April 23-25, 2018, Mt. Rainier Circumnav
4/23/18
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3615
5
On Monday Jason, Hannah, Drew, Carl, and I set out to do a ski walk around the big ole glaciated girl.
The travel conditions were about as ideal as one could expect.
Day 1: Departed Paradise and ascended the mindnumbing fields of Muir. With a nice breeze to keep us cool, we made fairly good time to Muir. Dropping on to the Ingraham Glacier from Cathedral Gap where we had a little exposed/icy entrance that may have been avoided by climbing higher towards Disappointment Cleaver?
We were able to ski across the Ingraham and Emmons to our nights camp at Camp Shurman.
Day 2:
A windy night at Shurman had us packing up early and dropping lower on the Winthrop for breakfast and morning rituals.
We were able to ski around Curtis ridge and the Carbon Glacier, where the Willis Wall put on a grand show of city block cascading ice. We dawned skins and climbed up the Russell and Flett Glaciers starting around 7k.
We crossed over Ptarmigan Ridge at 8400k and had a great 1500' ski down on to the North Mowich Glacier and crossing just above Needle rock.
Traversing across the Edmunds Glacier at 8200k was a breeze, where we found a nice ski down to the South Mowich Glacier, avoiding the skier set wet slides. We climbed back up and camped on the Puyallup Glacier, at the flat area around 8600k, for a windless night and some well deserved rest.
Day 3:
We packed up camp and descended to 8200' to avoid the Puyallup Cleaver and skied down onto the Tahoma Glacier. The rest of the day was quite straight forward and we cruised around the mountain at and around the 8000k level, finally descending into the Nisqually drainage and a quick easy climb back to our vehicles and much needed beer.
This was probably one of the best ski backpacking trips I have ever been on. The scenery and friends were all time and I may be dumb enough to even think about doing this trip again. I would however take a miniumum of 5 days, to ski some of the amazing lines that we were only able to window shop.
I will post a vid, if I get around to making one.
The travel conditions were about as ideal as one could expect.
Day 1: Departed Paradise and ascended the mindnumbing fields of Muir. With a nice breeze to keep us cool, we made fairly good time to Muir. Dropping on to the Ingraham Glacier from Cathedral Gap where we had a little exposed/icy entrance that may have been avoided by climbing higher towards Disappointment Cleaver?
We were able to ski across the Ingraham and Emmons to our nights camp at Camp Shurman.
Day 2:
A windy night at Shurman had us packing up early and dropping lower on the Winthrop for breakfast and morning rituals.
We were able to ski around Curtis ridge and the Carbon Glacier, where the Willis Wall put on a grand show of city block cascading ice. We dawned skins and climbed up the Russell and Flett Glaciers starting around 7k.
We crossed over Ptarmigan Ridge at 8400k and had a great 1500' ski down on to the North Mowich Glacier and crossing just above Needle rock.
Traversing across the Edmunds Glacier at 8200k was a breeze, where we found a nice ski down to the South Mowich Glacier, avoiding the skier set wet slides. We climbed back up and camped on the Puyallup Glacier, at the flat area around 8600k, for a windless night and some well deserved rest.
Day 3:
We packed up camp and descended to 8200' to avoid the Puyallup Cleaver and skied down onto the Tahoma Glacier. The rest of the day was quite straight forward and we cruised around the mountain at and around the 8000k level, finally descending into the Nisqually drainage and a quick easy climb back to our vehicles and much needed beer.
This was probably one of the best ski backpacking trips I have ever been on. The scenery and friends were all time and I may be dumb enough to even think about doing this trip again. I would however take a miniumum of 5 days, to ski some of the amazing lines that we were only able to window shop.
I will post a vid, if I get around to making one.
I think your party was more fit.
By ski backpacking, do you mean ski touring?
My party of four, five yrs ago, 3min+ slideshow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ6KIWvjaag
Looking fwd to some traverses when Cayuse Pass opens.
By ski backpacking, do you mean ski touring?
My party of four, five yrs ago, 3min+ slideshow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ6KIWvjaag
Looking fwd to some traverses when Cayuse Pass opens.
Sounds amazing! Nice work. Got any pics?
JasonH has photos and a sweet TR here: http://www.myadventurecrusade.com/2018/04/29/mount-rainier-ski-circumnavigation/
Here is some video from our trip.
https://vimeo.com/267294995
https://vimeo.com/267294995
Psyched.
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