South Tiger Traverse, South Tiger Summit — Monday, Apr. 22, 2024

A beautiful spring day to climb up to South Tiger Summit. I started at Tiger Mountain Rd and headed up to the South Tiger Traverse. Several wildflowers are in bloom along the way.  I hadn't been on this route for 3-4 years and I was impressed by the new signage and the rerouting of the summit trail.   About a quarter mile past the Power Lines, I took the trail to the right off of the road. It was clearly marked as the Traverse.   This part of the trail proceeds on a fairly gentle grade up about halfway to the summit, where the Traverse trail turns left and the summit trail turns right.   The summit trail weaves its way up around 300 vertical feet, but the grade is quite easy.  I stopped at the first summit with a great view of Rainier.   I guess the official 'summit' is 11 feet higher, but I think it ends up in the trees, so I was very satisfied with my lunch stop. I saw very few people the entire 4 hours (with several breaks), covering about 6 miles and 1,600 vertical.