Climbing Mt. Rainier National Park: Lane Peak and "the Zipper"

Mt. Rainier National Park offers a ton of climbing opportunities in small packages. Besides the massive main peak of the park, there are a lot of smaller sub-ranges that provide great settings to sharpen all skill levels before moving onto bigger and more remote mountains. This was a single day ascent of "The Zipper", one of three moderate snow and ice chutes that creeps up the north face of Lane Peak. Where is Lane Peak? Lane Peak is located in the Tatoosh Range and is one of the last peaks left that Sarah and I have not climbed in this smaller range located in the Park.

Sarah and I are trying to level up in our climbing and gain more practice and experience on some steeper and icier terrain. Slowly we are succeeding at this goal. This was our 3rd attempt at this route. Back in April 2023, and then three weeks ago on Easter Sunday, we turned around just before the opening to the chute due to snow conditions that were not favorable for this type of climb. It is a climb that is about timing. It is an early season route that melts out fairly quickly with warm weather. This was probably our last chance to make one last attempt in good conditions before moving onto other climbs in May.