Last year, a group of us tried to climb Unicorn Peak, but because of snow conditions, we had to turn around at Snow Lake. This year, we had much better climbing conditions, though weather was going to be the biggest obstacle to a successful summit.
Unicorn Peak is one of the numerous peaks on the Tatoosh Range, immediately south of Mt. Rainier in Mt. Rainier National Park. From the road to Paradise Lodge, Unicorn Peak looks like, well, a unicorn. It has this rock formation that sticks out just like a unicorn's horn. The summit of Unicorn is 6,917 feet with approximately 2,400 feet of elevation gain from the Snow Lake trailhead.
This was the third attempt this year to get this climb underway. Our leader, Mike Holman, originally had this climb scheduled for mid May but it was postponed due to snow conditions. Our second opportunity was in early June, but we were thwarted by bad weather. This was the third and final opportunity because of Mike's summer schedule. He was going to make a go of this climb unless the weather was appalling. The forecast was for 90% chance of showers.
Since I was driving to Olympia immediately after the climb, I drove on my own and arrived at Cougar Creek campground around 11pm. I got up at 5 the next morning and met the rest of the group at the campground. We drove up to the trailhead and met our final two climbers who had driven up that morning. One of those climbers was our assistant leader, Tom, aka Opa Snake of Glacier Snake fame (see previous Glacier Snake climb posts).
We never did do formal interviews or a group meeting, we just got our gear together and started up the trail just before 7:30am. Aside from a few melted out patches, most of the entire trail was covered in snow. But, we knew the route to Snow Lake, about a mile from the trailhead. Not more than 10 minutes after we started to climb, the rain came. It was a light rain, but we were getting nervous because we knew we could not climb the summit pinnacle safely if the rock was wet.
Around 8:30, we arrived at Snow Lake where we took a break to eat and adjust gear. Much to our surprise, the clouds started to lift, and there was blue sky visible behind Unicorn Peak. It looked like the rain was not more than a passing shower.
Immediately after Snow Lake, the trail ascends the first of two chutes. It was here where last year cornices on top of the chute made the climb to dangerous to continue. This time there were no cornices present. We had put on crampons at our Snow Lake break, so we were able to ascend the 500 foot chute easily as the snow was well packed. Once on top of the chute, the trail levels out a little, though we were still ascending. Right before the second chute, we took a food break. Fog rolled in and then lifted, but the rains stayed away. We continued zigzagging up the second chute which seemed steeper than the first, at least it appeared that way when looking down. Soon, we came to a small ridge about 400 feet below the summit that indicated we were almost to the top.
We turned east and without too much heartache, we came to the base of the summit block. We put on our harnesses and Mike and two others set up a fixed line to get to the summit and set up a rappel station as well. The idea was we would climb up the fixed line, spend some time on the summit, then rappel off the other. As it turned out, we had a strong enough group where we all moved up the 5.0 rated route quickly, enjoyed time on the summit, then rappelled back to the base of the block using both the fixed line and rappel lines simultaneously. The views of the summit were satisfactory but the clouds did obscure our views of Mt. Rainier directly to the north. Once on the base, we put our harnesses away and enjoyed "leader treats" of strawberry shortcakes made from strawberries I had picked the day before, and yes, I brought a can of whipped cream.
The descent back to Snow Lake was fast because we glissaded down both chutes. The snow conditions combined with the slope made the glissades fast but were within safe operating limits. In no time at all, we were back at the Snow Lake trailhead just after 3:30pm. Not bad work for 8 hours of climbing. Afterwards,we went to the Copper Creek Inn for food and drink before departing for home.
I loved the climb. It was a lot of fun and not too difficult. A real advantage of this climb and other climbs in the Tatoosh Range is that is so easy to get to. From Portland, it is only a 2 1/2 hour drive to the entrance of Mt. Rainier National Park. And the views from the Tatoosh are phenomenal For more photos of my Unicorn Climb, go here: Unicorn Peak Climb 06-24-12
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