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Trip Report    

Alpine Scramble - Andrew Benchmark, Tokaloo Rock & Aurora Peak

A complete day- over 12 hours and over 12 miles, round trip. We had a group that was strong and committed to supporting each other, committed to contributing to our success.

  • Road suitable for all vehicles
  • S. Puyallup camp has water about 700 meters away. There are tarns with water on top of the ridge. The trails are all in good condition. Not much snow on the ridges.

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Travis and I set this trip up as a scramble with the night before and the night of campout at S. Puyallup Camp. I love spending time in Mt Rainier National Park, and I wanted to have enough rest to be resourceful for a medium sized group of experienced scramblers and a three-peak, 12+ mile day.

We met in Renton at 8 AM, sorted into carpools and were on the road to the Nisqually entrance about 8:20 AM. As many are well aware by now, the reservation system is not working well at the Nisqually entrance, so I wanted to allow plenty of time to sit in the backup before the gate. I also knew that driving through South Puyallup strip and down through Eatonville, Elbe, the traffic would get heavier on a nice Saturday summer morning.

Sure enough, usually a two hour drive became a three hour drive to the Westside road trailhead. However, with our permit, the ranger prescreening entrants waved us through to pass guardhouse.

We were loaded up, did a quick pre-check of gear and travel plan, began trudging up the Westside Road at 11:30. We stopped at Round Pass trail cutoff, took a quick break and continued along to the South Puyallup River trail in the wonderful green shade.

Arriving at camp just after 2 PM, we observed the stream there was no longer flowing sufficiently to collect water for filtering. The South Puyallup River itself is brown with muddy silt. We set up camp and our experienced Wonderland through-hiker, Siyi, locating a flowing, clear stream, about 260 meters south along the Wonderland. We relied upon this source for the remainer of the weekend there.

Sunday morning, we filled up on water and began the ascent of the St Andrews Ridge at about 7:30. The weather was warm and humid, making an impact on our pace. Just before the leave trail point, we met a park ranger. She noted our ice axes and when told we were going to Tokaloo, wished us a fun trip.

The meadow up Andrew Ridge was coated in wildflowers and goat hair. As we continued up, the meadow gave way to interspersed talus and high alpine meadow, with the occasional tarn. We also began to encounter small to medium snow fields.

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Following the guidance of trip reports by scramblers who had gone in previous years, we stayed to the south of the ridge, worked our way to the east side below Andrew, and then ascended its NE ridge to the flat summit. We located the register, had a snack break and a group photo, then quickly moved onto the work of Tokaloo in the distance.

Unsure of how the quality of the snow would be immediately below Tokaloo Spire, we opted to cross low on the snow field. This put us in the circumstance of having to go up an extremely loose lava sand/talus field to arrive at the rock band. While this was doable, I would recommend not using the south slope!

Just below the summit block, we found more snow, with a very convenient passage in the bergschrund on the northwest side. This put us on an easy ramp up to the top.

We took a lunch break there, signing the summit register, taking photos and marveling at The Mountain and its surrounding peaks and rivers.

Heading back down, just as we reached the southwest corner below the summit band, a freak weather system came through- icy rain, sideways winds and electricity in the air. We had some group discussion about how to mitigate the situation, with Travis and I making the ultimate decision to get down below the north side of the ridge, heading toward the notch below Tokaloo Spire. This was successful, aided by the mini storm passing just as fast as it had come.

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Retracing to the south side of Andrew Benchmark went much faster, as now we had a better perspective. We crossed over the ridge, again in a notch to begin the descent to St. Andrew’s Lake. A mix of meadow with boot patch, slickrock and lava sand/talus, soon we were down to the trail and back to the Wonderland.

With a few taking a quick opportunity to freshen up in the lake, we were onto Aurora Peak. By this time the temperature and humidity had again increased, making us once again hot and sticky.KIMG1727.JPG

We were expecting a simple boot path up Aurora, based on previous reports- but that soon gave way to a thickly overgrown old trail. Forcing our way through juvenile evergreen trees, veggie belay method for 400 ft was quite an experience as the final scramble in an already full day.

Great easterly views at the summit gave us the payoff. We took a bit of time, photos and snacks, so happy we had all three peaks in our day.

After making a group plan for the return to camp, back down through the trees, the descent being 100 percent easier! Along the Wonderland trail, down the ridge, we all stopped for a final refill of water before camp, freshening up and dinner.

It was a complete day- over 12 hours and over 12 miles, round trip. We had a group that was strong and committed to supporting each other, committed to contributing to our success.

Monday morning, 8:30 AM, packs on, we returned to the Westside road quickly on a cool, overcast day with the views of the previous days now hidden.