In May 2005, Rick Kent and I headed to the Tatoosh Range to take another stab at Pinnacle Peak, a peak I'd failed on during a recent winter attempt. With typical stormy Cascades weather moving in, our hopes weren't high.
Starting out from the paved road, we followed snow up easy slopes through thick forest to the Pinnacle-Plummer saddle. Angling left beyond the saddle, we looked for the weakness that would allow us up the peak's south face. With thick clouds moving in and snow threatening to fall, visibility was obscured and we soon found ourselves at what I recognized to be the Pinnacle-Castle saddle. Of course, this saddle had been the turn-around point for Eiji Sugi and I in our March attempt of Pinnacle.
After trying to find a reasonable way up the face above the saddle, we downclimbed the wet, slick rock and angled back toward the Pinnacle-Plummer, looking for the way up. Soon enough, we found a reasonable line that took us right up to the summit via class 4 terrain. Of course, the summit was shrouded in clouds and we had no views.
Dropping back to the Pinnacle-Plummer saddle, we made a quick run to Plummer Peak. Again, no views to speak of, except for a 10-second parting of the clouds that gave us a glimpse of Mount Rainier.
Soon returning to the saddle, we followed our tracks back toward the car. Along the way, snow began to fall and we enjoyed a nice glissade below Pinnacle's west face.
*Photos courtesy of Rick Kent
Pinnacle Peak & Plummer Peak
