The weather forecast was saying the rain would stop at 7am, and it was supposed to be a super light rain, so we figured getting to the base of Tooth Fairy at 8am would be good enough. In fact, the morning of, the forecast updated claiming no rain after 5am!

We started hiking at 5am in the misting rain. At 6:30 it was still misting rain. We slowed down our pace quite a bit, no reason to get there with the rain and it was seeming like the hike is way shorter than 3 hours (we were almost there already).

We got to the base at 7:20 (yeah it was only a 2:20 hr approach even with going extra slow waiting for the rain to stop). However, it was still misting rain, the rock was wet, and it was a bit cold.

After huddling under an emergency blanket for 40 minutes, we decided we could climb the standard 5.4 route on the tooth while waiting for it to stop raining. I’ve never been up the insanely frequently done route, and we figured it’d be doable despite being wet and that could probably protect enough of it with just our alpine draws (no cams).

I started off on the first pitch (wearing climbing shoes since it was wet and didn’t have gear). I was actually able to sling a chockstone right beneath the first crux, it was easy climbing though. I clipped and climbed past the first P1 anchor, continued up and clipped a piton and then belayed from a tree at the base of the next scramble part. Probably 55m.

We then scrambled to the next vertical part. The next pitch (technically P3) was kind of fun! There’s a lean back flake. It has a stuck cam that no longer even has a stem on it, so I slung it and continued up to the top.

On the rappel down, we finally ran into our friends Peter and Matt. We rappelled past them while they were on P1 and then headed back to Tooth Fairy.

We started Tooth Fairy at 11:15, got to the top at 12:40.

P1-2 was pretty easy (linked them). P1 was easy climbing, super short. I skipped a few bolts across both pitches but only ended up using 13 of my 15 draws. P2 was really fun climbing, good holds, solid rock. There was one crux early on P2 with some juggy slight overhang holds that traverse left for a couple moves. Rope drag was getting a little bad. About 50m.

P3-4 weren’t as fun, P3 goes up a slightly dirty corner. P4 was better climbing, but a few of the slabby feet were still wet which made all the moves more thoughtful.

P5-6 were pretty fun! P5 started out a bit zig zaggy (first go left then up then right slab traverse). Since we wanted to link the pitches, I clipped the bolts but then unclipped once past each move. Then there was a roof move later on P5 that was the crux (especially since the hands on the roof move were all wet). I still got through it without too much challenge though! P6 wasn’t very memorable, I think easy climbing with maybe a couple tougher moves especially at the end, but nothing as hard.

We scrambled P7 and then hung out with Peter’s group at the top and then rappelled. Since we rappelled first, we set up a single rope rappel to skip the downclimb, and then did two more rappels.

We could see the hords of people on snow lake trail, so we took the winter route back. It kinda sucks. There isn’t a trail, it’s full on bushwack. I feel over like 8 times due to hidden holes in the bushes. But we found the most huckleberries we’ve ever seen!