Lane Peak - Lovers Lane 2.11.12

Another weekend, another opportunity to climb something! After our adventure around Snow Lake, Aaron was ready for another climb. He suggested Lane Peak in the Tatoosh Range. A few friends climbed it the weekend before and we heard there was a lot of snow on the route. Initially Aaron had suggested doing the zipper, but after the conditions report we got, he changed his mind to Lovers Lane. It’s the steepest of the three routes on the north face of Lane Peak and the only one he hadn’t climbed yet. Matt and Kevin joined us as the second team. What a great Valentine’s climb! Lane Peak has a relatively short approach, always a bonus. The gate to Paradise was open when we arrived and we were soon gearing up in the little hut near Narada Falls. Bonus for doing all of that in relative warmth! We saw lots of familiar faces that morning. Eric and Emily were headed up to Paradise to skin up towards Muir. Luke, Jason, and another friend were there as well, planning to ski the Zipper.

Putting snowshoes on once we hit the road

There were a couple other groups starting when we did. We joined the train heading up the steps from Narada Falls to reach Stevens Canyon road. Once on the road we put our snowshoes on and continued just a little further before heading down the hillside towards Lane Peak.

Heading down from the road into the trees

The guys were skiing just in front of us and the snow sounded – interesting. We followed their path through the trees and soon had Denman in view, with Lane Peak just around the corner of trees. The sun tried poking out on our drive down from Seattle but the clouds rolled in to stay. The approach was great and we got a good view of the routes up Lane.

Denman and Lane Peak in view

We broke off from the ski crew and started heading up toward the start of Lovers Lane with Matt leading the way. The snow was pretty nice and was great for punching in with our snowshoes. After some nice steep snow on the approach, we were warmed up and ready to take on Lovers Lane.

Matt heading up to the start of Lovers Lane

Start of Lovers Lane

Aaron talked me into leading. I was a bit nervous while gearing up but after a few tips from him, I headed out. The first section was painstakingly slow. I slowly crept up, wallowing through the snow. Not far from our start was a steep section. Much to my surprise, it was an ice step. It was a mix of ice and nice Styrofoam snow. I placed a nut in the rock on the left and started up the step. The ice made my lead a little more real, but I made it. After topping out on the step I saw a tree up and to the left along the gully so I headed for that to protect the step for Aaron. My favorite type of pro – slinging trees. After that the gully was pretty open so I just kept trudging uphill like a step kicking machine – or not. I placed one picket in the middle. Aaron was more than comfortable and I was OK so I didn’t look to place much gear through that section. Up ahead we could see another ice step. There was a large boulder and the only way around was an ice step to the right. I placed my second picket at the base of the boulder and started up. This ice step was a bit more legit. I had to swing a few times before I felt comfortable in my tool placements, but I slowly worked my way up. It was back to steep snow after that so I headed up the gully examining the rock on the left, looking for gear placements. I finally found one just as Aaron had reached the picket. I placed a nut to protect the ice step and continued up. I was almost to the top of Lovers Lane.

I crested the route, passing a couple of trees, and made my way over to the tree with slings on it. The slope to the tree was a bit exposed as it gave way to the gully below – also known as the Zipper. I slung the tree, anchored in, and brought Aaron over. After examining the two slings on the tree, we decided to add my single. After some difficulty with knots manifesting in the rope, we got the rappel set up and Aaron went down first.

Kevin rappelling from the top of Lovers Lane down into the Zipper

We just reached the bottom with our single rope, thanks to a few steps down in the snow. It was an interesting experience rappelling down a snow and ice covered rock face in my crampons. I made it to the bottom and we waited for Kevin and Matt to follow right behind us. Luke and company had kicked some great steps up the Zipper for us to follow so we ascended that last little bit to the top of the route, with the last push to the summit in sight.

Final ridge to the summit

We dropped our packs and took off the crampons and climbing gear. Grabbing an ax we made our way up the nice steps to the summit. The clouds were still socked in so after a group picture we headed back to our packs.

Summit shot of the group

We had a quick lunch, just enough time for Ian and Brandon to top out. Unknowingly, they had been following us up Lovers Lane. Instead of tagging the summit they headed down with us. The snow was pretty soft and we were post holing a lot. The guys did a bunch of glissades as I plunge stepped my way down. We were finally to the snowshoe track we had taken in so we put our snowshoes back on and headed for the cars. The final slope up a few hundred feet to the road is not fun but was not as bad as I expected. We reached the road and it was a short walk back to Narada Falls from there. We stopped at Brunos in Eatonville for some dinner on our way home. It was a great day - I got to lead my first steep snow climb, complete with a couple small ice steps!

View Lane Peak 2.11.12 in a larger map Map for this adventure

Tatoosh Range near Mt Rainier, home of Lane Peak

Our hike up Lovers Lane on Lane Peak

GPS went a little crazy during the steep snow part