Little Tahoma
- Jun 14
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
6/13/2026 - 6/14/2026
Despite looking like a tiny nub on the side of Mount Rainier from afar, Little Tahoma is a worthy mountain in its own right. It has enough prominence to qualify as Washington state’s third highest peak, and provides a big mountain feel that belies its status as a volcanic subpeak.
Eric and I had plans to climb Little Tahoma as a one-night outing, with a night at Meany Crest and an early start the next morning. Because the hike in would be relatively short, we theoretically didn’t have to leave that early on Saturday, but getting the permit was the big x-factor, so we played it safe and aimed to get to the White River Ranger Station around 10 am.
At the ranger station we walked in with confidence asking for a spot at Meany Crest, but we could immediately tell by the look on the ranger’s face that it was going to be a no go. Thankfully, she worked with us, and we were able to land a site at Summerland after a last-minute cancellation. Whew, we were thankful it all worked out, but it was a lesson to not overestimate crowding in the parks on beautiful weekends. We also paid our climber’s fee for going above 10k ($85 per person in 2026) and were out the door with permit in hand. Summerland was a welcome consolation, and we were excited to spend the night in such a beautiful spot, even if it meant an earlier start the next day.
We got a very leisurely start on the Wonderland Trail at 12:15 pm. It was nice knowing that all time pressure had been taken off our day. The hike in was smooth - the bridge had just been reinstalled over Fryingpan Creek, and there was only minor snow on the switchbacks up to Summerland, so there were really no difficulties to speak of on the 4.1 mile hike to camp.
We had to kill a bit of time in the camp area to wait for other parties to clear out, which wasn’t a hardship at all. We heard tales of soft, mushy, snow from the parties who attempted Little Tahoma earlier in the day – so we resolved to start even earlier than anticipated in the morning. To wile away the time at camp, we practiced our z-pulley crevasse rescue system, which was both fun and a great refresher.
The evening was beautiful in the meadows that night, with the first wildflowers of the summer beginning to pop up. We thoroughly enjoyed relaxing and taking photos before setting alarms for the wee am hours the next morning.
The next morning, we were up and moving in the 1 o’clock hour, and almost immediately put on crampons for the 1500’ climb up to Meany Crest. This part gets steep, but I found it somehow easier to just turn my brain off and put one foot in front of the other in the dark. Every time we stopped for a quick break, we could see tiny strings of lights moving up Mount Rainer on both the DC and Emmons routes, which was fascinating to watch.
We eventually hit Meany Crest and roped up for the crossing of the Fryingpan Glacier. This was a long and mellow section of the route and excitement was high now that the sun was beginning to light up the horizon. Little Tahoma looked impressive and pointy but was dwarfed by the huge bulk of Mount Rainier lurking behind it. We crossed one area of wet slide activity from the day before but had no other difficulties enroute to the col between the Fryingpan and Whitman Glaciers.
The sun officially rose during the traverse on the Whitman, and its rays were bathing the upper mountain as we began the final steep snow climb. Thankfully the snow was perfect - firm, but not too firm, and we had steps from the previous day to follow. This section was a bit tedious, but it wasn’t long before we exited on to rock to make the final summit scramble.
There was still one more snow patch to contend with, so we kept crampons on for this, but took them off at the top and scrambled the rest in our mountaineering boots. The final bit to the very top is exposed but shouldn’t present any major problems for experienced scramblers in my opinion. The cliff to the north drops precipitously straight down to the Emmons, so definitely don’t stray too far in that direction!
Since we had our harnesses on and our rope with us, we decided to just build a quick anchor by slinging a massive boulder to belay each other across. I trailed the rope as I scrambled across and nothing felt more than standard class 3 to me. I was also surprised to find that the upper mountain felt much more solid than I expected it to – there were some fun, solid scramble moves to the summit.
I belayed Eric in from the pre-existing anchor and we were soon both on the very top of Little T! We reached the summit at 7:15 am, which felt great to us given the snow conditions. The view of Mount Rainier is truly impressive from the summit, and we took our time to enjoy it.
The way down was straightforward, downclimbing from the summit didn’t feel too bad, and the snow had softened up perfectly for the steep descent down the Whitman. By the time we reached the Fryingpan, the sun had started to take its toll on the snow conditions, and I just embraced having wet feet as we waded through the mushy snow.
We both half-jogged, half-boot skied down from Meany Crest, making it back to camp in no time. It felt great to take off the soggy boots and socks and dry the feet out at camp. We lounged around for a bit, before packing up and toting our heavy packs back to the trailhead.
Final Stats: 15.9 miles / 7234 feet of gain
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