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Tom's Thumb

 Tom's Thumb - 1581M

201M Prominence

50.02995 -124.21344

Aug 22, 2024

977M Elevation Gain

6H 8M C2C, 5H 20M Moving

I probably should have gone up Tom's when I was up Marmot only a few months ago. It lies just East on the same ridge line, and would have made complete sense to do them at the same time. Regardless, it is not the most strenuous approach, and made for a nice short day out. Phillip and I drove up Goat main sometime around 8 AM, and after about an hour of driving, we made it to the same overgrown FSR that I had previously accessed both Marmot and Juarez from. The road walk is fast, and after about half an hour you dive into the shrubbery and cross the creek that follows the road on your left. The creek crossing was easier than I remember it being, but after the creek lies a short but incredibly dense bushwhack to where the forest starts. The forest is smooth sailing for the most part, and you can basically go straight up the side of the mountain. Lower down there is a small clearing of rotten and fallen trees which is mildly annoying to crawl over. Soon after that, and after a bit more easy sloped forest walking, there is a rock wall that opens up in front of you. To get around it you stick to the right side, and pull yourself up a few shrubs, staying close to the wall. You then drop down a little bit and make your way towards a small landslide that lies on the East side of the wall. From the landslide area it is easy to pick a route through the open forest and up past the turn off which one would go to Marmot, all the way to the base of another rock wall closer to the summit. Not having a route, I placed flagging tape, to make sure we could find our way down this next tricky section. I opted to try and hug the right side of this small cliff and we pulled our way up the shrubbery that was there, using the rock wall when possible to climb up. Near the top of the cliff, we traversed a small rock ledge to end up on top of the cliff and some less intimidating terrain again. From this point we were able to walk through a small boulder field, then soon after, the summit. The summit views were quite incredible as the weather cleared up just perfectly for us. We got an incredible 360 view of the Marmot, Juarez, Triple Peaks, and a Fantastic view of the Rainbow Range in it's entirety. We took a decent break, had lunch, and then leisurely made our way down the exact same way as we came up, taking down the flagging tape from the upper crux as we went. After meeting taking down all the flagging tape, it was a breeze getting down, as this was now the fourth time hiking the same route. We made it back to the truck with no hiccups. A successful day all and all, a route with a great view and neat little bit of scrambling.

Finding a route along the cliff side and the
shrubs













Phillip traversing the small rock ledge at
the top of the cliff













Me on the summit












Panorama of the Rainbow range















Phillip downclimbing the edge of the cliff and
the shrubs













Route


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