Trip Report
Basic Glacier Climb - Little Tahoma/East Shoulder
Great two day climb. Left trail head around 11am and set up camp at 7550' around 5pm. Woke up at 2am, walking at 3am, summit at 11:30am. Back to cars about 8:30pm. High winds most of the time. Snow from parking lot with some dry patches. Melting fast. Steeper sections in good shape with great plunge stepping on the way down.
Scott Shafer
- Fri, Jun 2, 2017 — Sat, Jun 3, 2017
- Basic Glacier Climb - RETIRED - Little Tahoma/East Shoulder
- Little Tahoma/East Shoulder
- Climbing
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Trail is 80% snow covered but melting fast. Lots of hazards from snow bridges melting out. Several close calls on the way down with people breaking through the snow. Upper mountain still lots of snow which made for lots of glissading from camp down to Summer Land.
No major problems. Lots of wind at camp, 7550' with decent shelter. Fryingpan glacier in good shape. We did see some recent cornice fall activity on the way to the first notch. Found first notch with no problem and getting over it was easy. Once on the Whitman glacier we had some rock fall issues from the cliffs above as we traversed. One rock hit one member in the chest. About the size of a baseball, luckily hit backpack straps and he was ok. This is a good area to move fast. Once we rounded the corner to get on steep snow we felt better. The path to the second notch was in decent shape. Some crevasse were opening up but very easy to see and stay away from. The second notch is the obvious end of the snow on the left. Follow the ski tracks. Scrambled up the rock with crampons then a short steep snow slope to the base of the summit area. Several people called it there and 4 of us scrambled un-roped to the true summit to sign the register. Coming down was slow with new students but the plunge stepping was great.
