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Trip Report    

Basic Rock Climb - The Tooth/South Face

Great day to climb the Tooth with the whole route in good shape.

Paul Brown Paul Brown
June 01, 2019
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • Temperatures in the mid-50s at the car.  The summer trail was snow-free up to Source Lake.  From there, the snow was mostly continuous and kickable with an established boot pack all the way up to the Pineapple and an easy creek crossing on snow that may or may not last many more days.

    There were a few instances of post-holing by different members of the party with one short slide where the climber quickly self-arrested.  A few more warm days will mean much thinner snow cover on the approach.

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    Getting around the Pineapple and the scramble up to the notch were straightforward, and all of the climbers negotiated the transitions from snow to rock and vice versa easily.

    The climb itself is in snow-free with good tat and rings at all rap stations.

    We descended by down-scrambling from the notch and reversing our path.  Past the Pineapple, the snow was perfect for plunge-stepping.

     

The team, weather, and route conditions made for a glorious day out.  We started out at 7AM with one other car in the parking lot and completed the climb in just under 10 hours car-to-car (~5.5h moving time).  We encountered a guide and her client on their way down (they were setting up to rap from the bottom of the scramble pitch at the same time as our first team arrived there)

Combined the first two pitches on a 70m rope without too much rope drag; placed #0.5 Camalot, #13 (red) BD nut, #4 Camalot, slung a constriction, and clipped the first pitch rap anchor.  Built a gear anchor rather than belaying from the rap anchor to avoid crowding the guide and her client.  Scrambled the slightly spicier climber's left side of the third pitch.  Placed #0.5 Camalot, #0.75 Camalot and clipped the two side-by-side fixed cams on a direct route up the fourth pitch.

Dan Weaver brought up a pineapple and carved it up on the summit for a group snack.

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On the descent, some of students didn't feel fully comfortable down-scrambling the third pitch, so we rigged a rappel for that pitch and then  a double rope rappel from the tree bottom of the scramble pitch with a 60m+70m.  The rope ends reached the base of of the climb with a few meters to spare, and pulling the ropes from a couple of paces back kept the knots above the rock almost all the way down.

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Here's a Strava track for the trip.