Quick Rainier weekend report
4/15/15
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3052
2
After getting a lot of benefit from reading TR's on here, thought I'd share one myself for the first time.
A friend and I from Bend took advantage of this weekend's high pressure window to make our first visit to Rainier. What a mountain! Totally a different ball game than the peaks in OR.
Between Friday and Sunday, we got some great skiing in below camp Muir. While the snow below (just guessing this #) 8K felt like nice melt-freeze corn by Sunday, everything above felt more like a transitional snowpack left over from Tuesday's significant snowfall. Snow above 10-11K was even further from isothermal, but quite locked up and stability concerns never crossed our minds.
On our foray up higher via the Ingraham, the mountain served up a good bit of humble pie. Our glacier experience is quite basic, and Tuesday's fresh snow spiced up crevasse conditions. Sans boot trail, we had no business trying to navigate through a foreign glacier. It was awesome to ski from somewhat high on the mountain and experience a new place. The highlight was definitely watching a 6'5" young Canadian guy totally style a crevasse jump with sharp thing in hand, a la 'Vertical Limit'.
We couldn't stop eyeing the Fuhrer Finger route all trip, as an ascent and descent of it looks much more straight forward than the 'standard' route'. If it weren't for a random dynafit catastrophe while skinning the Muir on Saturday, we were considering it for the next day. Maybe for the best, as significant haze and a slight breeze on Sunday had us doubting that it ever softened.
Can't wait to go back when it's ready, just a matter of finding more folks in Central Oregon with this type of interest.
A friend and I from Bend took advantage of this weekend's high pressure window to make our first visit to Rainier. What a mountain! Totally a different ball game than the peaks in OR.
Between Friday and Sunday, we got some great skiing in below camp Muir. While the snow below (just guessing this #) 8K felt like nice melt-freeze corn by Sunday, everything above felt more like a transitional snowpack left over from Tuesday's significant snowfall. Snow above 10-11K was even further from isothermal, but quite locked up and stability concerns never crossed our minds.
On our foray up higher via the Ingraham, the mountain served up a good bit of humble pie. Our glacier experience is quite basic, and Tuesday's fresh snow spiced up crevasse conditions. Sans boot trail, we had no business trying to navigate through a foreign glacier. It was awesome to ski from somewhat high on the mountain and experience a new place. The highlight was definitely watching a 6'5" young Canadian guy totally style a crevasse jump with sharp thing in hand, a la 'Vertical Limit'.
We couldn't stop eyeing the Fuhrer Finger route all trip, as an ascent and descent of it looks much more straight forward than the 'standard' route'. If it weren't for a random dynafit catastrophe while skinning the Muir on Saturday, we were considering it for the next day. Maybe for the best, as significant haze and a slight breeze on Sunday had us doubting that it ever softened.
Can't wait to go back when it's ready, just a matter of finding more folks in Central Oregon with this type of interest.
Nice to meet you in the parking lot afterwards.
For those interested, here is the massive crevasse that has been stopping quite a few parties on the Ingraham at 12,300. It essentially spans the whole glacier, and it looks like the only passage is a ramp slightly lower that gains the DC. It is probably approaching 100 feet wide on the climber's left side near Gib Rock, where passage was possible earlier this winter. Navigation on the untracked slopes higher up also looked challenging, and we wanted to get down before all of the new snow softened up too much, so we didn't feel too bad about heading down.
[img width=1000 height=205">https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7670/17270990115_002c610a73_o.jpg" />
[img width=1000 height=750">https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8754/17063573587_2f0f4c734c_b.jpg" />
For those interested, here is the massive crevasse that has been stopping quite a few parties on the Ingraham at 12,300. It essentially spans the whole glacier, and it looks like the only passage is a ramp slightly lower that gains the DC. It is probably approaching 100 feet wide on the climber's left side near Gib Rock, where passage was possible earlier this winter. Navigation on the untracked slopes higher up also looked challenging, and we wanted to get down before all of the new snow softened up too much, so we didn't feel too bad about heading down.
[img width=1000 height=205">https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7670/17270990115_002c610a73_o.jpg" />
[img width=1000 height=750">https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8754/17063573587_2f0f4c734c_b.jpg" />
Thanks for the very valuable report! A very impressive obstacle!
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