Since Goldman's Standard Route to Mount Wow (6030') appeared long and indirect (75 Scrambles in Washington, Peggy Goldman, 2001), Barb and I decided to take the Alternate Route. This is the route described in the Cascade Alpine Guide (Fred Beckey, 1977). Unable to find the trail to Lake Allen (4577'), we parked 0.2 miles south of the creek draining Lake Allen and headed up slope on intermittent faint game trails. Travel was pleasant through 60 year old Western Hemlock with little brush and only one short detour to avoid a cliff.
From Lake Allen, we climbed a long snowfield partially covered by avalanche debris to 5400'. Leaving the snowfield, we ascended westward across a steep hillside covered with wildflowers. Again, no trail was apparent. This image was taken at about 5500' looking west toward pt. 5727' (right). 1 PM.
The view from the summit of Mt. Rainier (14410') was unobstructed and included the entire Tahoma Glacier and the Tahoma Creek Valley. For some reason, I didn't take a picture from the summit before clouds closed in. The mile wide Tahoma Glacier flows down and to the left from Point Success (14158', center). To the left of the Tahoma Glacier and behind the top of the single tree is Sunset Amphitheater. Between Sunset Amphitheater and the Tahoma Glacier is St. Andrews Rock (11600').
Hourglass shaped Lake Allen is still surrounded by snow despite its 4577' elevation.
Barb looks at something interesting; or perhaps she is merely waiting patiently for me to catch up. This and the two previous images are from about 40' below the summit at 1:15 PM.
Our fastest hour ascent (descent) rates were 1260 ft/hr (-1780 ft/hr) at 10:30 AM (4 PM). These data were logged by an altimeter watch.
Although travel was mostly easy, routefinding straightforward, and brush minimal, we found only intermittent game trails to Lake Allen and no trails above. We suspect that the old fishing trail has become overgrown and difficult or impossible to follow. This coupled with the route error discovered earlier on Labyrinth Mountain leads us to believe that 75 Scrambles in Washington may have been compiled primarily from other sources and not recently verified.
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Date created: 2002.07.20
Last modified: 2002.07.20
Copyright © 2002, Walter A. Siegmund
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