Lane Peak, April 22, 2000
North side of Lane Peak (route followed was the left slanting couloir leading to the left notch)
I arrived at the Narada Falls parking lot, alone, at around 12:30pm on Saturday. Several things led to this... including a turn-around search mission (the members of the local gene pool walked out safely after climbing a large cliff above the road using using their pant belt loops as harnesses, and some boat line as a rope, then getting lost for a day) the evening before (Ken C. told me about Lane at dinner afterwards), the lack of climbing plans with anyone, the very crappy weather forecast, and the sun beams that invaded my room Saturday morning (contradicting said crappy weather forecast).
It had gotten less sunny as I drove towards the mountains, and into Mt Rainier NP. But to my suprise, up here the weather was beautiful. It was snowing lightly, and somewhat windy, but it was cool and sunny. Perfect - however, I also had a good view of Lane Peak from here. Those northside couloirs looked steeeeep! Realizing it was probably stupid to head up those alone, and that I'd probably chicken out, I decided in my mind to just go check them out. Although how bad could it be? The other TMR dudes climbed it w/o crampons (though that added a bit of sketchedness to the climb), and some with only a single ice axe. I was bringing crampons _and_ a second tool. The Becky guide's description for this route up Lane was an astoundingly informative "A more direct route is up the steep narrow north face gullies".
The road to Lane
I looked up the steep slope across the valley that leads up to the Stevens Canyon road. The road looked like it had been plowed. Was it open? I drove further up, and came to a plowed out area, but a gate was still across the road. Nonetheless, I decided to start here, convinced that a 5 minute walk along pavement was better than a 400ft slog up an avalanche prone snow slope.
Once I was ready, I walked towards the chain gate barricading the Stevens Canyon Road. As I did, I noticed a large sign that said "Temporary trail closure", due to plowing, in addition to the "Road Closed" sign. There was a large symbol of a hiker, with a circle-and-slash symbol over it. I quickly walked over the chain and out of sight of the main road, and pretended I never saw it. Anyways, the sign had melted out and was leaning strongly.
I left the road at the first bend (keeping an eye out for any vicious snowplows that would come along and chew me up), descended into the woods, and followed the valley bottom meadows to the base of Lane. The only couloir visible from this vantage had two large overhanging cornices near the top. The sun was on them at the moment.
Nearing the top of the gully
It looked like there were footsteps ascending the large avalanche fan at the bottom of the face. I crossed the river, hiked up to the last trees, and "suited up". Dug a token avalanche pit. Kinda slushy.
I followed the steps up for 10 or 15 minutes, until I rounded a bend. Okay so far, not too steep. A hidden couloir revealed itself (love those things!), with the steps continuing up. I could just make out pair of people topping out. Sweet! And this gully had no big cornices threatening it!
The snow was occasionally rock hard necessitating crampons, but turned nicely mushy higher up. The pre-kicked footsteps made things a lot easier. With an occasional glance back down (to check scariness factor) I made my way up. Occasional chunks of ice bounced down the sides of the gully. The clouds came down, and it began to snow quite hard. No more sun. Couldn't really see much beyond the top and bottom of the gully.
The gully was quite straightforward (esp. with pre-kicked steps - heheh), reaching not much more than 45 degrees, with a few spooky bergshrund-y parts where I could look down into holes. Soon, I topped out, and was relieved to find a gentle slope on the other side, by which I could descend. Going back down the gully did not look good anymore.
Looking down the gully
At this point, the other two climbers came around a bend, said hello, and announced that they hadn't reached the summit (only a short scramble above). They said they were wallowing in soft snow up past their knees, and the slope felt loaded. Ok, no summit for me. Besides, there was nothing to be seen, and the couloir was the main goal.
After feeling kind of cold and wet, I started to descend. Yuck, what a slog. Post-holing up to my knees, the snow on this south face was crap! Lower down, a crust appeared on top of the slush. Blech! I made a hole in my gaiter with a crampon point. Doh! I ate a Cadbury Easter Cream Egg. Yeah!
More often than not in recent weeks, a piss-poor weather forecast has meant this kind of stuff. (Narada Falls & parking lot can be seen lower right)
A while later, I was back at my truck. The bed was littered with garbage. Doh! The garbage that Jeff put in my truck in Squamish, more than a month back, and I have never removed. Animals had gotten into it. A beige gelatinous substance was littered about the bed. After close examination with eyes and nose, I think it was rotting chicken meat. As I began the cleanup, a ranger truck pulled up next to me. Uh oh.
"Can I see your green card?"
"Sure", I said, jumping out of the back. I expected they would chastise me for parking in a illegal spot,
traveling on a closed trail (Not my first conviction for that), leaving
garbage out for wild animals to get into, climbing alone, etc... hmm, guess I was a screw up today.
When the ranger said "green card", I immediately thought "park pass" - which is actually green - but
just as it began to dawn on me that something was up, the ranger said:
"Hey Phil, it's Geordie!"
... a friend of Keren's I met on a ski trip last year, doing "front-country law enforcement" at MRNP during the
winter, before going back to North Cascades NP for the summer. Phew!
"Raven's get into your food?"
"Yeah, but they didn't get it all. Want some?"
Satellite photo of Lane Peak. Route followed was vertically-oriented couloir just right of center
