6/27/09 Tokaloo Rock/Puyallup Clvr-ride, hike, ski

Having a broken down car and a desire to ski the mountains means that one must be willing to adopt alternative methods of travel. Living in Seattle affords one with many options for transport. Snowbell offered to drive, and as he lives in Bremerton, this meant that I needed to ride the ferry. Down the hill I went. Stares from the Underground tour-goers were entertaining as they saw €œthat guy riding the mountain bike with the skis on his pack€. The ride over was quite nice with the sun setting and colors lighting up Puget Sound. This was an interesting beginning to a fun trip, I thought to myself.

Arriving in Bremerton, Snowbell picked me up and after a few short detours we were on our way. He informed me that our sponsor was waiting for us at his house and that we would stop by to get his endorsement as well as some swag. Scotsman being a good sponsor provided a few well-needed drinks of water and booze and provoked an arm wrestling match, the winner of which deciding what tour would be taken. When it was all over we decided that we were headed out to the Saint Andrew€™s lake and Tokaloo Spire area with the option of continuing up the Puyallup Cleaver.

The approach requires either mountain biking 12 miles out to Klapatche Park Trailhead then another 3+ mile hike to Saint Andrews Lake, or a 3+ mile ride out to the South Puyallup River Trail, then a 1.6 mile hike to the Wonderland trail cutoff, with a 3+ mile hike to St Andrew€™s Lake. We decided on forgoing the long bike ride and went with the latter. My only concerns were ones that arose from a backpacking trip to the area two years ago; blowdowns and washed out road on the Westside road, and blowdowns on the Wonderland Trail. Both of which turned out to be moot points as the road and trail went as smoothly as can be. The road seemed like it would be pretty easily drivable with a higher clearance vehicle. I wonder if they have purposely kept the area much less accessible so that the more €œwilderness needing€ animals see less human activity.

We began the bike ride at 3 am to the sounds of some very inviting wolves? howling and roughhousing somewhere off in the distance. Headlamps illuminated the road, which was actually very easily traveled on mountain bike given the limited visibility. We made good time to the S. Puyallup River trail and were rewarded with a sunrise slowly emerging, illuminating the massive columnar basalt formation along the trail. Made great time to the Puyallup River and Wonderland Trail split, and off we went- up the switchbacks towards the ridge. As we gained elevation we encountered more slide paths and snow covered trail. This made for interesting side hilling to regain the trail and probably would have been best done straight up- with crampons and axe in hand. The freeze overnight allowed for a firm surface and boded well for a corn ski later.

We arrived at the ridge and climbed until we could see St. Andrew€™s Lake€™s source and the surrounding basin. This was the area I remember discovering two years ago while backpacking at the same time of year- Andrew Peak, Tokaloo rock and spire and their hillslopes all spilling down at perfectly skiable angles. Better yet, all these slopes are NW to W facing and hold copious amounts of snow while avoiding the travel complications glaciers provide. The slope down from Tokaloo Rock looked perfect and we discussed that as an option to ski once things softened up. While waiting for the slopes to soften we gathered water from the source lake and took a much needed nap in the treed ridgeline, just NE of St. Andrew€™s Lake.

When we woke the slopes were nicely softened which made for easy booting and skinning. We gained the ridge above Andrew (6716) and decided that we would continue to climb along the ridgeline in order to see the lay of the land along both sides. Previous travelers had approached this area straight up the gut and up to Tokaloo Spire, but we wanted to give ourselves the advantage of scouting the lay of the land.
As we were making fantastic time, feeling strong, and rested after out short nap, we decided we had plenty of daylight ahead of us and forged ahead towards the Puyallup Cleaver. Rounding Tokaloo spire and contouring along the ridgeline towards the Cleaver, we saw some amazing jumbles of ice and rock along both the Puyallup and Tahoma glaciers. We continued up to just below the lower cleaver. I topped out near 8,000 feet while Joe decided to continue up to near 9k. This involved a few rock moves and was quite an impressive line waiting to be skied below. We could have approached the same line from the gut but were on the ridge and did not want to lose elevation or risk booting up and into a crack. Joe topped out a bit below point 8966. Before he had continued on ahead of me, we decided to change up our route and instead ski the slopes near 8966, down onto the Tahoma glacier, then work our way to where the western Tahoma splits in a v-shape and gain the South Puyallup river trail via the moraine. To experience the journey was purpose of the day, not the skiing, as evidenced by our bike, hike, tour, and short ski.

We skied the slope in alternating, smooth, grabby, suncupped, overdone snow conditions until we encountered cliffs below blocking our descent down. This was the area just below the flat area (at 7k) just off of the NW side of the Tahoma glacier (from 6,800 to 6,200). Cutting hard skier€™s right and down climbing some rock and heather bypassed this area before we dropped back onto the snowfield. We then had to cross the Tahoma terminus, and was likely the only glaciated terrain we touched. We made our way through the massive piles of rock and debris that covered the lower slopes of the glacier, encountering a few cracks along the way. We stayed skier€™s right of 6032 in order to position ourselves for an easier hike up the moderately sloped lateral moraine. Made it up onto the moraine then onto the S. Puyallup river trail for a long hike and bike out on a beautiful day at Rainier. We walked down and transitioned to bikes, realizing the worst was not over yet€¦ the previous night we flew down the road from Round Pass after a long ride up and realized we needed to do it all again. It is amazing what a few gummi bears can do to perk you up for the strenuous ride uphill, but we flew up, powered by gummi bears, and enjoyed the ride down from Round Pass (Marine Crash Site Memorial). Lots of hikers on the road (that we never saw all day) looked quite surprised to see two guys with skis on backs barreling down the road.

We closed out the day by Joe getting me to the ferry terminal just in time for me to ride onto the boat, the last passenger arriving to cries from the bystanders of €œgo, go, go!€ Having made it onto the boat, I relished my second sunset in 24 hours and gaped at Rainer from across the Sound, €œwow€¦€ was all that I could muster. The final leg of my journey was the ride/ hike 250 vf up to my condo. Having arrived home after such a long journey, I could only think of how lucky we all are to be enjoying such wonderful surroundings.

Photo1- Rest spot just above St. Andrew€™s Lake. Tokaloo peak behind and to the right (not in pic) holds many lines to ski.

Photo 2- Joe before Tokaloo Spire. In the distance is pt 8966 of which Joe skied off the lower section.

Photo 3- From the S. Puyallup River Trail. In left side of picture with waterfall is where we were cliffed out. Route out not pictured, but is looker€™s left of this.

more pics- http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Bp9as9ssvUvJxH-qBRCrAw?feat=directlink