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Trip Report    

Tomyhoi Peak/Southeast Route

This was a super fun scramble with picture perfect fall weather! (2 days, party size: 5)

Day 1 (09/12/2015): We met at the Ash Way P&R at 6 AM in Lynnwood. Departed from the Tomyhoi Lake Trail #686 (elev 3700') at 9:30 AM and continued on the Yellow Aster Butte Trail #686.1. We setup camp near the southern end of the tarns at about elevation 5360' where we had grand views of Mt. Shuksan. We departed our camp at 12:30 PM and headed up the boot path toward Tomyhoi peak. The route description on Summit Post was quite adequate, even though none of us had attempted this summit before. We used crampons and ice axes to cross the bullet proof snow/ice (safe runout) to a location where we could gain the ridge crest and cross over to the southwest side. Finding this location involved a bit of trial and error (and about 1.5 hours). We saw several sets of old tracks in the snow but none pointed to a clear solution. The route we ultimately used ascended a rock finger (slabby class 3, fairly clean, easy) from climbers right to left, to a prominent notch in the ridge crest, just left (southeast) of the middle of three gendarmes. Upon reaching the left side of the ridge, we followed boot tread along ledges (class 2) to a notch. The remainder of the route was fairly clean class 3 with moderate exposure. No a'cheval required. We enjoyed the summit from about 5:15 to 5:45 PM and then headed down. We made it back to camp just as a headlamp became necessary for travel.

Day 2 (09/13/2015): Slept in and enjoyed a relaxed breakfast. Clouds had moved in overnight so no views of Shuksan and Baker. On the way out, we dropped packs and tagged the summit of Yellow Aster Butte.

Note: FS Road 3065 is rough but manageable with a normal passenger car if you drive slowly. My Corolla did just fine.