The Tooth/Indentured Servant

The trailhead was busy at 9am when we arrived but we managed to grab one of the few parking spots open. 

We underestimated the approach, thinking it’d be an easy hike up the Snow Lake trail and some clambering on talus. The talus and rock hopping went on for much longer than I was expecting and we lost the trail a few times. There were a few small trickles of running water between when we left the Source Lake Trail and when we crossed the rock gully to get into the trees. It ended up taking us about 2.5 hours to get to the base of Tooth Fairy. 

There were 3 more parties ahead of us waiting for Tooth Fairy, and the second party had already been waiting for 1.5 hour. It was nearing noon at this point and we worried whether we’d make it back by evening if we waited for the route, so instead we scouted around for another route and found Indentured Servant. There was one party already on it and they confirmed that it was the route they were on. 

Indentured Servant can be found on the other side of The Tooth. From Tooth Fairy, continue down the trail eventually wrapping around the wall on climber’s right, and past a huge gully that cleaves the rock in half. The route is directly left of this, and one can easily see a shiny new bolt quite low on the first pitch. 

I lost count of how many draws each pitch needed but we had 14 and never came close to running out. Some of the bolts were also bolted very close together, like in a climbing gym, so we opted not to clip a few bolts on ledges or low on the route that didn’t seem like they’d add to our safety. 

I led P1 (5.9/10a) which was a straightforward cruiser besides a big step out to the right in the first half of the pitch.

My partner was able to link the second and third pitches (5.8) without much rope drag. We opted not to link the other pitches since they went over sharp rock and bulges that would add a lot of friction, but it may have been doable. 

The v notch (10b) on the crux pitch (P4) was not bad at all, and very well protected. I led this pitch and felt pretty safe the whole time. 

P5 was supposedly 5.9 face moves but the rock was so well featured that there were plenty of little ledges.

We decided to rappel down from the P5 anchor. Each anchor had two bolts and rappel rings, and a few also had chains. I think we ended up doing 4 rappels back to the ground. Final rappel goes into the gully full of loose rock. Recommend waiting for the party below you to get out of the gully before descending. I kicked down a few small rocks but fortunately the party below us had moved. We also luckily moved before the party above is knocked down some big rocks. 

The trail seemed easier to find on the descent than on the way up. Golden hour was really beautiful today—some of the fall colors are coming out and the sun really accentuates them. 

Might have to come back another time to climb Tooth Fairy, but even if we don’t, I’m pretty happy with the route we did today.