May 30, 2004, Tamanos Mtn.

Inspired in part by our Saturday post-trip parking lot map pondering with Joedabaker, we returned to the White River valley Sunday to try for Tamanos, taking advantage of the easy access afforded by the White River entrance road.  

The Owyhigh trail was snow-free and in great shape for the first 2.5 miles or so (to +/- 5,200') allowing us to move quickly.  We were on snow from there up, with less than an inch of fresh on top of the older consolidated snow.  The lakes were just starting to melt out.  We continued just past the lakes in full sun, then skinned to the saddle before turning and skinning up the ridge to Tamanos' rocky summit under sunny blue skies!  :)

While we had only peek-a-boo views of the upper Emmons on Rainier, views back toward Governor's Ridge and over toward Summerland and the Sarvant Glaciers were great.  We were treated to several thunderous rock-fall / avalanche events coming from the direction of the Sarvant Glaciers and were able to watch as one literally poured down the slope below.

There is a tempting descent option off the summit toward the NE, but we chose the safer SE bowl, tracing our up-track back to the lakes.  The snow (4-6" of wet new over old wet) was pretty stable, though we did manage to kick loose a couple large pinwheels.  Steeper sections were fun and turn-able, but lower angled slopes were pretty slow.

We enjoyed sun almost all day and appeared to have the valley to ourselves as we enjoyed the nice grade of this "super-highway"  trail back to the truck.

J.P.