June 20, 2010, Ingraham Flats to Paradise
6/20/10
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2730
2
Did my first actual, official, attempt on summiting Mt. Rainier this weekend! ;D (Ingraham direct, which is apparently still in really good condition¦ DC wont be used for at least a couple more weeks, they say.) Went up with one friend, Jeff. He had summited Rainier once, a few years ago. Id skied to Muir a few times before, and had skied other parts of the park, but never actually attempted to summit the mountain.
Yeah, so, for a combination of factors that we dont need to go into :) , we only made it to Ingraham Flats this morning. But then we peeled skins off and had a reeaaally nice ski down from there to Camp Muir (esp. the section just below Cathedral Gap) on about 4 of new snow. Just a tad windpacked, and there were a few crusty lumps underneath the new stuff, but it was still pretty soft and turnable.
We hung out for a bit at Muir, then packed up our tent, etc, and then headed down. The nice new snow continued to maybe 8000 feet, gradually getting less and less pleasurable until it was wet and mushy by the top of Pan Point, and *miserably* wet and mushy for the last stretch to the parking lot.
Will post pics in a day or two ... just wanted to get this up real quick just for info on conditions.
Yeah, so, for a combination of factors that we dont need to go into :) , we only made it to Ingraham Flats this morning. But then we peeled skins off and had a reeaaally nice ski down from there to Camp Muir (esp. the section just below Cathedral Gap) on about 4 of new snow. Just a tad windpacked, and there were a few crusty lumps underneath the new stuff, but it was still pretty soft and turnable.
We hung out for a bit at Muir, then packed up our tent, etc, and then headed down. The nice new snow continued to maybe 8000 feet, gradually getting less and less pleasurable until it was wet and mushy by the top of Pan Point, and *miserably* wet and mushy for the last stretch to the parking lot.
Will post pics in a day or two ... just wanted to get this up real quick just for info on conditions.
I'm surprised that you could even see your hand in front of your face up there. You must have had better vis than us lower elevation climbers.
Yeah the only part of our trip where visibility was really, consistently bad, was below about 7000 ft on Sunday. Above that though, and on Saturday, it was variable. Sometimes 100 ft, but sometimes a few miles.
Oh, re. precip: on the ascent to Muir on Saturday, had scattered rain showers till about 8K and scattered snow showers above that. Same for Sunday except that below 7K it was constant misty rain, and then showering by the time we got to Elbe.
Quite a few parties summited on Saturday and Sunday; most said they didn't have any view at the top though. I think one of them said they never saw any snow fall above Muir; we certainly didn't.
Oh, re. precip: on the ascent to Muir on Saturday, had scattered rain showers till about 8K and scattered snow showers above that. Same for Sunday except that below 7K it was constant misty rain, and then showering by the time we got to Elbe.
Quite a few parties summited on Saturday and Sunday; most said they didn't have any view at the top though. I think one of them said they never saw any snow fall above Muir; we certainly didn't.
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