Success Cleaver 2011

July 4th - The Success Cleaver is in great condition right now. The Tahoma Creek trail to the suspension bridge is all snow free. Above the bridge the snow starts - but it's still easy to navigate toward Pyramid Peak through the forest on snow.

There is still plenty of snow higher up on the route. As temperatures warm up, climbers may want to stay on the cleaver proper in order to avoid rockfall and traveling on soft snow. The picture below is of penitented snow at about 12,800 ft. At this point in the route, most climbers move to the right to avoid the steep cliff bands. The upper snow traversing and rock-band navigation is still very straight forward. Begin your climb early to avoid ice melting and falling off the rock later in the day.

It's possible to descend the route without any rappelling, but because of the distance required to exit via on of the West Side approaches most teams carry up and over.