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Topic: July 5-8, 2007, Mt Rainier, Emmons-Winthrop Route (Read 1757 times)
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Pete A
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Becky and I decided to try to break the record for the longest, most leisurely climb of the Emmons route over the long holiday weekend 
Becky had never made it to the summit of Rainier before and although I've climbed several different routes and skied the Ingraham before, I've been cursed with bad weather or terrible snow every time I've tried to ski the Emmons before...but persistence finally paid off for the two of us.
With a forecast that was bomber and Becky's previous troubles with altitude sickness, we figured why not just take enough time that we could keep the AMS troubles away. My only previous experiences on Rainier had been one and two day jaunts, so taking a rest day at Schurman made the climb and ski of the Emmons really pleasant.
Didn't leave Schurman until sunrise on Saturday morning, and it was warm enough we were in polypro t-shirts and didn't need hats or jackets until the last 1500ft of the climb. We skied off the summit around 1:30pm, and in about an hour and twenty minutes we were back at Schurman. Some friends of ours had arrived that afternoon for a summit ski attempt today (Sunday), so Beck and I decided to ensure our record of the longest trip on the Emmons by hanging at Schurman Saturday evening and skiing out this morning.
Just as Amar wrote in his TR, the route is still quite skiable. The top 1000ft or so was firm enough that it wasn't exactly good skiing, but the snow was edgeable firm powder and some old crusty stuff. No problems with the schrund, still a fat snowbridge over it and one can just slide right across.
Below about 12,800ft the snow was soft (sometimes a little too soft) and made for a easy ski. There are a fair number of thinly bridged small crevasses peppering the route right now, but skis made it easy work and one could scoot right over them while those folks on foot were setting pickets to protect crossing of the bridges.
shot of the current conditions of the route:
Becky at the schrund:
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« Last Edit: 07/09/07, 01:43 PM by Pete A »
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Matt C
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Posts: 150
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Nice work Pete and Becky!!! That isn't a bad way to get it done. I like the leisurely pace sometimes, too. I got shut down on the Emmons last year due to weather...I am hoping to get my revenge next year. Hoping we can hook up for the NFNWR on Adams next year. Enjoy the summer!
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runningclouds
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Great TR Pete! How far did you have to hike, where does the snow start? We're hoping to ski Emmons-Winthrop next weekend.
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Pete A
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continuous snow doesn't start until around 6200ft, about a 1/2 mile past the glacier basin campground...was able to access it via snowbridge that spans the creek, but that snowbridge probably won't last the week and then you'll have to hike a few hundred vf higher on the trail to the head of the valley to get on the snow.
ps- we did meet a volunteer ranger in glacier basin who was ranting about climbers caching sneakers in the rocks higher up in glacier basin and on the bear poles at the campsites....told us he was going to start removing the shoes that climbers left behind. We took our shoes up to schurman since we were gonna spend a couple days lounging around up there, but it sounds like the park service (or perhaps just an overly eager volunteer ranger?) might start making ones shoes disappear if they are cached in the basin during a climb.
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Marcus
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Way to finally tick this one off Pete. Thanks for thinking far enough ahead for the rest of us to join you -- great trip. Glad I got it in before the over-eager ranger stole my shoes...
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Pete A
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dumb luck = me making a climbing reservation three months ago that actually coincided with a 14,000ft freezing level
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Kirsten
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Hopefully you have the same dumb luck next time you make a reservation!  The weather could not have been more perfect.
It was really cool watching you and Becky ski down the Corridor as we topped out at Camp Curtis. You can even see two small little black dots in one of our pictures.
--Q
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Spin Fast
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Here is a shot from Camp Sherman the morning of the 5th. A buddy and I began the skin up around 7:00 AM, timing the ~ 2:00 PM ski descent quite well considering. My first time up there and it was a great experience. Thank god the conditions were as they were!
More images will be posted on my site shortly
Ian
---
www.mackieimages.com
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