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June 24-25 Rainier via Emmons

6/15/06
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
7057
11
Posted by Eli3 on 6/26/06 6:52am
I met up with lara at camp Sherman saturday evening, as she had headed up Friday with some fellow tay€™ers who were on foot.  The weather was clear, calm and warm.  We started early for the summit (around 2am), anticipating a slow ascent.  The climb was pretty arduous but straightforward, mostly due to me not taking well to the altitude.  But, lara persevered and pushed me all the way to the top; we made it around 11.  There was a gaggle of rangers at the summit, and two other skiers.

After a brief respite waiting for the upper slopes to soften, we started out descent.  The top section was hard snow, not much ice.  The wind effects were challenging to ski over, but definitely doable.  As we descended, the conditions went from corn with ice chunks to slop depending on aspect.  We only had to take our skis off once from the summit to Sherman due to getting a bit too far below the boot pack and becoming surrounded by crevasses.  The hour and a half ski down was far superior to my sloppy slog down the last time I went up rainier!

We stopped by Sherman to melt some snow and pick up our gear, and then skied down the interglacier, which was still in pretty good condition late in the afternoon giving us a 8500vf day!  not bad for late june :)
Awesome. I plan on heading up there with a newby on the 4th. It will be the first time in years I've climbed anything with snow and not skied it.



from lara's camera near the summit

Hmm could this be you skiing down around 1 PM this pick was taken from Steamboat Prow

No man, I think that is me!  That's was my sixth or seventh day skiing, ever.  ::) ;D <-- (just to be clear, these are here b/c I ski crappy)

http://students.washington.edu/ashwortj/NWMountains/Rainier060626.html

author=Jason_H. link=topic=5004.msg21062#msg21062 date=1151359183]
Awesome. I plan on heading up there with a newby on the 4th. It will be the first time in years I've climbed anything with snow and not skied it.


Dude are you telling me your climbing partner can't ski or snowboard?  I know they have to have skills at least as good as my skiing ability?  ???  (Of course there is the issue of carrying that extra 15 lbs...)

I was camping on the summit of the 3rd burrough on saturday night and I noticed a traverse line that seemed to go from St Elmos pass all the way accross the winthrop glacier and as far as the eye could see does anyone know anything about this track

Well, actually, I do think those pics are of Eli and me skiing since we hit camp at 1:10pm (and crossed 2 other tracks(username?)-the only 2 people skiing in front of us!).

The track you see crossing the Winthrop from St. Elmo's is the Liberty Ridge route.  Um, no thanks.

Eli-thanks for posting a TR. I'm just now getting around to doing that sort of thing!  Awesome trip, but skis make for a heavy pack on the way to camp....I do it again to avoid walking down that darned mountain anytime, though :)

~Lara

Hm, well I only see one set of tracks on that side in that photo, those being made by the skier.  So unless I didn't leave any tracks... (oddly I don't remember hucking that big, but I guess I could have been a little out of it.  ;D)

Perhaps we are both here in this photo, on the front page of Gauthier's Rainier blog:

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1016/3057/1600/Skiers%20on%20Summit.jpg
http://www.mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.com/

How was the skiing on the Interglacier? Is it still a worthwhile destination? I'm thinking of heading up there on Sunday for a one day outing...
  Richard

ah yes, username...we are ALL in that great summit photo. I'm the one in the blue helmet :)

As for skiing the interglacier, it's still worth the trip, but be careful.  It's starting to open up a bit.  It also gets pretty sloppy quickly, so hit it early before the sun bakes it.

have fun!
~L

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june-24-25-rainier-via-emmons
Eli3
2006-06-26 13:52:58