Distance: 10.8 mi.
Elevation Gain: 4500 ft.
We actually tried this peak (from another the north trailhead) in November but had to bail due to difficult postholing losing daylight. So we decided to make another go for it as we enter those long days of summer. We reached the trailhead at 9:30 AM and there was one other car.
Early on in the hike there were a handful of small trees to climb over but there weren’t any other downed trees below snow level. The forest down low was pretty enchanting with mossy trees, cascades, and a waterfall. We saw one other pair of hikers at a short rock-hoppable stream crossing, and otherwise we didn’t see any people all day.
The trail essentially went from no snow to continuous snow at about 4400 ft, which was helpful for transitioning. We brought snowshoes because there was some fresh snow earlier in the week but the snow was well-consolidated and we weren’t post-holing. We reached the south ridge of Tatoosh a little after 11 and began to bear right (north).
We went up and downhill a couple times unnecessarily through the trees, but were able to make a pretty straight shot toward the peak. We stayed just below the ridge on the east side and saw several small cornices above but we were safe on the flat slopes below. At about a half mile from the summit we popped up onto the ridge by climbing a section without any cornice above.
Things got a bit dicier when we reached the actual ridge. First we did a short scramble that was dried out and had evidence of a faint climber’s trail, but it was a little sketchy with wet rock and steep slopes on either side. Then we crossed to the west side of the ridge and traversed a short ways before climbing back to the ridge.
From there we stayed on the ridge but had to keep to the left (west) side of several large cornices. We finally reached a flatter and wider part of the ridge for our final ascent to the summit. The snow was pretty firm and slippery in spots and we wished we had our mountaineering boots and aluminum crampons. But it wasn’t actually icy so we made do with hiking boots and ice axes and felt safe enough due to pretty low exposure.
By the time we reached the summit at 2:45 PM it had completely clouded over and was spitting mist at us so we didn’t stay long. We descended the steeper part of the ridge a little farther west than the way we came to avoid all the silly cornice crossing we had done earlier. We met our old tracks and reached the notch in the ridge just to the north of one we had originally gained from the other side. We had lunch here as the surrounding mountains tried to peek back out of the clouds, and then descended directly onto the eastern slope below us rather than repeating the scramble.
The snow was a bit sloppier for our descent but we still weren’t post-holing very much. The snowshoes didn’t get any use. We were able to follow a slightly more direct route to the trail below. The hike out was kind of steep on cranky knees but also pretty quick. We returned to the trailhead at about 6 PM. The only other thing worth noting is that we heard people shooting somewhere below us all day, but we didn’t actually cross paths with any hunters or gun-toting locals.
(Download the free Gaia GPS app on your phone to view tracks and then get a Gaia GPS membership if you want offline access. Discount below!)
Gear Used:
- Aluminum ice axe
- Avalanche beacon/shovel/probe
- Day pack
- Gaiters
- Glacier glasses
- GPS
- Hiking boots
- Snowshoes (We should have brought crampons!)
- Trekking poles
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