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Topic: Führer Finger June 3-4, 2011 (Read 1491 times)
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cumulus
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Posts: 205
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It's been way too long since I've been to Rainier - so long that it almost felt like the first time... all starry eyed looking out the car window at those colossal drainages - Tahoma, Kautz, Nisqually - and the trees! wow! and then right inside the NP gate in the deep shadows of the forest a shaft of light falls from above to illuminate a speckled faun licking it's hind quarters - woah, too much! Like something I've seen but never seen; nature emulating a picture postcard... my mind finds itself treating it like some sort of omen, though I have no idea of what...
With sooo many cascadian options, it's been easy to neglect Rainier and yet its been on the near horizon for a while now since Zack set the wheels of organizing a Führer Finger ski in motion a couple of months ago. We'd been waiting for a weather window to do this trip and here it was, as big and wide and bright as the sun. All that blue sky making Rainier so visually available from every angle, and all that oogling made me realize - that mountain is a whole range unto itself. Sooo many options. So immense, so beautiful, so full of contradictions... you could, for example, be on a ridge all bundled up against the icy blast of wind and yet, just a mere 20 feet away on the other side of the ridge, you could--literally and amazingly--be lounging in a t-shirt. That was our camp. Pretty sweet.
Zack demonstrating the indisputable efficacy of his sitz-pad attachment methodology
going up the Wilson Glacier
We (Zack, Mike, and I) started from the parking lot around noon on Friday, putting in a fresh skin track up the Wilson (we had a fourth person, Franklin, coming up later so we picked our path carefully). This was promptly obliterated by three climbers--and then the hordes, the hundreds, WAC and some other large group--so that by the time we skied out Saturday evening, that single track had turned into a well trampled highway. By contrast we met only two people all day on Saturday while on the Finger route. But the following of tracks became an inescapable theme, a comedy of errors... not so funny in the moment while following a boot pack across a steep icy slope whose bottom was a gaping blue maw (when we could have been cruising up the Nisqually Glacier checking out the run), but more so in hindsight... when laughter was an option.
We never did meet the people who put in the boot pack, just saw two headlights heading up as we rolled out of our sleeping bags around 2:30. Rounds of oatmeal, coffee, and packing saw us off by 4:30. Made it up to 13,000 where fierce winds, a decline in skiable snow, and the slowing effects of altitude (at least for me) became quite palpable. From there we skied down the Glacier a bit, but somehow ended back on the rib with the boot pack just west of the Nisqually... which funnels into the Wilson Headwall. So back up we went. Meanwhile, enter the two skiers, who had followed our tracks, also wanting to ski the Finger... sorry, wrong way. We soon found a passage back onto the Nisqually. A small moat crossing (and minor mishap) later, found us all merrily on a most redemptive ski down. So good!
minor mishap upon re-entering the Nisqually Glacier... Muir highway in the distance...
Franklin, with several thousand feet of goodness still below
Fireman Mike, blazing
looking back at lower Finger from camp
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Stefan
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fwb
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Posts: 38
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Thanks for letting me tag along. Well, maybe I should re-think... after that steep icy wall.
Guess I was a little grumpy at the three hikers postholing in the sweet skin track you set Friday. They said they set off six hours ahead of me... I figure they had enough punishment being at it all day postholing to get to base camp -and to top that they broke through two crevasses...
As the shade cooled the side hill it was a nice sight to see you guys at camp just ahead. Then at camp, clear skies, warm bivy and sunset... all was good.
Speaking of crevasse holes, cool you got a pic of me hauling Cory out of that hole.
All-in-all with the delays, may have been for the best. The crust softened and we had sweet skiing down the Nisqually and Finger.
At one point while sitting above that crevasse I counted over 200 people heading up and down to Camp Muir -I gave up counting though. The other group on the lower Nisqually was OSAT. MRNP is like a bustling city, I typically head to the mountains for the solitude and peace, nice to be up higfh looking down on it all.
I keep falling sleep rather than download the pictures. I'll post when I get them uploaded.
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« Last Edit: 06/08/11, 09:07 AM by fwb »
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Pierce
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Posts: 50
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Sweet TR. Thats a pretty wild photo of the crevasse rescue.
Thanks for the beta your group shared with us Saturday afternoon. Saved us from the crevasse maze you guys got bogged down in.
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jwplotz
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Posts: 323
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Well done Stefan and nicely written! This tr gets my nod for best Fürher Finger report thus far due to the umlaut.
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« Last Edit: 06/07/11, 08:46 PM by jwplotz »
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cumulus
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Posts: 205
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Ha! enjoyed your spelling too John...
On the drive back I blurted out that my grandfather shook the führer's fingers (he was an architect in Munich in the 30's, and for the inauguration of a bridge he designed, the NDSP party came out in full regalia). Zack shot back from the front seat that a grandfather in his extended family had too. Also in the 30's, in a camp in the Black Forest (also in Bavaria), as an emissary for the Boy Scouts of America. Very weird...
I looked into the history of naming of that route but all I could find in terms of association is that one of the first ascent party's members name is Hans Führer.
Maybe Lowell knows...
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Stefan
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Pete A
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Posts: 714
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first ascent party, July 2 1920, included the brothers Hans & Heine Fuhrer (and Joseph Hazard & Thomas Hermans) thus the name of the route.
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Pandora
5Member
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Posts: 38
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cumulus, where are the photos of you?? From what I could tell, you were the steeziest one on the mountain.
Hannah
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Marcus
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Posts: 2237
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Right-click on the image you want and "copy image location", then paste it into the IMG tags.
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cumulus
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Posts: 205
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Right-click on the image you want and "copy image location", then paste it into the IMG tags.
hey Marcus, I've seen quite a few threads turn into image posting tutorials... why not make a sticky post covering it? Would save you time, and (barring the imlpementation of a more user friendly interface) would make it easier for everyone to post pics.
I'd totally be willing to help with tips (i.e. image size can be controlled in the "/s---/" (/s640, /s800, etc.) part of the image location).
And while on (off) topic, why not change the wording of "Photo posting guidelines: Full-sized photos: maximum of 3" that comes up with every posting. Although I thoroughly enjoy being a rebel everytime I post  , newbies may be confused.
Regular TAY readers know this has changed.
cumulus, where are the photos of you??
Lost in the joy of making turns is my best bet... good to meet you out there!
I have a new found appreciation for the allure of that mountain, so I'll be back...
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Stefan
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cumulus
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Posts: 205
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I'm not sure, but it's my impression that the Fuhrer brothers were not Führer brothers.
Thanks for the links Charlie. Interesting.
So I googled "fuhrer", and the first thing that comes up is "Führer" "Führer alternatively spelt Fuehrer in both English and German when the umlaut is not available, is a German title meaning leader or guide now most associated with..."
Or, "Fuhrer", a more direct anglicazation of the name Führer, which, coming from Switzerland, most certainly was Hans' name.
Rarely do names and occupations so precisely meet... since Hans Führer was a guide, one wonders if his name determined his fate... either way, it certainly was apt. Working as a mountain guide in the 20's, he certainly pre-dates the association his last name was to take on...
The Third Reich, aside from it's brutality and devastation, certainly f*cked with a lot of cultural symbology. Not just the name Führer, but even more notoriously their appropriation of that beautiful and ancient symbol, the swastika, which will remain sullied for centuries to come if not forever.
Seems right that the Finger was named after Hans (and Heine). Too bad other cultural associations can't just be erased with one fell swoop. I'm tempted to ski the line with a giant swastika taped to my back, but given all that, it probably wouldn't go over too well...
Semantics, semantics... back to the rock, snow and sun filled reality of it: damn that was a nice ski ! If I could yodel as well as Hans purportedly could, I would've the whole way down...
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Stefan
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fwb
5Member
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Posts: 38
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A few images...
More at link
Just follow the track to camp...
scenic bivy
I didn't get the message about bringing the red coat
A little steeper than advertised
How can you not smile with perfect weather and the scenery
Grouping of the Red Coats
Found a route around these "small" obstacles
Looking down the Finger
Last Look back
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