Our lives are made up of the path we forge from the opportunities presented to us in our own set of circumstances. Had we never moved to Washington, I doubt whether I'd ever taken up mountaineering or with this weekend dabbled with alpine climbing (be it ever so small). A short 40 minute drive from my house is Snoqualmie Pass and the Alpine Lakes Wilderness of the Mount Baker Snoqualmie Forest. Beautiful trails and lakes are surrounding by majestic granite peaks of the cascade mountain range, the great secret of Seattle. Was there not this opportunistic field of possibilities, my development in the outdoors would have been much slower and required greater effort.
Tucked away up a small narrow valley is Alpental, a ski resort in the winter and a magnificent trail head in the spring, summer and fall. Guye Peak, Snoqualmie Mountain and Snow Lake are all within a few short miles of the parking lot. At the upper end of this valley below the ridge line sits Source Lake, the beginning of mighty Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River which carved the canyon that I-90 follows. Above Source Lake is Chair Peak and a beautiful ridge line of peaks that circles back down to Denny Mountain above Alpental itself. In the middle of these is The Tooth which sits above Pineapple Basin. The Tooth is probably many folks in Washington's first alpine climb as it was mine. Proximity to Seattle with an easy approach and a short climb (4 pitches) with great views of the surrounding area make it extremely popular.
Seth and I started out early. We met at the Safeway in North Bend at 5 am and were at the upper parking lot in Alpental and on the trail by 5:45 am. We followed the trodden trail up the middle of the valley staying to the left of the creek. The week prior J.K. had climbed the Tooth with the WAC and we were thankful for the foot path. The snow was firm in good condition and we made good time to the end of the valley and the "big hill" where we turned south-westerly and waded up through the deep snow. Purchase was hard to come by as each step sunk and fell out from underneath me in the snow. Finally frustrated I stepped in the glissade paths of the previous days and made good progress to the top.
At the top of the ridge line is Pineapple Basin which is framed by Chair, Bryant and Hemlock Peaks. At the far end of the Basin is the Tooth and the pointy fang of a gendarme that guards Pineapple Pass. We made good time up the basin, watching our shadows grow as the sun crept over the ridge behind us and to our left. Midway up the basin a cornice broke off atop Bryant and slid down over the rock and came crashing down into the basin below us. Watching in awe I caught it on video, as I just happened to have my camera out. Even had we been lower in the basin the slide petered out well before the climbers path. After the snow settled Seth and I both turned back around and looked at the ridgelines above us scouring for cornices. None to be seen we carried onward and upward. As we approached the final steep slope before Pineapple Pass we looked behind us to see small figures of climbers moving just into the Basin behind us. The early bird gets the Tooth I thought and we hurried up the steep snow over Pineapple Pass where we traversed north around behind the base of the gendarme to the base of the southwest face of The Tooth.
We stashed our snowshoes and Seth's pack and got out my brand new rope ("pretty" was how another team described the bright orange color) and we put on our harnesses and tied in. I carried my pack, stuffing my camera in side with Seth's bag of food. As we were getting ready the first of the party we'd seen down below arrived. They were with the WAC and had a group of 8 students they were taking up. On belay I fed out the rope while Seth led. As he reached the belay position and after taking up rope, yelled down "On Belay" and I yelled up "climbing" and up I went until I reached his position. Where again I belayed and he led. I am sure my form wasn't pretty, that I used my knees in a place or two but I got myself up without Seth having to pull. I had a bit of difficulty removing the anchors Seth had placed in a couple of spots. The second pitch had a particularly stretching move just below the belay where I had to wedge my left foot on a small ledge and reach my right arm up into a large crack to pull myself up. The last pitch with its airy catwalk ledge took some nerve to step across the break in the ledge, but firm cracks for handholds above and the rope assuaged the fear and beating heart.
In a short 60 minutes were were on top the Tooth. Alone on the summit with amazing blue sky, high clouds and stellar views for 360 degrees from Denny Mountain, to Mt Adams, Rainier, Granite Mountain, Glacier Peak, Stuart, Lundin, Red, Thompson, Snoqualmie, Guye and on and on. We unroped and sat on the bare rocks and took in the scenery while eating some food and drink. We spent another 20 minutes taking photos, including the requisite summit shot.
Before anyone else arrived we roped back up and prepared to rappel down. First Seth and then I would follow. This was an interesting process of navigating among those who were coming up. In a few places at belay stations Seth or I waited on climbers ascending so we could freely rappel down. Along the way I met Carlos a friend of Ingunn and JK's. I also met Nadia Hakki a friend of Geroge and Cherry's from their days in the WAC. A small world even up in the mountains.
After reaching the bottom we gathered, stored and loaded all the gear and made our way back to the top of Pineapple Pass. A few short glissades later we were in the flat section of the Pineapple Basin and in the middle of a group of Mountaineers who'd been practicing self arrest on the hillside above. Everyone was swimming in snow with postholes often up to your mid thigh. Seth and I threw on the snowshoes and we stayed on top of the snow and made excellent time, passing all the Mountaineers and beating them back to the top of the ridge above Source Lake. We glissaded down to the valley floor and then stumbled, slipped, fell and postholed our way back to the car. We arrived at 1:45 pm 8 hours after our start. Seth jumped on a con-call and we headed down the pass to the North Bend car swap rendezvous.
For a few reflections on climbing based on this experience see my blog.
Few Photos :
What a fantastically gorgeous day. Beautiful blue skies, spring snow and a gorgeous ridge line.
Upwards, Onwards
The Early Bird Gets the Tooth
Pineapple Pass
Atop the Tooth
View from the summit of The Tooth. I don't have any photos of us climbing up, it was time for focus and attention, either belaying Seth as he led or climbing up myself.
Nice report, Saturday was a great day to be out. My dog and I enjoyed a day on the surprisingly busy slopes of Alpental.
One question, Isn't Source Lake the beginning of the South Fork of the Snoqualmie?
Nice report, Saturday was a great day to be out. My dog and I enjoyed a day on the surprisingly busy slopes of Alpental.
One question, Isn't Source Lake the beginning of the South Fork of the Snoqualmie?
Your are absolutely correct its the source of the South Fork, corrected on my blog and I am never quite clear on the etiquette for editing original posts so we'll leave the correction here
Das Toof! No matter how many times I climb it, and regardless of which route, it's always a great alpine treat. It looks like you it in some great spring conditions. Nice job!
Now that is a good dawn patrol! I'll get up there sometime in the future when the thought of it doesn't make me want to vomit. Great climb, great photos and great report as always.
So I climbed The Tooth on Monday (5/25/09) and thought I'd just add onto this post as oppose to posting another topic for this climb.
We started off from the Alpental parking lot at about 5am and made it to the first belay station at the base of The Tooth in pretty short order. Although it was pretty painful for me after climbing Whitehorse the day before.
It was 3 1/2 pitches up for us and 3 raps down on a 60m rope. Weather that day was gorgeous once the sun broke through and took the chill off of the air in the basin below Pineapple Pass.
Pineapple Pass
hanging at a belay station on the third pitch
obligatory summit photo
what's sweeter than a summit nap on a gorgeous day
Rappelling down from the main belay station (zoomed out) The Tooth is on the right.
Rappelling down from the main belay station (zoomed in)
I've heard that this is a crowded climb, but we had it to ourselves. We only encountered one solo climber and a couple guys while we were there. pretty nice.
Congrats on the climb. I would think Monday would normally be slow but on memorial day I'd have thought it would be more crowded, glad you had it to yourselves!
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O .. and your tr and pix ... awesome 
Great climb, great photos and great report as always.
