Little Tahoma Climb 6 and 7 AUG 11 - 11,138 Feet

A group from the Washington Alpine Club climbed Little Tahoma over the 6/7 AUG 11 weekend, using the Fryingpan Creek trailhead route to Meany Crest. We had clear skies and very warm temperatures. We saw no other climbing parties in the area. Only saw one other camper near Meany. Our approach to Meany Crest took about 4 hours. You really have to want to get to Meany Crest, but there is a good amount of snow to travel on. Some of the rock areas leading up to the Meany Crest have pretty good climber paths in them. We melted water and found running water within 2-3 minutes walk of the campsite at Meany Crest on some of the nearby rocky areas. We had great views of course and it was interesting to watch the trail going over to Pan Handle Gap. A most excellent night ski of stars and the galaxy. Very interesting to watch teams of climbers moving up the Disappointment Cleaver and Emmons Climbing Routes on Mount Rainier.


We departed camp just after 6AM and we summited around 1PM. It is a long walk across Fryingpan Glacier to the Whitman Crest. Uneventful and some just opening up crevasses were easy to avoid. Whitman Crest easy to get over and rest at. From Whitman Crest we traversed onto Whitman Glacier and then up! Negotiated two crevasse areas and then started the haul up the loose rock to the false summit area. You can weave around the crevasses there and the nearby rock fall staying climbers right going up. The scrambles through the gap at the top of the snow went well, but take it careful to avoid triggering rock fall. We had no issues. One intrepid climber and a hand line later and we were all able to make it to the true summit. We noticed the reddish rock at hand level on the short traverse below the true summit to be hollow, so just touch that carefully and let the solid footing take you across. Some of us down climbed the snow a bit and others did well plunge stepping down the top third of the Whitman Glacier and all of us plunge stepped the remaining two thirds back to the low traverse across the Whitman to Whitman Crest. Back at the cars at 8PM only to find both of them broken into. Hide your stuff!

This is my number 14 on Washington's Highest.

7300 feet of elevation and how many miles, I think 14.

Gear used:
Helmet
Ice Ax
Glacier rig
Anchors and hand line
Crampons
8mm glacier rope
Correlate
Several double slings

www.summitpost.org/little-tahoma/151666