Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Tamanos Mountain
Eight Olympia and one Tacoma student completed their rock scramble on a beautiful summer day (with spring like snow conditions)
Paul Kallmann
- Sun, Jul 10, 2022
- Alpine Scramble - Tamanos Mountain
- Tamanos Mountain, Governors Ridge, Barrier Peak & Buell Peak
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Parked at Owyhigh Trailhead
Intermittent snow on the trail from Tamanos Creek Camp to the lake with some blow down. A majority of the scramble from the Owyhigh/Deer Creek trail to the ridge line was in soft snow. The ridge line is free of snow. Easy rock scramble the rest of the way.
Group of 11 - 8 Olympia students, 1 Tacoma student, an assistant leader and myself. We met in Enumclaw at 7am and drove to the Owyhigh Trailhead. We were on the trail at 8:30. We hit some snow on the trail prior to reaching Tamanos Creek Camp and had intermittent snow and some blow down up to the lake.
We took a break at the lake to enjoy views of Governor's Ridge and Barrier Peaks and early season wildflowers in the meadows.
We continued up the Owyhigh trail and then turned south to obtain the Tamanos/Cowlitz Chimneys ridge line. Out east facing slope was mostly snow covered, but the snow was soft and we had no issues kick stepping our way up. Once at the ridge, we turned north and followed the ridge line until we got to the peak itself. We signed the climbing register and took our obligatory summit photos before heading back the way we came.
Despite the soft snow, we were still able to have some nice glissades. We found our way back to the trail and then headed back to the car. Our car to car time was 8.5 hours. We enjoyed our brownie treats and then drove home.
Our students felt accomplished and overall it was a good day.
Be aware that we still have a lot of snow above 5,000 feet in Mt. Rainier - not quite time to put those mountaineering boots and ice axes away just yet.