Home > Trip Reports > May 14/15 Mt. Rainier, Emmons route summit ski

May 14/15 Mt. Rainier, Emmons route summit ski

5/14/12
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
6296
11
Posted by snoholic on 5/16/12 3:22am
We did the Emmons route the long way with a bike/hike/skin/climb combo to get to the summit. We left Hwy 410 about 10am and rode bikes to the ranger station where the snow began. Left bikes at the  Ranger Station and skinned up to Camp Sherman via the moraine route arrived about 7pm. We did not see a soul all day just a few goats.  We had a warm easy sleeping night at Sherman and slept in till almost 8am. Left from Sherman for the summit at 9:15am. The route is surprisingly broken up at the upper end of the corridor around 11000' as you head into the serac area. We had to do some exporing to find a way up. A rope was nice as we had to belay across (2) questionable snow bridges. Our route will not be functional for much longer. Above that it was pretty straight forward to the summit with snow bridges allowing for a fairly direct climb above 12000'. Summited about 3pm. Ski down was pretty firm but relatively smooth allowing for a quick descent.  We had spectacular spring turns down the lower Emmons from camp to the moraine trail. We saw three ranger heading up on the lower Emmons the only people we saw on the entire trip. Lot of stream crossings and other shenanigans ensued and we manages to ski out to the campground and beyond. While we were out, the snow plows were working hard and cleared the road up to Fryingpan Creek. This made our escape a little more interesting. Back at the car around 1130pm.



https://picasaweb.google.com/108365037500696236927






Excellent!

Nice work hauling all the way in there under your own power. And getting there early enough to ski the whole Emmons Glacier via the moraine, I love that variation versus the standard Inter Glacier approach.


Color me impressed!  When you say "our route will not be functional much longer" do you mean the entire Corridor route around 12,000' is looking impassable this year?  That would be unfortunate.

Great trip! Ranger station to Camp Sherman in 9 hr is pretty impressive. Do you have any pictures of the broken up area and the bridge crossings? (I cannot view your Facebook slideshow, it says I don't have a permission.)

There are probably several other option to get thru Icefall area with varying degrees of time and effort. The way we went (the most direct we could find) crossed over a snow bridge that was tucked up against a serac. After that fails (pretty soon) the way we went will be difficult. We had to cross multiple other crevasses in the area, but they should be fine for a while. There may be other options for a lower crossing towards the Winthrop then up. I was quite surprised at how much the area has changed since the last time I was up that route. (17+ years ago) Maybe I should not be so surprised.

Nicely done! Impeccable style!

That's a huge effort. Very well done, pretty cool to have all that to yourself.

Good work, fellers.  KURT HOELTING may even nod in approval.


nice one!  I was driving down Rainier Avenue Tuesday eve with the Mt. looking quite glorious - hey look I said to P, there's Z and T!

Strong work guys.

Hopefully the temp was somewhat cooler then the previous few days.

Fantastic Zack and Trevor! It must have been quite spectacular to have the mountain to yourselves. Love the bike/ski combo! Congrats!


Reply to this TR

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may-14-15-mt-rainier-emmons-route-summit-ski
snoholic
2012-05-16 10:22:24