Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

January 24, 2025

1839m

Mt. Rainier National Park, WA

Lane Peak might not boast much topographical significance but is surely one of, if not the most interesting objective in the Tatoosh Range to the immediate south of Mt. Rainier. The peaks in this range are unfortunately overshadowed by the big neighbour, but on the other hand the winding road from Longmire to Paradise provides an easy access even in the winter season. The easiest route on Lane Peak is a mere 3rd class scramble via the SE Face but the north face offers a few classic snow/mixed climbing routes. Back in 2018 I did 4 peaks in the area in June but had on purposely left Lane Peak behind so that I could come back for one of the classic climbs. I was particularly keen on Lover’s Lane simply because of the name but further research led to the conclusion that we would need two 60m ropes for the rappel at the exit. Unfortunately I do not own two 60m ropes and it’s impossible for us to make a purchase at the very last minute, so Erica, Holly and I settled on The Zipper, the easier variation. We dug out a few recent trip reports and concluded the route was already “in”, meaning we wouldn’t be doing any mixed climbing. We still decided to bring one 30 m rope and some basic gears just in case. This decision eventually helped us putting up a variation climb on the upper NE Face. I’m sure this route had seen ascents due to the proximity to the civilization but I could not find any information on the internet nor did we find any existing anchor, so we essentially climbed it as if we were doing a first ascent.

We had been in an unusual drought period for almost 2 weeks and the avalanche conditions had been “green brick” across all forecasted zones, so we wouldn’t be worrying anything about the snow stability. Unfortunately I had done most of the classics in our local region and that’s another reason why we picked Lane Peak that required 5 hours of driving each way. Further research showed that the road from Longmire to Paradise would be closed from 5 pm to 9 am and all day from Tuesday to Thursday. I was not aware of this situation but thankfully the plan was made for a Friday. I was originally planning to camp in the car but we might as well just make a home-to-home push given the late opening hour. The three of us met in my home in Surrey at 4 am and after an exhausting few hours I got us to the park’s entrance at around 9:20 am. The gate was open but we had to pay 30 dollars for entrance. The last few kilometers were icy but imposed no problem to the Corolla, which I had opted to use to save on gas. The national park required all vehicles to carry tire chains so I simply threw the Tacoma’s chains in the trunk just in case they were checking. These chains could not be used, 100%. We were indeed being asked, but were permitted immediately after showing our “understanding” of the rules. The 10 am starting time on the other hand, was too late to complete the climb within the permitted hours, but that’s another topic to worry about later. We all had satellite texting on our phones anyway.

There are two ways to approach Lane Peak in the winter and we opted to take the direct variation by parking at Narada Falls. We soon picked up a set of tracks boot-packing up the open slope to access the Stevens Canyon Road, which was fully snow covered. Minutes after that I strapped the snowshoes on as I was constantly making some post-holes. Despite the drought the snowpack was surprisingly punchy, but we knew from the previous party that it’s better to not leave the snowshoes behind. Holly and Erica opted to continue on foot as most people don’t like snowshoes as much as I do, but they struggled on the slippery descent down into the Tatoosh Creek drainage. We lost more than 100 vertical meters in this stage which was bigger than I thought. Finding a suitable way to cross the creek was also not that straightforward. I opted for a sketchy log crossing which was basically a gigantic cornice, but Holly and Erica found a better way after some substantial amount of backtracking. We rejoined shortly after and picked up the set of tracks towards the base of Lane Peak’s north face. At this point we were all on snowshoes. We traversed past the entrance of Lover’s Lane and kept the snowshoes on for as high as possible towards the Zipper. At this point we saw two climbers ahead moving steadily. Erica went ahead and I had to be on my best mode to keep up with the pace, and we were slowly closing the gap, but Holly was behind and we still needed to swap the snowshoes for crampons. Erica and I went too high and were forced to make a sketchy and awkward transition, so the idea of catching up to the two climbers faded. These guys turned out to be experienced mountaineers and one of them had climbed at least two of the WA’s “Difficult Ten”.

It took some very long time for everyone to don crampons and by this point the other team was at least 2/3 of the way up the route. Asides fallen ice there was no other hazard. The lower gully of The Zipper was quite icy and we gingerly made our way front-pointing the middle of the runnel, but the climbing was short lived. About 1/3 of the way up we were able to pick up the existing set of tracks and further up the grade even eased to below 40 degrees. The two ice tools were basically only needed for the gully’s lower constraint. After passing Lover’s Lane’s rappel we noticed a steeper gully to the right heading up the NE Face and probably because of the lack of climbing in The Zipper we made the spontaneous decision to try this variation climb. We could always bail and go up the standard finish if the climbing was too involved. There was some wallowing involved as the snow was facetted due to the prolonged period of dry, cold weather and the grade gradually steepened to about 50 degrees. I continued up soloing a pitch of easy mixed climbing while trailing up the rope. The climbing was harder than appeared and some exhausting trenching was needed. I then used a bomber tree to belay Holly and Erica up and we decided to properly pitch out from this point.

There appeared to have a full pitch (using 30 m rope) of mixed terrain of steep snow, rock steps and evergreens whereas the far climber’s right might offer an easier, all-on-snow variation. The snow was very sugary and unsupportive so I thought anything steeper than 50 degrees would involve some heavy duty trenching, so it might be more fun to take the direct route up and to the climber’s left. The rock step in the middle turned out to be too difficult for me to lead due to the lack of upper body strength but I managed to make a step out to the left while holding onto a dead, horizontally placed tree. I had no idea how reliable that tree was, but it did not move with me stepping on it. There was more 60-degree wallowing and meanwhile I dug out some buried roots and belayed Holly and Erica up. The third pitch was the shortest one, but was definitely the mental crux as I must trench my way across a 60+ degree traverse to the climber’s right and this traverse involved a few questionable moves. Thankfully I was able to find a bomber tree for belaying. I thought we’d be home free but there was another pitch of wallowing on shallow, facetted snow overtop rocks and small trees that took me forever to lead. My gloves had already turned into frozen chucks and I did not bring a spare pair (as the original plan was just The Zipper). I had to frequently warm up my hands and the progress was painfully slow. We then joined the tracks made by the previous party that had also climbed a variation route to the standard SE Face finish, and traversed two more pitches of knife-edge snow aretes to the true summit. We had about an hour of daylight time left and it was clear that we’d miss the 5 pm gate hour. Erica and Holly were able to catch some cell receptions to make some calls, whereas I never had US reception and stayed focused on the tasks ahead.

The decision was made to rappel and down-climb the standard SE Face route. It wouldn’t need all three of us to set up the rappel so while I down-climbed to the station I made Erica to research about the gate. The former was successful but the latter was not, so we would have to figure things out in situ, and I was already mentally prepared having to spend a night in the cold without sleeping bags. The SE Face wouldn’t be too difficult to down-climb but I was already exhausted, and I appreciated being able to shorten the route by 15 m. I otherwise would have set up a single strand, 30 m rappel for the ladies and down-climb the route myself afterwards. The sun was setting as Erica finished her turn of down-climbing, and we then had a leisurely but efficient return back to the vehicle, roughly taking the standard exit route from Lane/Denman col. The previous party had made some deep post-holes but we had snowshoes so utilized them to reduce the amount of suffering. It might seem like a long ass day but our round trip time was only 8.5 hours. We did get locked behind the gate but we were able to get out without additional cost, but do not ask me how we managed that. Holly and I then took turn driving and we eventually got back at 2 am, concluding the 22 hours home-to-home push.