2/19-21 Tatoosh Range Traverse

With a solid forecast for both weather and avi conditions James, Steve (on snowshoes) and myself embarked on a tatoosh range traverse. 
      Saturday started with a drive and car shuffle.  We parked a car at Longmire and a second at Narada Falls.  From there we traversed in along the snow-covered road to Tatoosh Creek and set up camp just to the north of Denman Peak.
      I was feeling spent from the week and decided to enjoy a sunny afternoon in camp after a couple tree laps to get set up. James and Steve, with 2 additional climbing friends from OR, hiked up to the north side of the Castle.  James spent the next two hours skiing, while the rest scrambled up the Castle.  The short pitch of rock to the summit was covered in ice and not as easy to climb as it first appeared.
      On Sunday, we broke camp and skinned up the steep couloir between Denman and Lane Peaks.  The was variable from light powder over crust to a solid wind crust that put my ski crampons to good use.
      From the saddle, James and I skinned up Plumber Peak and took advantage of the stable conditions for some open turns on semi breakable crust.  We then traversed to the summit of Denman and were rewarded with some powder hiding in the trees. While we were skiing, Steve donned his crampons and grabbed his ice ax to climb to the summit of Lane.
      From the saddle we traversed around the north side of Lane, dropped 500 feet down into the basin to the west, and then hiked back up the Tatoosh Ridge to pitch camp just north of Wahpenayo Peak.
      Monday morning found up at dawn and heading towards the summit of Wahpenayo.  Visibility was poor above 5,000 feet, inducing slight vertigo crossing the NW bowl. We summited the SW summit via the west ridge, removing skis for the final 50ft, and skied the open bowl in powder over crust snow condition and poor visibility.  Then headed back to break camp.
With full backs we traversed to Wahpenayo Pass and descended the slope SW of Chutla in sunbaked snow with evidence of point release slides but no slab activity.  at around 500ft we dropped into the woods and picked our way through old growth in soft snow before picking up the trail around 4300ft. We followed the trail and were forced to remove skis due to insufficient coverage around 3900ft and walked down to Longmire.

The trip was successful, with multiple summits and good weather contributing to the fun.