Alpine Adventures

A short distance from the trailhead on a pristine day, Chris and I turn around for a magnificent view of Mt. Rainier's southern slopes, to Camp Muir and Little Tahoma.

Just before the Pinnacle-Plummer saddle, along the trail, we encounter one of the mountain's permanent residents.

At the saddle, 12,000-foot Mt. Adams looms over the southern landscape.

Skirting past Pinnacle Peak, we follow the path leading to Castle Peak.

A short scramble past Castle Peak and up a small gully, we arrive at the beginning of the scramble route to Castle. Here, we could traverse leftward along the base to the summit.

However, we decide to continue onto Unicorn Peak, in the distance. In the foreground is Foss Peak, a minor summit.

Looking back toward Castle at the scramble route. We hiked via the right of the tall tree in the middle.

From Castle, we essentially followed the path of least resistance to Foss Peak. Feeling like we were in the "Sound of Music" with the abundance of wildflowers all around.

Another view of Castle.

The wildflowers! I couldn't believe how many there were, and the colors! These were over knee deep and covered the hillside.

From Castle, we descended a while until coming to a dried up low area, then began another climb up the slopes to Foss Peak. Most of the travel was on loose rock and uneven grassy clumps.

Chris looks back and the route. At this point, we've traveled about 2-1/2 miles. Unicorn Peak is still a ways off.

In the middle of the picture, you can see Paradise and the Muir Snowfield. The small lake is Lake Louise.

Time for me to take a snack break!

This is the back side of Foss Peak, and the route we followed to get down. We scrambled down, just to the right of the red flowers at the top of the photo.

From Foss, we follow a ridge that outlines this boulder basin. At this point, I was unsure of the route, but as we got closer, we decided to traverse just under the snowfield of the secondary peak, and follow the shadowline on Unicorn to the saddle.

Chris on the rocky path, after crossing the boulder field. From here, you can see Foss Peak and the ridgeline we followed.

From the saddle, it was a short scramble to the backside of Unicorn that leads to the actual climbing section. Unicorn is actually 3 peaks, but this is the one seen from the road.

Chris leads one of the three pitches we climbed this day.

A short distance away and to the east, is Stevens Peak, which is also part of the Tatoosh Range.

Chis and I on the summit of Unicorn, with (shall I even say it?) Mt. Rainier in the background.

One of the other Unicorn peaks behind me with Mt. Adams far in the background.

From left to right: Plummer, Pinnacle, Castle, and Foss Peaks. We began at the low section between Plummer and Pinnacle.

Boulders, boulders everywhere. I think we'd tire of this after a while!

Nice boulder field to descend, huh? I think this would be much more enjoyable in the Spring, when it is covered with snow.