Alpine Adventures

Morning sun illuminates the valley near Snow Lake and gives us the first glimpse of Unicorn Peak.

From Snow Lake, The next mile is spent traveling over this loose boulder field -- a hint... climb this in the Spring!

At our first break of the day, after scrambling up a narrow gully, the team pauses for a well-deserved break.

The sun is climbing, but the temperature is still cool on this side of the mountain. From here, we will head to the right of the main mountain.

Climbing yet higher on the approach, we can see the valley we asended, Foss Peak, Mt. Rainier and Little Tahoma.

We're getting there! We will follow the cliff to the saddle just ahead, then turn left and scramble to the small notch to the left of the saddle.

Along the base of the cliffs and looking back to Mt. Rainier. We'll have magnificent views of Mt. Rainier all day long.

The team is now safely over the notch after we missed our exit point and spent a miserable hour on some of the most loose and crumbling rock I've seen. We used a handline to get four of us up.

Topping out on the main section of Unicorn, on our way to the climbing portion, Laurel leads the group.

At the climb, Kathy and Laurel belay, while Shannon, in the background, is seen beginning her climb.

Here I am, leading my pitch, a nice crack with a fun stretch move just ahead!

We are all complete, as Mary is finishing the final rappel. We used three routes, of varying difficulty, to compelte this climb.

In the foreground is Pinnacle, the Castle and Foss Peak. Again, Rainier dominates the sky. We will cross the boulders to the ridge, leading to Foss Peak.

We contemplate the descent, and although it's just a scramble, we decided to rappel to the trail and bypass the loose rock.

Me, just before my rappel from Unicorn.

Another wonderful view of the valley landscape.

Laurel and Shannon take a break to rest and eat while the others catch up.

On our way to Foss Peak, crossing a nice grassy field. To our right is the boulder basin.

Looking back to Unicorn. The red colors accentuated the view and contrasted nicely with the gray rock and blue sky.

John does some 'free-climbing' just before the Foss Peak summit.

The team is scrambling the final ridge to Foss Peak.

A succesful day, the team poses for the group shot. (John is ahead of us and I took the pic!)

Our desent follows the shadow between the peaks, then just below the greenery, then across the boulders to the base of the large snowpatch to refill water, then to the ridge on the right.

Heading down, Heather is catching up with the others. The Castle is in the background and Plummer Peak, just beyond.

Here we make a group decision to forego Castle and the 3 mile hike out for a shorter desent into the shadowed valley, to the main road.