[Sadie's Driver]

Well, our little class adventure today was to climb The Tooth and its four pitches. Nevermind that the weatherman said it was going to be crappy today! (And it was.) You start this little climb from the Alpental ski area, head toward Source Lake and then go west toward Pineapple Pass, drop below the gendarme and up-climb to the base of The Tooth. Amazingly, this was a popular hike today. The Washington Alpine Club (WAC) (our rag-tag 6 climbers), the Mounties with 8 climbers and then a independent group of 5 climbers. We must have scared everyone off - we had the place to ourselves. The 6 WAC instructors set the ropes as we eager climbers elevated from one pitch to another. Interesting little climb. We were greeted with snow about Noon! It made the climbs and rappels pretty slick - but everyone got off the mountain safely. We heard plenty of avi releases. Be careful out there! Visibility was nil coming down until we got below the clouds. No views today! (AND, someone DID lose a tooth - well a crown, at least. I'm responsible - I offered some rather cold/hard gummy bears that pulled the little sucker out of its socket! Sorry, Charles!)

Anita re-packing

Liz checking her pack

Katie and her pack check

Recent slides off of Chair

Parker above Source Lake

Liz, Tim and Anita heading to the ridge

Other Tooth Travelers

Mounties group scrapping their plans to do The Tooth

Looking up towards the ridge to head to Pineapple Pass

Anita depositing her poles

Reaching the top of Pineapple Pass

Assessing the route

Climb on!

Anita,Tim and John waiting to head up The Tooth

Phil and a freeloader . . . er, visitor

A group thinking about doing The Tooth

Colleen, Phil, me trying to stay warm!

Anita getting ready to head up

The driver on the summit of The Tooth

Anita and Amanda on the summit of The Tooth

Gerhardt on the summit of The Tooth

Tim on the summit of The Tooth

Everyone's down.

The Tooth Team!!!

Great day with some great team members!

[Layback]

Nice job, but 12 people on an alpine rock climb? Why do you guys fix ropes on the Tooth? I understand the Mounties had 6 and turned around because of avy activity and a large WAC group that was fixing ropes.

[Sadie's Driver]

6 students and 6 instructors.

[touron]

[ira]

nice job. what a difference a day makes. it was so beautiful up there yesterday we were lounging in the sun having to put extra sunscreen on. we had 9 students and 6 instructors.

[Layback]

[ira]

no it doesn't bother me. it's a class and that's what happens in a class. there were only two other people the entire day on friday and we let them climb and rappel through when they wanted and let them use our ropes for rappel to speed them along.

[SeanSullivan86]

Just curious, what did you use to ascend the fixed lines? Prusik(s) ? Or something fancier? With regards to the Mounties group... well.. tough sh##, they should've gotten an earlier start doing the Tooth on a weekend. ETA: Minor nitpick... isn't that ridge (Denny, Tooth, etc) the Wilderness boundary? So when you reach Pineapple Pass you're subject to the 12 person party size limit?

[ira]

we didn't fix lines except for the third pitch which is class 4. on that pitch they climbed and moved a prussik along in case they slipped. On pitches 1, 2, and 4 they were belayed from the top of each pitch as a follower. not sure how this fixed line thing started. we do send instructors up first to get anchors and ropes in place for climbing but everyone climbs on the rope and it is then thrown back down for the next climber to come up. no different than if two people were going out to climb it except the second doesn't have to pull gear.

[wildernessed]

Awesome !

[BarbE]

[Tom_Sjolseth]

Nice work, SD.

[Jim Dockery]

Good experience in not perfect conditions.

[Bernardo]

Sounds like a good time. Except the dental part.

[beaudaddy]

Awesome Suzanne!!!