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The Tooth is very accessible, and hence can be squeezed into a Seattle trip even if one has little
spare time. The South Face is an easy (around 5.4) alpine climb on extremely solid rock.
Routes: South Face (Grade I, Class 5.4 (?))
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The Tooth (center) from the East Shoulder of Chair Peak in early May |
Party: Paul, Dietrich, and Monique Belitz
Route: South Face (I, 5.4)
Equipment: A double set of stoppers plus Camalots #0.75 to #3
Time: 1 hr from Pineapple Pass to Summit; 9 hrs roundtrip from Alpental
Comments: Roundtrip time includes waiting 2 hrs behind a Mountaineers party. Very nice family climb!
Trip report:
This was our second attempt on The Tooth, after having quit in April in the saddle between The Tooth and Denny Mt. We started at 6am from Seattle, and got going from Alpental at 7am. We were slow on the talus, and it was 10am by the time we sat in Pineapple Pass. A Mountaineers party was just starting off on the first pitch, so we sat down and admired the view of Mt. Rainier for a while. When we collected our gear I found that I had forgotten to take my harness. I considered soloing, but then reason prevailed; I wrapped a sling around my waist and decided to forgo leading for the day. After an hour or so Paul led the first pitch, only to wait for another hour at the first belay. After the first pitch there are numerous route possibilities, and we managed to pass the Mounties without causing any hardships. The third and fourth pitches are easy, and we simul-climbed until we hit the headwall. The catwalk was taken by the vanguard of the Mounties, so we climbed the flakes to the right, which was great fun. I downclimbed the route (with a belay on the headwall) except for the first two pitches, for which I borrowed Paul's harness to rappel. Monique rappelled the headwall, then downclimbed, and rappelled again. Once in Pineapple Pass she decided she did not like the scrambling around the back side, so she rappelled the gully that leads straight into the bowl. That took her two rappels and more time than it took Paul and me to climb around, but in the end we re-united on the talus and hiked back to Alpental. Nice trip, except for the waiting in line, and for the awful music at Alpental that's audible almost to Source Lake.
Party: Paul, Dietrich, and Monique Belitz
Equipment: X-Country skis (PB,DB), snow shoes (MB)
Time: 3 1/2 hrs from Alpental to the saddle between The Tooth and Denny Mountain
Comments: Ski trip to the base of The Tooth (abandoned plans to summit)
Trip report:
The idea was to climb The Tooth under early spring conditions, but the weather did not cooperate. It was raining all the way from Seattle on I-90. Shortly before Snoqualmie Pass the rain turned to snow, so that was some progress! Paul and I had skis (Karhu 10th Mountain) with skins, Monique was on snowshoes. It was remarkably warm, so we stripped to an almost indecent attire, but strangely the falling snow still stuck. We reached Source Lake fairly quickly and started the arduous ascent of the gully. Paul and I went left around the ridge, while Monique went straight up the gully. Occasionally we would go to the top of the ridge to check on her progress, which was pretty good. However, shortly before reaching the basin she hit some deep, treacherous snow, got stuck, and was worried about falling into a deep moat. After dutiful curses from all sides Paul dumped his skis, wallowed down, wallowed back up, then down again, until he had cleared a path for her. While we continued up the basin the clouds started clearing occasionally, and we caught glimpses of The Tooth as well as of Chair Peak. We could see that there were tons of new snow on all the ledges and it became clear that, under these conditions, The Tooth might be climbable in mountaineering boots (which we did not have), but neither in ski boots nor in rock shoes (which we did have). Not by us, anyway. So we gave up on the idea of summiting and settled for the Tooth-Denny saddle. Paul managed to carve turns all the way from the saddle, while I resorted to kickturns for the first 200' or so. The weather deteriorated again, and we had trouble seeing the terrain features (no contrast at all!), but we still had a very nice run down to Source Lake and back out to Alpental. We vowed to come back in summer and climb The Tooth.