Scrambling, climbing, and hiking in the Teanaway are some of my favorite things. It’s warm and dry. The views are incredible, and the rock is so much fun. In preparation for an upcoming Rainier attempt, six of us spent the day scrambling in the Teanaway. We decided on a Bean, Volcanic Neck, and Earl loop.
The trail up to the bean creek basin was in good shape. We remained on trail through the basin and turned off so that we could scramble up the south / southwest face. The scrambling was serious type 1 fun.
Up and over Bean, we made our way towards Volcanic Neck. I’d wanted to go scramble Volcanic Neck since I was a scramble student. I’d heard that it was interesting and exposed and hard for a scramble. The exposure is notable in the scramble community. The route traverses on scree to the north side of the summit block. From here the route follows the path of least resistance to the top and then traverses along the ridge. There was some exposure in spots. The whole route felt manageable, if a little airy. A different experience from Bean.
Down we went. None of us had brought boots so we weren’t excited to go into the snow-filled basin on the north side of the Bean / Earl ridge. Combine that with one of us thinking we left our sunscreen on Bean, we went back up Bean to get to the ridge.
The ridge from Bean to Earl is easy traveling. There are a few steps that require route finding getting down from Earl, and in some other spots you need to route find loose scree vs. rocks on the ridge. Once the trail goes up, it becomes straightforward. I hadn’t realized how much higher Earl was than Bean peak. About halfway up it became quite apparent 🙂
We paused on the summit of Earl to eat snacks and sign the summit register. From here it was trail all the way out. We made it back to the cars, where snacks, beer, and camp chairs awaited. The day finished with the now common practice of fast-food-in-the-back-of-cars.
