[TR] Little Tahoma - Fryingpan-Whitman 7/3/2015

[Pete Wojcik]

Trip: Little Tahoma - Fryingpan-Whitman

 

Date: 7/3/2015

 

Trip Report:

My brother and I tackled Little Tahoma on July 2-3. We got a late start on Thursday afternoon from the parking lot, had plans to camp at the Meany Crest that night, and summit the next day.

 

When we reached Summerland I was surprised to see how little snow there was leading up to the Meany Crest. The last time I was here in mid-July, 2011 the snow line was well below Summerland which made for an easy walk to the base of the Fryingpan glacier.

 

After taking a look from Summerland, and looking at the map, we decided to try and gain the Meany Crest from the east.

 

It ended up being a scramble to the peak slightly northeast of the Meany Crest and took a little longer than the route we took on the way back down.

 

Once we reached the top of the peak, the Meany Crest was a short walk away along the ridgeline on the left.

 

Awesome bivy site!

 

We got an early start around 3:30 am Friday morning. There were clear skies and a full moon, which allowed us to navigate without headlamps most of the way before dawn.

 

On the Fryingpan heading to the Whitman crest.

 

Sunrise at the Whitman crest.

 

Getting ready for the Whitman glacier.

 

The crevasses had begun to open up but were still passable and easy to navigate.

 

The notch we were shooting for is marked with an arrow in the photo below.

 

Heading to the notch.

 

At the beginning of the scramble on the rock looking east.

 

Scrambling up the notch.

 

After this snowfield there are occasional rock cairns which lead to the summit, however I found scrambling to the summit to be pretty straight forward both times I was up here.

 

When I was near the summit in 2011 for the first time, I was led by another person in our group. I was unaware of the last roughly 30 feet of class 4 rock which leads to the true summit. No one in our party brought a rope or protection to the summit scramble (we left them at the notch). I was pretty disappointed in having to turn around without reaching the true summit! This time my brother and I brought our rope and some protection for that section. It was his first time being on something with that much exposure however, and he was not feeling it. I read a couple of reports of people tackling that section without a rope but just couldn’t bring myself to it. The north side is a huge 1000’+ drop, and the south side isn’t much better. It didn’t really bother me this time, I was just glad to be up there with my brother on a beautiful day. I’ll have to wait until next time to get the actual summit.

 

My brother near the actual summit.

 

Me near the actual summit.

 

Shown below is the route we took down from the Meany Crest. After coming down that side, a couple of other routes on this side were pretty obvious.

 

I think scrambling through loose rock to and from the Meany Crest tacked on about 2+ hours to the total trip time as compared to the last time I was up here. If I ever do Little Tahoma again I would want to hike in similar conditions to my previous trip with the snow level at or below Summerland.

 

Gear Notes:

Crevasse rescue gear. A few runners and cams for the last bit to the true summit.