To satisfy my idiosyncratic mind I'm going to step back and start posting trips dating back to when I started jotting down notes in the field. That then leaves us with the Tooth attempt.
My first mountaineers trip towards completion of the Basic Mountaineering Course, I was joining the leader of our SIG Karl, fellow student Bri along with one other student, rope lead Sunny and an intermediate student leading the third rope.
We head out from Alpental at 5AM- Karl is kind enough to let me try doing the approach on skis- probably not a norm for a mountaineers trip. After passing the open slope below mushroom couloir we head straight uphill. Ahh for real? There is a skin track set to Pineapple Pass, though it goes through Source Lake and then up... certainly a much longer way around if on foot.
Lesson #1 on using skis for a mounty trip- much better if the bulk of the group is using them. Route choice, even when there is a skin track set, won't always play to allowing skis. I hack my way up for a while, but once we get to a significantly steeper section I throw in the towel and toss the skis on my pack. The going is rather easy from there on out... After about 30 minutes of bootpacking it, I tentatively put the skis back on. I luck out and keep the bindings clipped in all the way up, with only one more tenuous section cresting the ridge above the bowl below Pineapple Pass.
Upon gaining views of Pineapple Pass and the route, we realize we're a bit higher than we meant to be- we'll have to drop down into the bowl then climb up to the notch where the route begins. Then a freight train came rolling by... or so it seemed. Really loud... must be test flying some 787s nearby. Looking back towards the route we see an innocuous looking stream of snow falling down the rock. It's not on the route, but certainly close enough to give pause. After some discussion, we are fairly close to calling the climb. This decision is confirmed once we run into a party of 12 from a WAC climb. They are walking up and plan to join the three leaders they sent ahead to put up fixed lines. If we had decided to go in those conditions we would have wanted to move fast and get down off the slopes before any sun made avy conditions even worse. I can't imagine sitting there all day and belaying 12 people up the route....hope they had lots of warm coco.
As we're heading out we run into a private group coming up- friends Becky and Dave with some other climbers. They continued up and sat behind the WAC group for some time, never able to work themselves into starting the route and eventually skiied out without climbing either- bummer. I was able to link a few decent turns down towards Source Lake and then spent the rest of the trip sliding on down the well padded down trail, waiting to be within sight, and then sliding down some more. Unfortunate not to be able to climb, and even more unfortunate to have seemingly forgotten my camera, as I don't have any photos from the day.
0 / 3 towards Basic.
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