May 12-13, 2018, Mt. Rainier Fuhrer - Short Video

We were wondering what was going on over there!

That Wilson avalanche was not fun to trigger, however.

Route info: Above the Finger, cross a workable snow bridge and make your way onto the middle of the Nisqually glacier, follow that to the top. I agree, skiing down at 10:30 would have probably been optimal.

Neat video! We were up there at the same time as you. Here's a link to all my unsorted photos, you guys are in a few of them!

Wilson avalanche? What?

x2... Kam, got a story to tell?

That last roll on the lower Nisqually before the glacier flattens out and you ascend back up ot Paradise was running pretty good late in the day with loose wet.

I had the same experience in 2009 - could have just tagged this photo from Sunday and it looked the same.

https://photos.google.com/u/1/album/AF1QipNIn09V9Am6g-RUI6d3AwIJlUDF5xXWOKoULLjI/photo/AF1QipO8a34Nj7bqn16NjFYujPx2qjr_lhQCrAWSCLgw

author=Josiahbru link=topic=40682.msg161613#msg161613 date=1526330184">
Neat video! We were up there at the same time as you. Here's a link to all my unsorted photos, you guys are in a few of them!

Thanks Josiah, Great Shots and thanks for taking over the step making.

Yeah nice to see you up there Josiah. Scott, your photo doesn't work for me.

I was leading our group down the Wilson, the first of the groups down for the day. I guess it was around 1:30 pm? I stopped at the last roll and saw 2 people on the skintrack below, but they were off to the side. The snow was clearly saturated, maybe 6" ski pen, so I made a turn, could tell the snow was moving, and ski cut right towards a flatter section. Well, the snow really picked up a lot of momentum, and I ended up cutting at least a football-field width section of the slope away. It stopped well short of the skintrack, which crossed the flat plateau below far from the runout (the people were out of the way anyway), but it was still disconcerting to cause so much snow movement. My guess is it was a R2-D2.5.

I didn't take any pics because I wanted to just get out of there at that point. We watched the groups after us all roll into the same section, and some of them caused some more big slides. It left a bad taste in the mouth after an otherwise nice descent.

The Volken guidebook recommends skiing the Finger as early as it's edgeable. This makes sense with the aspect of the Wilson and the temps you'd like for softer snow up high. Again, I think we were an hour too late to summit and could have packed up camp more quickly. In retrospect, I don't think there was much of an "avalanche-free" option down that section, at the time of day we descended. However, I would have liked to have stopped a bit longer and really planned that ski cut more.

This experience, as well as the unpleasant approach skinning up the Wilson gully next to those lower Nisqually serac-fall zones, makes the Comet falls/Van Trump route sound a lot nicer in the future.

author=kamtron link=topic=40682.msg161648#msg161648 date=1526488646]
This experience, as well as the unpleasant approach skinning up the Wilson gully next to those lower Nisqually serac-fall zones, makes the Comet falls/Van Trump route sound a lot nicer in the future.

My perspective in general for all the routes on that side... + camping at Wapowerty Cleaver is infinitely more pleasurable than Muir, IMO.

author=kamtron link=topic=40682.msg161648#msg161648 date=1526488646]
Yeah nice to see you up there Josiah. Scott, your photo doesn't work for me.

I was leading our group down the Wilson, the first of the groups down for the day. I guess it was around 1:30 pm? I stopped at the last roll and saw 2 people on the skintrack below, but they were off to the side. The snow was clearly saturated, maybe 6" ski pen, so I made a turn, could tell the snow was moving, and ski cut right towards a flatter section. Well, the snow really picked up a lot of momentum, and I ended up cutting at least a football-field width section of the slope away. It stopped well short of the skintrack, which crossed the flat plateau below far from the runout (the people were out of the way anyway), but it was still disconcerting to cause so much snow movement. My guess is it was a R2-D2.5.

I didn't take any pics because I wanted to just get out of there at that point. We watched the groups after us all roll into the same section, and some of them caused some more big slides. It left a bad taste in the mouth after an otherwise nice descent.

The Volken guidebook recommends skiing the Finger as early as it's edgeable. This makes sense with the aspect of the Wilson and the temps you'd like for softer snow up high. Again, I think we were an hour too late to summit and could have packed up camp more quickly. In retrospect, I don't think there was much of an "avalanche-free" option down that section, at the time of day we descended. However, I would have liked to have stopped a bit longer and really planned that ski cut more.

This experience, as well as the unpleasant approach skinning up the Wilson gully next to those lower Nisqually serac-fall zones, makes the Comet falls/Van Trump route sound a lot nicer in the future.

I was on the Nisqually at 7200ft (crevasse rescue practice) and saw the avies; here's a picture I took (I think it was the second group skiing this?)

Souring experience indeed!
Those van trump snow fields look gooood early season too. I think early in the year, that seems to make more sense.

Some photos of the good!

FYI as of yesterday a crucial snowbridge is melted out in the middle section of the upper Nisqually.

Edit: Better stated, a large block shifted, causing the bridge to open up and necessitating a jump for an ascending climber or descending skier.

back up again?

Up and over and down to the aforementioned crevasse, then back up and down the way we came up.

author=kamtron link=topic=40682.msg161821#msg161821 date=1527147211]
Up and over and down to the aforementioned crevasse, then back up and down the way we came up.

Gettin after it, Kam. Fuck... I work too much.