June 21-22, 2005, Flett Glacier
6/21/05
3292
3
kam and Michael wisely decided to stay home (what? you don't want to go up on Rainier in a lightning storm?) but khayak and I made an aborted trip up from Mowich Lake Tuesday and Wednesday. Set out in a drizzle with very low visibility around 5:30 PM, bivied in the rain @ 7,000 ft, went up to the edge of the Russell slightly above 8,000 ft on Wednesday morning and turned around in heavy snow and very low visibility. Nothing substantive to add to Charles' excellent TR, but the road is in pretty good shape and they are allowing camping in the XC zone by permit (no one else was there the night of the 21st).
A few more pictures on the
Nice photos and additional TR Greg. Ron and I have done that trip several times over the years, it's such a great area, and when the weather is good the skiing is fantastic ;D. I, myself think that it isn't so much the hike in, it's the hike out that is so awful >:(. We have even gone in there on a full moon weekend, set up camp, climbed up to the saddle between Echo and Observation and skied back to camp, had dinner, waited for the sun to set, climbed back up to watch the full moon rise over the mountain, then skied back in the moonlight. Only one small problem with that is that the large shadow from Echo was cast over the snowfield so there wasn't much moonlight. (We had set wands on our way up before dinner, just in case we couldn't see) I kindly let Ron go first :D and needless to say he caught a couple of wands right in the "wheelhouse" ;) on the way back down 8). It's been a couple of years now since we have done that area, but maybe it's time to think about going in again next year.
I, myself think that it isn't so much the hike in, it's the hike out that is so awful
It's that last 3/4 mile of climbing that gets you . . . "out" hikes are supposed to be downhill!
Greg: after i declined and hung up the phone, i thought, "gee, it might be the perfect opportunity to test out those dishwashing gloves he gave me." ;D anyway, i'm glad you two got some exercise.
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