Tatoosh Traverse

2023-07-28

This traverse covers the ridge of peaks directly south of Rainier from Stevens to Eagle Peak. I don’t think I’d recommend this one lol, mainly because it was a lot of work for views that didn’t change all that much (although it was cool to see the angle of Rainier change a little bit going west to east).

tatoosh-traverse-1.jpg Morning light on Rainier

tatoosh-traverse-2.jpg The first peak of the day, Unicorn Peak

tatoosh-traverse-3.jpg I never know how to judge climbing grades in this range, 5.easy I guess

tatoosh-traverse-4.jpg Ginormous

tatoosh-traverse-5.jpg Also starting above the clouds today. Hood very very faint in the back.

tatoosh-traverse-6.jpg St. Helens

tatoosh-traverse-7.jpg Now that’s a mountain! Glad we did Stevens Peak first because it’s far enough away from the other peaks where I would be very tempted to leave out if we went the other way.

tatoosh-traverse-8.jpg Boundary Peak

tatoosh-traverse-9.jpg

tatoosh-traverse-10.jpg Bench and Snow lakes (how many Snow Lakes are there in WA??) and the road behind

tatoosh-traverse-11.jpg The meadows to Pinnacle Peak

tatoosh-traverse-12.jpg A cramped shot of Rainier (14400 feet) and the Paradise Lot (5400 feet) below - a 9k difference! Cool seeing the Nisqually Glacier flowing down.

tatoosh-traverse-13.jpg

tatoosh-traverse-14.jpg Pinnacle Peak

tatoosh-traverse-15.jpg The fun way up the final Eagle Peak

tatoosh-traverse-16.jpg Cool seeing the Nisqually drainage from this angle

tatoosh-traverse-17.jpg The last view from Eagle Peak. All that work and it only looks to be a 35 angle difference in vantage point from Stevens Peak. Rainier really is massive.

Notes

  • This was probably ~20 miles and ~10200 feet of vertical gain just shy of 13 ½ hours.