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[TR] Lane Peak - Lover's Lane 1/13/2013


KaskadskyjKozak

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Trip: Lane Peak - Lover's Lane

 

Date: 1/13/2013

 

Trip Report:

AC, CG, SG and I drove down to Rainier to climb Lane Peak on Sunday morning. We got to the Longmire gate a bit after 8 am and it was already open. Temps were quite nippy - about 15 degrees.

 

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The snow conditions were about what we expected - up to a foot or so of new powder on top of an older crust layer. It was breakable in places. We used snow shoes part way in but they were not helpful on the traverse under Denman, so we stashed them in a tree well.

 

We opted to rope up for Lover's Lane, but without a belay until we checked it out. CG led up with 2 pickets and got out just over a rope's lengh.

 

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It started out cruiser but there was a firm steeper bit, so CG planted both pickets and brought me up. I then stretched out the rope and we simulclimbed to the top from there, placing 4 pickets and 1 black tri-cam. AC and SG followed on a 2nd rope. In places the snow was reasonably pleasant, where I could easily kick through the few inches of powder and get purchase to move up. In some spots my knee was functioning as a snow plow and wallowing was more involved than climbing. As I got near the top there was a nice breakable crust on the surface that I kicked through to get easy kick steps. This petered out near some small trees on climber's left, and the crust just broke away in plate-sized chunks that proceeded to fall, shatter and pummel my partners. I am not sure but I believe I heard exclamations of "Fuck Me!", "Get me the fuck out of this place" and "Dude, you're killing us, just fucking top out".

 

There was a short, "interesting" downclimb to the tree for the rap down into the zipper. All the slings there were encased in a ring of ice, so we added two fresh ones and rappeled down on two ropes. One might have worked (with some down climbing on snow) - not sure.

 

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We then unroped and solo'd the top of the Zipper which is 100% deep powder now. As it was late in the afternoon, we snapped photos and headed down rather than tag the summit.

 

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We were a bit late getting to the Longmire gate (which closes at 6) and had to sheepishly ask a Ranger to let us out.

 

Gear Notes:

Ice axe, 2nd tool, pickets.

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That was probably us (Anastacia was wondering where you were KK). We climbed the central flow, finding varied conditions for ice quality and loads more snow than I've ever seen back there. "This ain't Montana" went through my head more than once...

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That was probably us (Anastacia was wondering where you were KK). We climbed the central flow, finding varied conditions for ice quality and loads more snow than I've ever seen back there. "This ain't Montana" went through my head more than once...

 

I had a long week and couldn't muster the energy to get up early Saturday, so Sunday it was. :-)

 

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