Eight of us met at the Mazama Mountaineering Center at 5am to drive up to the park. A ninth would meet us at the trailhead. There were six Glacier Snakes, "Opa Snake," "Bakey Snake," "Wounded Snake," "Ruby Snake," Jean (a recent BCEP graduate who has yet to be named, and me (Clumsy Snake). We also had three other climbers with experience, Jim, Gary, and Bridget. We arrived at the Snow Lake trailhead, got our gear together, and began our climb.
The weather was beautiful... perhaps too beautiful. There was no wind, not a cloud in the sky, and mild temperatures. At already 9am, it was getting warm and the snow was starting to soften up. The amount of snow at that level was substantial. All the roads were cleared, but there was good 10 feet of snow on the ground at 4,500 feet.
To get to Unicorn, we would first ascend gently to the south approximately 500 feet and travel one mile to Snow Lake, then turn west to go up a chute to the base of the peak itself. We left the snowshoes in the cars to keep our pack weight down. We started our climb which turned out to be a slog. The elevation gain is very gradual, which would be great if there was no snow, but with soft, deep snow, the one mile to Snow Lake was a real energy drainer. We made good time considering the conditions and got to where Snow Lake should be, but it was almost entirely snow covered. Opa Snake stopped us for a break and we discussed how to get up the chute that would take us to the base of Unicorn. As we were discussing, we saw large cornices directly over the chute that clearly looked ready to break off. We also heard some minor snow slides nearby and saw avalanche debris just prior to Snow Lake. We had a lengthy discussion of whether it would be safe to go up the chute considering the avalanche danger. Though I and a few others wanted to continue up the chute, clearer heads prevailed and as a group we decided to turn around. We descended back the route we took up, but since the elevation gain is so gradual, we had to slog through the snow with no opportunities to glissade. We got back to the trailhead around 11:15 and decided to drive to Reflection Lake and the adjoining trailhead, have lunch, and decide what to do next.
Reflection Lake is one of the prettiest areas in the park because the reflection of Mt. Rainier off the lake is spectacular. I can attest to the beauty of this view because I was there last year for a climb of the Castle in the Tatoosh Range. However, with the winter's high snowpack, the lake was completely snow covered and there was a large crevasse eight feet deep between the trailhead and where the lake should be. We sat on top of a huge snow pile, ate our lunches, and discussed our post lunch plans. We decided to climb up to the basin on the south side of The Castle and then if time permitted, climb either The Castle or Pinnacle Peak.
There are three peaks that can be climbed from the Reflection Lake Trailhead: Castle, Pinnacle, and Plummer. The summertime route is nothing more than a set of switchbacks that rise about 1,500 feet to a saddle between Pinnacle and Plummer. From the saddle, you traverse to the southeast to get to the basin below the Castle. But, with so much snow, it was possible to just kick step our way to the Castle Basin or to a ridge between Castle and Pinnacle. We saw fresh steps and started climbing up just below Castle and Pinnacle. About halfway up, the steps went two different directions. One that went straight up and the other that went off to the east with a more gradual climb. We incorrectly chose the route straight ahead that quickly curved around to the southwest. We followed the steps through some trees then across some snow chutes. The snow chutes were fairly steep, so we used our ice axes to get across. The route continued to the southwest, below Pinnacle Peak and we realized we were heading straight towards the Pinnacle / Plummer saddle, exactly where we did not intend to go. However, we did know where we were going and thought we could just make our way to Pinnacle from a different direction. We continued the traverse and then eventually starting climbing up towards Pinnacle and the saddle. Since it was so warm and we were in the hottest part of the day, and since I was already tired from our aborted attempt of Unicorn, I was struggling to keep up. But, we continued our ascent made it to the saddle.
Finally, around 3pm, we got to the saddle. We saw a clear boot track to the climbing route of Pinnacle on the southwest side of the peak. We could see climbers above us making the final pitches to the top of Pinnacle. We kept ascending along the boot track but the snow was very soft and we were triggering small avalanches and snow slides as we went along. Eventually we got to where the rock and snow meet right below the summit of Pinnacle. Unfortunately, there were 20 high school students and adult leaders using their ropes to get to and off of the Pinnacle with a number of them waiting in what was probably the only safe platform below the Pinnacle. While the group was starting to make their way off of the summit itself, we knew it would be a long wait. And because there were too many people in such a small area of rock with a very steep snow slope below us that we decided it would be safest to abort our attempt. Since we were on such a high angle slope, we down climbed using our ropes and Prusiks. We then traversed over to the saddle between Castle and Pinnacle. We put away our harnesses and started our descent.
From the saddle, we had a nice glissade immediately. Though the snow was soft and deep, a glissade track was present that we were able to use. Opa Snake, who Bakey Snake had teasingly called a "glissade whore" earlier in the day, started the second glissade down the next slope, but as he was glissading down, started a small avalanche behind him that ended up covering him up to his waist at the bottom of the hill. Ruby Snake, Injured Snake, and I rushed down to dig him (and later his poles) out of the snow. We did not try any more glissades after that and the snow really was just too soft and deep anyway. We hiked down to the trailhead, packed up our gear, and headed down to Ashford for dinner at the Copper River Inn. After a nice dinner, we headed our separate directions with Opa, Ruby, and Bridget staying back for a second day of hiking inside the park, while the rest of us headed home.
Though we were unsuccessful in completing our climbs, we had a lot of fun. Obviously, the high snow pack put a dent to our plans, but it did give a unique experience of a very beautiful part of the Northwest. On hindsight, if we really wanted to climb Unicorn, we could have traversed from the Pinnacle/Plummer saddle, but until the National Park Service puts in a webcam at Snow Lake looking at the chute, we'll just have to roll the dice when there is snow up there.
To see the photos, go here: Unicorn Peak Photos 6/4/11
Thank you to Opa Snake for coordinating this climb. It was a lot of fun.
Glacier Snakes are participants and/or assistants for Bill McLoughlin's group of the Basic Climbing School (BCEP) with the Mazamas, a mountaineering non-profit located in Portland, OR.
