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Mar 31: Rainier summit to bridge via Fuhrer Thumb

3/31/13
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
4652
7
Posted by bs. on 4/2/13 4:29am
how improbable is it that a perfect weather window for an early spring rainier summit mission would open up... and line up perfectly with my days off?  i had to blink, rub my eyes, refresh the page and look again when i saw the low wind and high temps forecast for the summit.  i've been looking up at that mountain since moving to seattle 2 summers ago and knowing that one day i'd have to ride off the summit.  i sent out the email mid week, "who wants to go"?  turns out a lot of folks were either already up there or had other big plans, but a couple of my friends who have shared some great adventures this winter were up for a weekend trip.  we all were hoping to climb and ride the fuhrer route because, well, it looks cool.  none of us had ever been to the summit or in those chutes, so we would all get to share in the extra adventure of route finding.

we started out on saturday morning with a quick stop at whittaker mountaineering for some easter candy.  we reached the paradise lot around 10am, where we ran into amar, who had kindly given me a bit of route beta via email the day prior.  he and his party were just starting out as we began packing our gear.

we followed the muir herd up to about 6300 feet and then transitioned to drop onto the nisqually.  as we transitioned back after our short descent, we saw the other parties above us who had obviously known that the shorter route was to drop in lower and not gain as much unnecessary elevation.  we were glad to have a skin track to follow, and satisfied to see that it was pretty much taking the route we had agreed on before dropping in.  around 8300 feet, we decided to split off and start our own track, as it appeared that the camp spots by the turtle rocks were going to be quite crowded, and a friend had told me that it was possible to camp on the ridge between the wilson and nisqually glaciers.

as we worked our way up the eastern edge of the wilson glacier, a huge wet slide, probably triggered by serac fall, came roaring off the headwall.  despite that all parties on the glacier were well out of the way, it was quite an impressive and intimidating spectacle.  soon we spotted a flat portion of the ridge around 9600 feet.  as we traversed up to it, i began to realize the superiority of the other camp sites to our west--easier, less steep access, no early morning icy descent required to get back on the wilson, and most important of all, better views of the sunset!  all that notwithstanding, it was gratifying to have found our own route through some crevasses and nice to have a campsite to ourselves, even if we had to shovel for awhile to create a truly flat sleeping platform.  as we settled in to cook dinner and watch the sunset, i lamented not carrying some beers up what turned out to be a pretty easy approach.  as we ate, we watched with dismay as a party of two pitched a tent in an ominous looking hollow about 200 feet from the toe of the massive fresh debris pile and directly in the fall line of the headwall.

the wind was so calm, and the sky so beautiful that we opted to sleep in the open.  thus when the mostly full moon rose around midnight, it woke us all up to take in the spectacle as the southern volcanoes lit up on the horizon.  we awoke again just after 3am to the sight of a line of headlamps starting up towards the chutes.  our plan had been to start around 5, but we questioned our planning at the sight of other folks starting so early, and decided that we'd nap another half hour and then begin our ascent preparations.  i was still awake, running through gear checklists in my head when the alarm went off at 3:45.  it was go time.

sadly, one of our party decided that his elevation induced nausea from the night before had not abated enough to have confidence in the climb, so he decided to stay at camp.  so saign and i downclimbed from the ridge, stashed our camping gear, and started up the chute as a pair.  it had taken longer than expected to melt enough snow to fill our stomachs and water bottles, so we began climbing around 5:30, just as the headlamps over by the turtle rocks began bobbing up the trail after us.

there was an excellent bootpack up the finger, apparently established the day prior and packed in by the earlier party, so the climbing was easy and fun as we enjoyed the sunrise alpenglow.  we roped up around 12,000 feet after i punched one leg into a small crevasse.  we could see the faint remains of an old skin track, but decided that with the snow still quite firm and a nice bootpack already set that it would be easier to continue on foot.  we finally switched over to skins and ski crampons around 12,500.  the parties before us had left a mix of boot and ski tracks, so we had some options as we navigated our way through the crevasses.  as unfamiliar as we were with the terrain, i think the route would have been obvious even without the tracks, but it would have been scary in low visibility conditions.  as it was, we had sunny bluebird skies, and found ourselves wishing with amazement for just a hint of wind to cool us off.

the upper part of the climb was straightforward, but soon became too icy even for ski crampons, so we finished on foot.  as we neared the crater rim, i could see far below that amar had taken a less steep route to our east and was able to skin all the way up.  familiarity with the mountain has its benefits!  we reached the crater rim at 1pm and finally i made good on the promise that i'd been reiterating to saign every hour since sunrise and got out my stove to melt us some water.  rehydrated and stoked, we skinned across the crater so that we could transition on the true summit to start our run.

after staring up at this imposing and spectacular mountain for almost 2 years, i was finally assembling my snowboard on the summit.  i looked down to the north and pointed out a few landmarks that i remembered from the

relaxing at 9,600 feet.


summit stoke!!!!!

Great write up Ben! It was an awesome first attempt and summit! I don't think we could have hoped for better conditions.

I just got my phone back, and have a few pics up until sunrise in the finger where I lost it.


author=n16ht5 link=topic=28151.msg118337#msg118337 date=1364931636]
I see a gopro, wheres the vid? nice pics


...coming soon

Sick! congrats on the summit. I'm excited to see the gopro footage, it should be pretty epic!

https://vimeo.com/63209130

You can read my lengthy report on the vimeo page if you like. I tried to write a short one but got carried away like Ben...

nice work!  We hit the top a little bit later via the Success Glacier Couloir.  Hope you had a rad ride down.  let's go shred soon.

saign that was an awesome video

congrats you guys, that looked like the run of a lifetime!

Sounds like you guys got primo conditions on such an amazing line.

Strong work and great write up Ben.

Wish I could have joined you guys.

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bs.
2013-04-02 11:29:14