yngeagle Posted January 22, 2003 Share Posted January 22, 2003 There is some great ice on the south side of Unicorn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshK Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 details? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yngeagle Posted January 24, 2003 Author Share Posted January 24, 2003 Details: Â Unicorn Peak is in the Tatoosh Range just south Mt. Rainier. The approach to unicorn is around 3 hrs. give or take an hour depending on if you need to brake trail or not. Â The formations are very large hanging water ice flows. There are no glaciers because there are no hanging glaciers in the summer on the south side. The potential looks like there could be up to possibly 3 pitch routes directly below the summit and just to the right of the east ridge. Â When I made the observations back on Sunday I was skiing just west of Unicorn. I am going back up there tommorrow morning to climb and ski Unicorn. While skiing it I am going to get closer to the ice to find out what and if there is going to be much danger getting on to the flows. I will try and remember to take some pics tommorow, anyhow I will give an up date to the ice and route potential tommorow evening. Â Johnathan K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted January 24, 2003 Share Posted January 24, 2003 Johnathan, you are certainly not the first to notice the good ice potential around Unicorn. The Tatoosh is a climbing gem for its access and wide range of potential... Â Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshK Posted January 24, 2003 Share Posted January 24, 2003 OK, so it sounds like the areas you are going to be looking at are in line with what I was thinking. I noticed some good opps for ice last time i was up there. You still heading up there to ski tomorrow even with the current forecast? I don't mind skiing slop, but that ghastly 8k snow level could be not-so-friend for avy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lambone Posted January 24, 2003 Share Posted January 24, 2003 Cool, let us know how that ice is lookin yngeale. i'm typicaly sceptical of south facing water ice, but it sounds fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yngeagle Posted January 25, 2003 Author Share Posted January 25, 2003 Well guys heres the up date on Unicorn I promised. I did go and make an attempt for the summit. We approached Unicorn from the ridge running east and west that connects with pyramid and some other unamed peak that summits around 6,500, we approched it from pyramid. My partner and I made it to one of the last peaks before heading down the col and up Unicorns North exposed rib. However, with the large low front, thats as far as we were able to go. As we continued up towards 7,000ft we were getting hammered with everthing from 30-50mph gusts of snow, slet, freezing rain, plus the clouds had came in and set right on top of us only allowing us 10-15ft visabilaty. Since we had already been in this area we were able to get around fairly well as long as we stuck to the ridge and used the map and compass with altimator. So, anyways I wasn't able to get close enough to Unicorn to get any more beta on route potential and approach hazards. However, I do know for a fact that taking the ridge we took is much safer and possibly just as fast if not faster than if you were to approch from the gulley leading to the South face of Unicorn. Â Other than that we dropped out of the clouds and had a blast goofing around down around 5,500 ft. The skiing is just incredible the chutes and glades are great plus there are lots of good cornices to drop from. Having no one else there was a nice bonus. There was only about 3-4 inches of new and yes it was heavy and we ended up doing alot of slope cuting to get ride of the avalanches. We really enjoyed that part alot. Anyways, good time and fantastic skiing since it wasn't to deep. I plan to get up there again as soon as the weather starts acting like winter again. So other than that, not really a ton of new beta on the ice, but just a fun day playing in the snow. Johnathan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crackbolter Posted January 25, 2003 Share Posted January 25, 2003 Maybe next time eh? Â Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yngeagle Posted January 26, 2003 Author Share Posted January 26, 2003 You know it Baby! Second times the charm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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