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Trip Report    

Lane Peak/Zipper (winter)

Did the Zipper on 2/10/2016. Mild rainfall on the approach. Avalanche forecast was LOW and snow was mostly consolidated, wet and slushy. However, signs of recent avalanche activity everywhere, both on the approach, in the gully and on the back side (south facing).

We roped up at the request of one student, on a private climb I would have gone unroped. Did running belays up the gully protecting with pickets, unroped on top of the shoulder before scrambling up to the summit. We discussed whether everybody would be ok to downclimb from the summit, all said yes, and so we dropped our packs including ropes before heading up. However, one student felt sketched out on the scramble up and turned around, I accompanied him back down and let him use my second ice tool (he had left his 2nd tool with the packs). The other two students reached the summit and downclimbed back to the packs without difficulty. Next time I would bring a rope to the summit just in case.

Lunch at the saddle around 2:30pm, back at the car around 4:20pm. A bit slower than expected.