Basic Alpine Climb - Unicorn Peak

Trip Report

Our group of six left the Bench and Snow Lake trailhead at 8am. The parking lot was nearly full by this time, mostly with vehicles with Oregon plates (the Mazamas also had groups going for Unicorn Peak). Just past the trailhead, avalanche lilies were in full bloom.

After passing Snow Lake, we got a glimpse of a large party heading up the lower of the two gullies. We crossed some talus at the bottom of the lower gully, then put on crampons as the snow was too firm to kick steps.

Despite a forecast for cooler weather, we started baking in the sun once we topped out of the lower gully and the heat slowed us down a little going up the upper gully. Luckily, a cute marmot kept our spirits up as we slugged on through the bowl.

We reached the Unicorn-West Unicorn saddle as the group ahead of us was finishing getting up the class 4 notch, which they protected. Our group soloed this section, with some people scrambling with crampons on (there were great hand and foot holds). Once up the class 4 notch, the remaining hike to the summit block was mostly snow covered but we followed a well-defined bootpath on bare ground briefly. 

The summit block was very busy! Most parties were climbing the Open Book (5.0) or the East Side scramble route. We had planned to climb the Classic Route (5.4 on Mountain Project but 5.6 on SummitPost) and luckily it was open. I led the route first and brought up two followers, setting up a belay on a huge horn to the lower [climber’s] left of the rappel station. I had wanted to belay from the rappel station or a horn near it, but there were parties descending. While this lower belay provided more clearance from those descending, the drawback was that there was about 10 feet of class 3 scrambling remaining to the summit but the climbers following me were comfortable scrambling to the top and untying there. This route felt about 5.4 but that is only for a short section. I wore rock shoes, but I’d personally be comfortable leading in approach shoes or following in mountain boots; a stronger climber than me could lead in mountain boots. I placed three cams on route (0.5, 0.75, and a black totem) and skipped the fixed pin.

Our first rope team of three topped out on Unicorn Peak at noon. Neal led the same route next, but set up an anchor from a horn closer to the rappel station and belayed up the rest of our group. Note references to using the “old bleached snag” are not current (it is dead and sketchy); the rappel station is now a huge rock horn to the south side of the summit block.

We spent over an hour on Unicorn’s summit, enjoying the views while waiting in line for the rappel as multiple other parties descended. Ambrose brought a new PVC tube summit register (thanks Ambrose!), and we were the first ones to sign it. Once it was our turn to use the rappel station, we fixed each strand of the rope to allow for an expedient single strand rappel setup with multiple climbers setting up at the same time.

Despite being so sunny and warm, the snow was still firm on our descent and not very plunge step-able. We did a short glissade down to the notch and waited as another party rappelled the notch. Our group downclimbed the notch and most face-in downclimbed the steeper snow section. After that, we got in several speedy glissades before putting on crampons to descend the lower gully, which was shaded so the snow was still firm - and the runout on talus prevented a safe glissade.

Overall, this trip took us just over 8 hours car-to-car. It provided a good opportunity to ease into alpine climbing with a mix of steeper snow, loose dirt/rock, talus, 4th class scrambling, a short 5.4 climb, one rappel, glissading, and views of Tahoma (Mount Rainier).

Map