
Trip Report
Amazing Early Season Ascent of the The Tooth
Snow conditions appeared to be worse than what they actually were. Best climb all year
- Sat, Jun 22, 2024
- Basic Rock Climb - The Tooth/South Face
- The Tooth/South Face
- Climbing
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Conditions looked sketchy, however actual snow conditions were simply amazing overall. Dont judge the snow by the looks, kick a couple of steps before applying judgment.
Snow free on the summer route until you drop down at the scree field to gain the climbers trail to the basin. A foot or two of snow until you start the ascent to the basin. Heavy and steep snow up the gully to the basin required crampons due to icy conditions. Not necessary however for basic students it was a nice addition. Snow in the basin is heavy, the "watering hole" at 4,500 is completely snow covered. Water can be found at climbers right on the approach through running water.
Snow was nearly to the top of pineapple pass to the last 10 feet. Easy to make kick stepping, again crampons, ice axes and helmets a nice addition for basic students. Backside of pineapple pass was snow free until the very bottom of the scramble portion of the Tooth. No issues traversing around, super easy in fact.
Climbing route is in tip top shape with no issues.
Got to the Alpental parking lot at 6:00AM to gear up, confirm rope teams, hand out radios and verbally go over the plan for the day. We were immediately greeted by the worse mosquito storm (bad thing) in the world that caused us to quickly move out to our destination after a few minutes (good thing.) Taking a casual approach we hit the top of the scree field by 7:15, took a quick break and descended to the path below. Passing right below the waterfalls we encountered steep snow that would take us to the top of the gully. We opted to put on crampons, ice axes and helmets (remember folks any combination of crampons or use of ice axes requires also putting on helmets)
We ascended half way up the gully, then had to drop and traverse into the creek bed, then back on snow for the final few hundred feet to the top of the gully. Snow conditions early were great and made for kick stepping just a joy. The ice axe+crampon+helmets choice for this section was more for low probability, but high consequence of sliding further down and hitting trees. (I mean after all who would want to retrace those steps after sliding anyway.?)
Getting to the basin was super easy. Again I cant stress this enough, the snow conditions looked like we were in for a fight, but were nice, firm and soft that we were all blown away how good we had it.
Top of the basin we found a ton of snow for this time of year. The only water to be found was running along some rocks at the right side of the basin, listen for the water and you'll find it. I wouldnt be surprised if this area doesnt melt out anytime soon.
Continuing on we hit the slope for pineapple pass, kicking solid steps, walking in balance and plunging our ice axes in with each step made the approach very easy. At no point did myself or anyone in our group feel like it was sketchy. Unlike looking at it from the bottom it appeared to be a sheet of ice. Again the snow was deceiving. At the top of pineapple pass, another quick break and dropping of some hiking poles and other unnecessary equipment meant that we would have to traverse back around to collect this as opposed to doing the double rope rappel at the base of the tooth. Conditions around the backside of pineapple pass were great, we did encounter some slight snow at the base of the scramble portion, but were overall uneventful (yeah!!!!!)
We all scrambled to the base of the tooth. Students would comment this section felt the most sketchy and as a result we would setup a handline to help ease the anxiety and high consequence if a fall were to come on this slippy rock coming down.
I setup a ground anchor, two took students to climb as a party of three, re-confirmed our plan for the climb and set off as the first party on this route of the day. starting around 8:40AM. I had opted to split pitch one into two sections to help get the group started. In hindsight I should have just did it in a single pitch as I only place three pieces of gear about 10 feet apart between the ledge and bottom of pitch 2. Pitch 2 itself was fun an uneventful. Although you'll see me in the videos below that I probably over protected this pitch, I did this more for protecting my followers than anything else. (the last time I climbed the tooth I ran out sections that in hindsight I shouldnt have for my followers sake as sometimes its not about protecting you as much as protecting your follower incase a slip happens.) Up and up we went, climbing and rock conditions were the best we ever seen, and once we got over the nervousness of climbing we all rocked it. I think we were averaging 30 minutes per pitch with two followers. Our team did great!
At the very top I decided to sling the top most rock and build an BHD knot to bring up my followers. Since this was the final pitch, it enabled me to both be tied into the anchor I built, while building a comfortable master point to belay my second climbers. Note this only will work if this is the final pitch as it locks the leaders in place.
Something I did notice is that the cord that Rob installed at the start the 2023 climbing season have either been replaced, or had faded from yellow to red. I think the fading of the colors is the likely case, and all portions were still solid and trust this gear with the exception of one.
The black and red runners at the top of pitch three were the same ones I installed last year. The wrap ring is without blemish. I added some yellow accessory cord to back it up, still I would feel comfortable if someone were to replace this lot sometime this year.
Anyway starting our rappels, I had Peter lead the rappels down, he would take all three ropes and would create rappels at the top of pitch 4, pitch 3 and finally down to pitch 2. As we would finish up each rappel we would send the rope down to be installed later. Peter would be at the front, I would bring up the rear and we would have students check each other in between. By now there was quite a few parties on the climb that required us to take our time getting through pitch 2 where it created a bottle neck. Fun conversations and meeting new friends were to be had as we shared these ledges for parties passing up and down the route.
At the base of the climb, we setup a handline for the movement down to the base, traversed pineapple pass and started our descent. In this section descending from pineapple pass we found the snow still rock solid, opting for some nervousness' plunge stepping. Several of us opted (without crampons on) to downclimb the first 100 feet or so. This enabled us to get to a section of snow that was optional for glissading without impacting rocks, which a couple of us did which was another highlight of the day. Well except for the ripped pants that I suffered but that was a me problem and totally worth it.
Descending even further in the gully that we came up, the first half that was in the sun was amazing and kick stepping was a dream. Still we hit another section that was covered in ice and we opted to add crampons for that added safety to ensure we weren't going to slip and ride into a tree (bad thing.) This made a huge difference for all of us and let us safely get down. Finally back on solid ground we made short work of the hike out.
Overall this marked my third mentored lead and second of the tooth. We had an amazing team with amazing conditions all day long. Defiantly one of the highlights of my summer. 10/10 would recommend again.
Climbing Videos shot using an Insta360 x4 Camera
- Rock Climb The Tooth South Face - Pitch 1 - 06/22/2024
- Rock Climb The Tooth South Face - Pitch 1.5 - 06/22/2024
- Rock Climb The Tooth South Face - Pitch 2 - 06/22/2024
- Rock Climb The Tooth South Face - Pitch 3 - 06/22/2024
- Timeline
- Total ascent (car to base of climb) = 2 Hours
- Climbing Time = 3 hours
- Total decent (summit to car) = 5 hours
- Total time 12 hours 22 minutes.