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Topic: June 1 and 2 2007, Rainier via Emmons (Read 2559 times)
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jdclimber
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Posts: 263
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After suffering last summer while watching others ski down the Emmons as I plunge stepped, I plotted my return and revenge upon the soft mashed potato post-holing.
My plan was to watch the weather carefully and a few days after the freezing level went up to the top of Rainier and then cooled off I figured it would be time to ski the Emmons route.
Scaring up a partner was difficult, so I ventured to embark on my climb with the statistically minimalist party size of one. A smaller group would have been difficult to find.
On Friday, after blowing off work, I got an early start from White River. As promised the trail showed some signs of trauma due to flooding. In fact, much was unrecognizable with blown out river banks where forest used to be. Rather than screaming “Devastation” I prefer to think of it as new terrain to explore. The Ranger man and a volley trail crew have worked a bit on clearing and marking the new trail, but it is a long way before it will be fast, easy walking. They have also not ventured in with skiers in mind, as there are a number of low hanging sections that made carrying skis more difficult than necessary.
It also added a fair bit of time to the journey, my guess is about an hour but I was moving slow and marveling at the power of the November Rains.
As I entered Glacier Basin, the coverage improved and I began skinning just after the mellow stream crossing. The Interglacier was warm, but not unpleasantly so. I ground up to the top of Steamboat prow and did the loose rock scramble to Camp Sherman. 7.5 leisurely hours got me into camp at about 4.
I was surprised to find only one other party in camp, two fellows from Bend, Chris and Kevin (Paul and Monika, Kevin says Hi!). The wind was fairly brisk, so the three of us set up on the sunny side of the Ranger hut and brewed up. We watched a team of two descend slowly at about 6 PM, and they joined us at Sherman. They had climbed the Ptarmigan Ridge and reported interesting conditions and many crevasses on the Emmons, making me nervous as an unroped soloist.
I turned in around 2100, planning for a 0200 wakeup and a 0300 departure. Although I am now more of a skier than a climber, I still can’t shake the Alpine start (or would that be the Tele start?). I brewed up, at breakfast, spilled a pot of water on my dry liners, packed up my bivy so it wouldn’t blow away and was ready to go by 0230, only to look up and see a nasty looking cloud hovering over the summit.
Reluctantly I returned to bed in hopes of improving conditions, as there is never any sense in climbing into a lenticular. I woke at 0400 to find to my surprise the lenticular totally gone.
I packed up and was moving by 0430 with ski crampons on, making careful progress at a slow 1000ft per hour. The corridor was narrower and more crevassed than I had seen in the past, and I was taking care as well have having to make a number of switch-backing turns on the firm snow.
At about 0515 the Bend Boys caught up and passed me. It took a lot of stress off just knowing that someone else was on the mountain and now I had some fresh tracks to follow, although they were little more than crampon holes in the snow.
The route overall was way more complex than last year, with many snow bridges as well as jogs around larger slots. The worst of which was a long traverse at about 13,500 where the route takes a long end run to the North, and finishes out directly at the highest point of the crater rim.
I summitted at about 1030, just in time to watch the Benders slide off the summit. Like the rest of the climb, the summit was cold and windy. I snapped a couple of pictures, stripped skins, put on knee pads and carefully started back down.
The snow itself was pretty wind scoured and icy, that coupled with my solitude was cause for very conservative skiing and careful route finding. Much more “no falls” skiing than I usually do, but by no means extreme compared to what a lot of folks seem to be doing these days. I did end up hucking a couple little crevasses making me feel a little more Glenn Plake than I am.
The snow improved greatly by the time I got into the Corridor, at which time I realized that I was 1000 feet lower than the Benders, who had gotten a bit off route and were working their way through some interesting terrain. I ended up getting in some fun speed and carving turns in the narrow corridor.
I was back in camp 50 minutes after I had left the summit. Sherman was hot enough to pack up my bivy shirtless. The scramble up Steamboat prow was uneventful and the Interglacier was pretty sloppy by the time I got there, at 1300.
The final highlight was re-crossing the stream, in front of many clean smelling hikers in SPF approved Khaki sun hats, who had wisely be stopped by the now raging river. Kevin had scampered across while Chris and I tried to figure out a better way. The route I chose was over a greasy log which dipped into the river as I crossed it. The hikers looked on with a combination of horror and relief as I casually crossed. I think I witnessed one hiker telling his children to never do such a risky thing. Made me giggle.
Overall, I would say the route will be pretty spicy skiing and route finding in about a week or two, and pretty soon, not a good skiing option.
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Zap
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Posts: 1615
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"making careful progress at a slow 1000ft per hour"
Justin, 1000 ft per hour is considered a healthy pace for a few of us in our 60's. 
Glad to hear it was an enjoyable roundtrip.
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wolfs
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Posts: 564
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Nice!
From the Prow, I watched two skiers come down Emmons around 3PM on the 3rd. Lower part looked nice. Cloud deck at 12K kept me from seeing the whole route. I recall thinking that the corridor did look pretty damn narrow, narrow enough that ski tracks are going to get pretty bunched up in there.
One thing I shoulda mentioned in my post on the other recent Prow thread: wading the Inter fork isn't really necessary, even thought that seemed to be the herd instinct. You can just follow the summer route to the Basin camps (switchback right at an obvious point where there's usually a sign or flag or something, gain about 100ft up a small drainage and then traverse). After reaching the camps there's a decent snowbridged stream crossing of Inter fork 200yrds upstream, just at the start of the ugly moraine. Least there was last Sunday. That's what I did, no wet feet or garbagebag improv required.
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Mad_Dog
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Posts: 614
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Very nice Justin, thanks for sharing your adventure.
"making careful progress at a slow 1000ft per hour" Justin, 1000 ft per hour is considered a healthy pace for a few of us in our 60's.
Thanks for saying that Zap, I was thinking the same thing myself, remembering the days when the "geezers" thought 1,000ft per hour was a pretty good pace . My, how times have changed  .
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There is nothing worse than refusing to learn: this is where old age begins.
Jeanette
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Marcus
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Posts: 2236
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Nice job Justin! We've got permits to climb over July 4th weekend -- sounds like the route might be a little *interesting* for skiing by then...
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cathyedavidson
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Posts: 8
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Your comment: "They have also not ventured in with skiers in mind, as there are a number of low hanging sections that made carrying skis more difficult than necessary."
Agreed, skis are like petrified tentacles snagging EVERYTHING above one's head. Rangers need to slap on some skis onto a pack big enough to make it impossible to tent the skis. Though, beggars can't be choosers - mother nature did her thing and our skis got to tangle with her work more than usual Thanks to the rangers for their work on the "trail" thus far - its condition even improved from Saturday to Monday Memorial Day weekend. Just a lot of damage to handle.
Nice job on the solo ascent/descent, that's truly a great accomplishment!
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allyson
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Posts: 233
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way to go, j-man! that's some pretty gutsy stuff, hucking crevasses and all...glad the weather cleared out enough for you to tag the summit. 
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snowshoe?? why would you??
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JW
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Posts: 372
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Good strong work Justin....very cool ...Jerry
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"You keep skiing, I'll keep filming"
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kam
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Posts: 511
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nice work, Justin!
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What do you mean you didn't bring skis?
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telemack
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Posts: 1320
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Ya, now go clip some bolts for relaxation
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There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.
George Santayana
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Double E
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Posts: 193
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Very nice, JD! Me and a couple friends skied Mt. Ruth on Saturday... we were probably skinning up it as you were coming down the Inter Glacier.... "ships passing in the night", as it were... if we'd gotten to the summit of Ruth an hour or two earlier we coulda watched you ski down the IG.
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Paul_Russell
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Posts: 234
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Nice work Justin, glad you got it in! It looked pretty windy up there on Sunday with the lenticulars we saw while on L Tahoma. Thanks for passing along the greetings from Kevin. Glad to hear they made it. Small world.
Paul
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« Last Edit: 06/08/07, 01:51 PM by Paul_Russell »
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