Post by kresser on Jul 25, 2017 13:28:10 GMT -5
On July 9th, 2017, Gavin Woody and I, Richard Kresser, ran the Tatoosh Traverse in 15H:35M, car to car, starting from Snow Lake TH in Mount Rainier National Park.
The Tatoosh Traverse consists of summitting 12 peaks of the Tatoosh Range, situated just south of Mount Rainier. One additional peak, ironically the namesake of the Range, Tatoosh, lies geographically separate from the other 12 main peaks, and outside the Park boundaries. Tatoosh is not a generally accepted peak within the Tatoosh Traverse, nor are a variety of sub-summit towers such as West Unicorn Peak. The accepted "Tatoosh Traverse" route is Eagle, Chutla, Wahpenayo, Lane, Denman, Plummer, Pinnacle, The Castle, Foss, Unicorn, Boundary (also named Border on some maps), and Stevens. Besides the initial trails out of the trailhead, the route is not defined by a trail and is a collection of climbers trail, scrambling, and technical climbing. You are allowed to go for the peaks in any order you desire, starting from whichever side you desire. Generally, the two trailheads are Snow Lake on the east end and Eagle Peak on the west end. To make it more pure, you must return by foot to your vehicle via the Wonderland Trail (additional 7.5 miles).
Gavin and I started from Snow Lake TH at 4am, on July 9th, 2017, summitted all 12 peaks, and made it to Longmire in 13H:34M, then ran the Wonderland Trail back to our car in 2H:01M for a total time of 15H:35M. By our chosen route, we traveled 26 miles and gained 13,000' during the mission. From our investigation, we were not able to find any reports of a team previously completing the traverse in a single day, as most people doing all 12 peaks would stop for an overnight or fast day teams would skip Stevens. Trip Report and Strava can be found here: www.runningfarther.com/tatoosh-traverse-fkt/
The Tatoosh Traverse consists of summitting 12 peaks of the Tatoosh Range, situated just south of Mount Rainier. One additional peak, ironically the namesake of the Range, Tatoosh, lies geographically separate from the other 12 main peaks, and outside the Park boundaries. Tatoosh is not a generally accepted peak within the Tatoosh Traverse, nor are a variety of sub-summit towers such as West Unicorn Peak. The accepted "Tatoosh Traverse" route is Eagle, Chutla, Wahpenayo, Lane, Denman, Plummer, Pinnacle, The Castle, Foss, Unicorn, Boundary (also named Border on some maps), and Stevens. Besides the initial trails out of the trailhead, the route is not defined by a trail and is a collection of climbers trail, scrambling, and technical climbing. You are allowed to go for the peaks in any order you desire, starting from whichever side you desire. Generally, the two trailheads are Snow Lake on the east end and Eagle Peak on the west end. To make it more pure, you must return by foot to your vehicle via the Wonderland Trail (additional 7.5 miles).
Gavin and I started from Snow Lake TH at 4am, on July 9th, 2017, summitted all 12 peaks, and made it to Longmire in 13H:34M, then ran the Wonderland Trail back to our car in 2H:01M for a total time of 15H:35M. By our chosen route, we traveled 26 miles and gained 13,000' during the mission. From our investigation, we were not able to find any reports of a team previously completing the traverse in a single day, as most people doing all 12 peaks would stop for an overnight or fast day teams would skip Stevens. Trip Report and Strava can be found here: www.runningfarther.com/tatoosh-traverse-fkt/