit of rock. (Photo JT) We roped up at the triple trunk tree, someone’s initials “PW” etched into one of the trunks. We watched part of our sun baked descent route avalanche in a wet slide, it snaked its way down the south face and through the trees far below. This will be a challenge, but the avalanche was shallow and we figured we could arrest ourselves at the crown if the slope began to slide. The rock on this peak is fragile, I discovered what Fred meant by the Matterhorn of the cascades. Although, the east ridge rock seems less sketchy than the north. Geoff led this spicy pitch. (Spicy pitch Photo GG) (Photo SP) After assessing the next 30 feet of rock, we determined that it looked sketchy, “shit snow on shit rock”, so Geoff enthusiastically led the rock. I couldn’t see any protection spots, but it ended up taking pitons well. Shannon and I discussed the next level in leading ability the “Choss leader head”. (Spicy 2 Photo JT) We used ice tools to gain solid holds on this section, and the pitch turned out better than expected. Since we were climbing up the route as three on a 60 meter rope, Geoff used a dead man picket in the snow to belay us up. With a standard rope length, there are trees about 50ft from the top out that would make a good belay. From below we observed the heavily corniced ridge, so we were mindful of our travel on the snow along the summit ridge. (Photo SP) (Hard earned summit! Photo JT) The descent follows the south face route. An easy down climb and short rap off an elastic dead tree. (Photo GG) We arrived back at the parking lot at 6:30pm, in plenty of time to beat the gate. Shannon went to camp at paradise for his trip up to Muir on Monday, we drove back to Seattle. On our way out of Narada falls, we saw a sign: Seattle: an arrow pointing to the left, Paradise: an arrow pointing to the right. More pictures located: http://picasaweb.google.com/shannonpahl/PinnaclePeak and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=153927&id=621514058&l=af34e7c830 and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053941&id=1099406911&l=156fd12519 Gear Notes: Pitons Picket x1 A sparse amount of cams/hex/nut Ice tools 60meter rope Edited March 2, 2010 by icmtns Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genepires Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 nice photos. cool looking alpine romp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilchuck71 Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterboy Posted March 3, 2010 Share Posted March 3, 2010 Nice Job Shannon and team! Richard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goatboy Posted March 3, 2010 Share Posted March 3, 2010 Looks like a great adventure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mountainmatt Posted March 3, 2010 Share Posted March 3, 2010 Looks like a good one! Nice work! . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattp Posted March 4, 2010 Share Posted March 4, 2010 Nice one. The North Ridge is one of my favorite climbs. It may not be a good summer choice, but in Winter it can be great! Thanks for posting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OffTheSteppe Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 Looks like a good time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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