Alpine Scramble - Tamanos-Banshee Traverse

This was one of my all-time favorite scrambles!
Fantastic route, fantastic weather.

Based on almost non-existent trip reports for this traverse I am assuming that this traverse is rarely done and I can only imagine that it’s because it requires a longer day with a decent chunk of elevation gain.

These are pretty much the only “downsides” if at all. Besides that this route has everything you could ever wish for in a scramble: a bushwhack-free approach on trail, a well-established climber’s trail, an overly friendly marmot, some T3 scrambling on solid rock, a traverse on meadows and snowfields, an ascent on a dying glacier, crossing a snow bridge with a roaring creek underneath, and instead of going back the way you came, a loop completion via the beautiful Summerland area.

The routes to Tamanos Mountain and Banshee Peak independently are well-travelled and documented in plenty of other trip reports, thus I’ll focus this one on the traverse aspect to get from Tamanos to Banshee. After getting to the top of Tamanos (using the standard route instead of the more technical Northern aspect) we were unsure if this traverse would work out at all. You can see Banshee Peak and the Sarvant Glacier in front of it plus most of the traverse territory from the summit and it looks intense! Lots of steep-looking snow with cliffs sprinkled here or there. The last section where you would ascend the glacier to a saddle W of Banshee is hidden by another minor peak in front of it.

But we would not turn around without at least giving it a shot. Thus we backtracked to the saddle at 6200 first and continued down on the climber’s trail until about 5900 where the meadow flattens a bit. From there we started our traverse by sidehilling on the meadow in SW direction for a while towards the notch at 6000 that separates two bumps in the ridge line. There’s no trail here in general but you will find a surprisingly well-established short use trail (created by mountain goats!? Who knows…) that goes straight up to the notch. Once there we spotted the first snowfield in front of us. It had a mellow angle with good runout - yay!

Everyone changed into mountaineering boots (some were using approach shoes till now) and had either ice axe or hiking poles for additional support. The snow was in perfect condition: firm enough to avoid any postholing but not too firm to require unpleasant sidehilling. After the snowfield we had to get down a steepish heather-covered slope (there was again some use trail here. MORE GOATS!) to reach the next snowfield. Again travel was quick at a gentle grade without any runout concerns. Whenever we looked back at Tamanos we couldn’t believe how straightforward this traverse was so far.

Once we got close to the base of the Sarvant Glacier there was scree poking through the snow here and there and we were glad to have done this traverse in the current snowy conditions compared to doing all this on dusty scree. There was a bubbly creek from the glacier poking through and we took the opportunity to filter water; this was the first water source since passing Owyhigh Lakes on the approach. The work till now was generally elevation maintenance; now the real work to get up to Banshee started. We moved up over a bump of snow and scree to get onto the Sarvant proper. There was a small puddle of glacier melt forming at its base with the sheer walls on Banshee looming in the back. At this point we could spot the obvious way up the glacier, ascending a gentle grade that ends at a notch between Banshee and the ridge towards the Cowlitz Chimneys. Some used ice axes here but again the grade was gentle enough that this was fine to travel with hiking poles.

The last push towards Banshee from the notch involved some rock scrambling shenanigans behind a moat (that could have been avoided by taking a curved route towards the adjacent snowfield instead) and then ascending some grassy but also dusty slopes.

The only thing I will note about the descent all the way to the Summerland trailhead is that right after reach Panhandle Gap there is a very short section of steep snow where an ice axe was needed. The runout wasn’t bad here and the track in the snow was well established already to reduce the risk of sliding but it was the steepest snow angle that we encountered all day. The rest of the way was uneventful but scenic. Since we haven’t seen this route on the way in, I was in excellent spirits (typically I get a bit grumpy on descents as stuff starts to hurt and because I know the path already). Back at the trailhead in slightly under 12 hours!