Trip Report
Experience Field Trip - Teanaway Peak
Teanaway Peak is one of many outstanding viewpoints in the area, but in a low snow year it may not be an ideal peak for a field trip.
Fritz Klein
- Sat, Jun 1, 2019
- Experience Field Trip - Teanaway Peak
- Iron & Teanaway Peaks
- Scrambling
- Successful
- Road suitable for all vehicles
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On June 1, 2019, there was almost no snow on the route except for one patch with no runout a couple hundred feet below the summit. We took a side trip over toward Iron Peak to find a place to do self-arrest practice and glissading, but it was marginal for the purpose. There is a lot of loose rock, and managing a large group to keep everyone out of harm's way took a lot of time.
We hiked up the Iron Peak trail to the saddle, then headed south toward Iron Peak to do our self-arrest practice and evaluation. A few mistakes were made, but everyone was able to do all versions of arrest correctly by the 2nd try. We then climbed Teanaway, angling to the right of the south ridge. We didn't find the best route for a short section near the beginning, but found a better way on the way down. However, on the descent, there was one narrow gully that could only be safely done one person at a time, and this took enough time that we never had time to do any crampon practice. The students got a lot more experience with loose rock and exposure than some of them were expecting, but they all handled it well.
Teanaway may be a reasonable choice for future field trips if there is more snow and if the group is kept to a more managable size (we had 3 instructors and 7 students; 2 and 4 would work much better due to all the loose rock).