Little Tahoma had been on my list for years but I had always prioritized other peaks and routes. With a heat wave this weekend and one day to get outside, getting high in MRNP seemed like a good plan. Colin and I decided to be responsible mountain citizens and secure a permit, which meant with work schedules that we had to wait until 7:30am when the ranger station was open. We left Seattle at 5am, secured our permit after waiting in line for a bit while all geared up at 8am, and left the Paradise parking lot just after 8am.
It was smooth sailing in the conga line up the Muir Snowfield until we curved climber’s right away from the beaten path around 8,500 feet. As we traversed onto the Cowlitz Glacier, we decided to deviate from the guidebook instructions and rise up to almost 9,000 feet to get around the crevasses and seracs. This involved a little extra effort, but was very smooth and straightforward. We then were able to slide our way down to 8,600 feet again to cross the rock rib with only a short stint on rock and dirt.
The Ingraham Glacier was even more straightforward. We did a descending traverse to 8,350 feet or so before rising back up to the Whitman Glacier access col. This face was pretty firm but we didn’t need crampons since there was an existing boot pack. We reached the col 3 hours and 15 minutes after starting our day—reasonably quick compared to the ski touring guidebook estimates, so it seemed our up and down approach across the Cowlitz and Ingraham Glaciers had paid off.
After a snack, we booted (with some terrible isothermal post holing) up the steep snow just below the rock cliffs and did a steep traverse on snow that was pretty warm and slushy but not showing signs of full-on wet slide. This brought us to the cirque below the Southeast Face of Little Tahoma at about 9,200 feet. We skinned for a ways before hooking into a nice boot pack which carried us up about 800 feet below the summit. Some trail breaking in snow from here (ski tracks must have filled in the boot pack) got us to 100 feet from the top where we scrambled up rock, across the ridge, and then down and back up to the summit.
The last 50 feet or so were heads-up in ski boots, but we never felt the need to get the rope out in either direction. We reached the summit 6 hours and 20 minutes from the car and soaked in our up-close-and-personal view of Rainier. The exposure on the Northwest Face of Little Tahoma is pretty breathtaking from the top.
Our descent from the summit to our skis was forgettable in deep isothermal slush but the ski from there made up for it, with heavy, buttered corn and a perfect slope angle to enjoy it. We retraced our steps back out and got to the car just over 9 hours after we’d started. This day ended up being a bit bigger and more effortful than expected with our extra elevation gain in both directions and the slushy snow, but was right within the time expectation we had. Great day!