April 25-26 Mt. Rainier Fuhrer Finger

I was resisting the urge to blog about this one but since im bored i thought i'd share.

There are not many good action shots due to several reasons, violent winds and altitude sickness up high, too good of snow to stop in the middle, and fog in the lens on the glacier. If you want a better idea of the run check Ben and Saign's report from a month ago. They had better snow and a go pro, Ben even throws a (BS) 360 with the overnight pack!

http://www.splitboard.com/talk/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=15332



We got to the Paradise parking lot, dazed and confused with blurry eyes, (cause the sun was so bright) at 2pm on the 25th.Trad Brad, in a classic Tele skier move forgot his poles. Tele skier's and people from his native land of Idaho, are crafty folk. he fashioned ski poles out of bamboo wands, duct tape and orange peels.

Photos by Ryanirv



Polypro and shorts, He was also a member of the much loved climbing club the Mountaineers.



The poles broke after 5 minutes.

We crossed the nisqually glacier in scorching hot conditions, avalanches poured in a constant stream from both sides of the basin. A huge serac tumbled off the Nisqually ice cliff and produced a huge cloud of white.

We decided it would be best to wait until the sun went down a bit to ascend out of the basin.





We had a nice little bivy around 9,000 feet, drank a rainier beer, relaxed and melted alot of water.

A 4 am start, and a beautiful full moon.



The mountaineers would be proud.





At 13,000~ feet ryan got some altitude sickness. he huddled in a bivy while me and Brad went up the upper Nisqually. It was some slow moving up there.

We finally decided to turn around about 200 feet away from the crater rim. the violent 60-70 mph gusts and the quickly forming lenticular cloud scared the crap out of me. The weather report called for increasing clouds, followed by days of low pressure. The top of rainier is no place you want to be in conditions like that. The decision for me was easy, turn around now, get an awesome 9,000 foot run, and not have to huddle in a snow cave for days with nothing but a foam pad and some gel packets.



I've been riding this super-light setup the last couple of weeks. 13-14 Rome whiteroom (7 lbs), Raceplate bindings (2 lbs?) and gecko mohair skins (1.5 lbs) and tlt-5's. The rome board rides pretty sweet, don't get me wrong i still love my venture, but it sure is nice having that extra weight off my feet.



I gave brad my poles for the way down. See , tele skier and splitboarders CAN get along. We are all one in the mountains.

The snow down at 6,000 feet was sticky and wet. even though there was enough snow to get the 10,500 foot run, it would not be worth it. we skinned up and ascended out of the Nisqually basin and then completed the ride back to the paradise parking lot.



There we were bombarded by tourists. Where did you snowboard from? What are the ropes for? How long did it take you? They were dumbfounded.

Thanks for reading folks. The volcano riding season is just getting started, it's gonna be so good!