SUMMER SLAYIN!

[BettyDee]

MEDIUM TAHOMA
A couple of weeks ago me and a POSSE of boys decided to tackle Little Tahoma. It turns out Little Tahoma, ain't so little. At 11,143 ft it is the third tallest peak in Washington but it is dwarfed by Rainier by it's side. We decided to rename it Medium Tahoma. It has a sick, mildly steep northeast face that is about 2,000 feet long and 45 degrees at the top, mellowing out shortly thereafter. Since I started guiding with the senior guides in Denali still I was loaded with work and was STOKED to get some time off to shred. I was in party mode on this climb, hence my party attire.


We parked at the Summerland trailhead in Rainier NP. We hiked about 3 miles in where we gained about 500 feet on soft red cedar bark, boy that was nice. We got to snow after a couple hours and put on our skins.

Climbing a total of about 7,000 feet "Little" Tahoma was actually a pretty big day. Bigger than doing Mt. Baker in a day. We got about 6,500 feet of shreddage in.



5.7 move to get to the summit. Super chossy nightmare.


Summit shot




The lower portion of the face.


The rest of the ski was awesome. A really direct descent with fun hits, bowls and a nice steep face.



If you're not into rock/alpine climbing ignore the rest of the post….


WARBONNET
To continue my well deserved vacay I decided to spend a week in Park City where I got whooping cough and was in bed the ENTIRE TIME! On the drive back to Washington Dave and I had to get rad to make up for my week of fail in bed.

Driving into the Wind Rivers was super sketch. We waited out this storm in the car before our 6 mile hike in.


Our objective: to climb Warbonnet, in the Wind River range which would be the hardest alpine climb each of us had done. Nine pitches total, mostly 5.10 with a wide, "rattly fists" 5.11a off-width. FUN! I was already determined to save this pitch for Dave. Described in the book as a climb fit for hard men or women, we were pretty intimidated. I would recommend bringing 3... shit, maybe even 4 #4's as ridiculous as it sounds.

It's a very committing route, especially if you only have one rope. Some of the belays were hanging, with little or no fixed gear and left minimal opportunity for creating rappel stations. Forecasts called for 30% chance of thunderstorms but sunrise was epic and clear. We decided to go for it. And left camp at 6am, making it to the bottom of the climb at 8am.


As Dave was racking up to climb the dreaded off-width crux we see a nasty black squall in the distance. It looks far enough away to send and finish the route. It would've been more challenging to rappel the route at this point. As Dave is climbing we hear a huge explosion of thunder and we both shit our spans. I don't think I've ever climbed so fast.


We finished our food and water half way up the wall and were famished by the time we got to the summit at sunset. The descent was a steep, hellish, chossy, nightmare. We got back to camp at about 10pm and gorged ourselves with tasty bites and poop flavored water from the neighboring stream.

Me leading a 5.10 splitter hand crack. Pitch 3




REBEL YELL
Having another window to git some Dave and I headed to Washington Pass for the Rebel Yell climb on Chianti Spire. We definitely wanted something a bit more mellow after Warbonnet. Rebel Yell is one of the most popular climbs on Silver Star. Really nice climb of 5.7-5.9, with what do you know a 5.10 "rattly fists" off-width.

Lucas DeBari, pro snowboarder and buddy of mine and Dustin a fellow AAI guide were in front of us on the climb. We recognized each other from a pitch up and exchanged pleasantries. I told Lucas I didn't realize he was a climber and he responds something like, "yea, I'm not a great climber. I just pretend." I knew this was false when he proceeded to lead the shit out of the 5.10 off-width crux. Killing it!







Super fun climb!
2.5 hours from the car to the base of the route
6 hours on the climb with chill time at the top and rope tomfoolery on the rappel. (Got the rope stuck a couple times).
2 hours for the descent

All pics provided by Davide De Masi ie powdherb

[gravitylover]

Beautiful!

[Sirshredalot]

Well-played!

[pfluffenmeister]

tasty ...

[spook]

very nice! i was going to say i especially liked the summit pics on medium tahoma, but i ended up especially liking several others, too.

[moose pit]

Another rad TR.

[fsearles]

That looks amazing. To say the least I am envies.

[PNWbrit]

Excellent.

[Fortune_Cookie]

Good work, BettyDee and powdherb. Medium T is a super fun outing, isn't it!

[Lamothe]

wow , now that's how its done !

[lynchdogger]

Yuuup! . . . . . . . . .

[auvgeek]

Excellent TR. Love this pic! *Major jealousy*

So...it seems like you're into offwidth. Wanna do Pipeline in Squamish?!? I'm not in shape now, but it is on my to-do list.

[The Gnarwhale]

Betty and Powdherb crushing! Are you down in SA now?

[Lani]

I missed you crazies this summer, D'OH.

[powdork]

awesome tr. loved the climbing parts especially.

[cat in january]

Thanks for bringing it during the dog days! You ROCK

[Ski-it-ado]

Great pictures! Good to see there is still stoke being had

[BettyDee]

SKY: Missed you TOO!!
Gnarwhale! YES, just got to Portillo!!!! It's SOOOOO SICK HERE!!! Are you in SA?
AUVGEEK: Yes, Pipeline looks awesome. Would definitely like to get up there.