Home > Trip Reports > July 7-9, Rainier circumnavigation Round Rainier

July 7-9, Rainier circumnavigation Round Rainier

7/15/07
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
23691
20
Posted by Paul_Russell on 7/11/07 12:19am
Fascinations with the High Level Orbit
I have had a fascination with circumnavigating Mt Rainier on skis for several years after being inspired by
Descending from Ptarmigan Ridge onto the N Mowich Glacier, morning of Day 2



Garth viewing the Upper Nisqually Glacier, afternoon Day 3



Crossing the Ingraham Whitman Divide below Little Tahoma, early evening Day 3

My Thanks
Thanks to Garth and Benj for being great partners on a very satisfying trip, especially to Garth for his detailed research and mapping of the routes and route finding skills.  After many years of climbing and skiing on Rainier, this was a really rewarding way to see the entire mountain, to connect all the pieces, and to experience the different viewpoints through the entire traverse.  There was also something satisfying about encircling the mountain and ending where we began. 



upper left, crossing the Ingraham Gl, upper right, on the N Mowich Gl under the Mowich Face,
lower left, on the Kautz Gl, lower right, climbing onto the Russell Gl, Liberty Ridge in background


Notes
1. details of the original Molenaar route are described in .  I debated taking my heavier Cannon SLR, but was pretty happy with the results of this smaller wide angle camera.

Reflections


Sunset at Ptarmigan Ridge camp, Day 1; Sunset at Pyramid Gl camp, Mt Adams in distance, Day 2

The still and solemn power of many sights,
And many sounds, and much of life and death.
In the calm darkness of the moonless nights,
In the lone glare of day, the snows descend
Upon the Mountain; none beholds them there,
Nor when the flakes burn in the sinking sun,
Or the star-beams dart through them -- Winds contend
Silently there, and heap the snow with breath
Rapid and strong, but silently!  Its home
The voiceless lightning in these solitudes
Keeps innocently, and like vapour broods
Over the snow, The secret Strength of things...


~Shelly

[Edit: testing photo display problem. TR left unchanged after testing. --Charles]
Wow.
Nice one, Paul.
I don't know that anyone else has ever done it in three days, have they?

Thanks Ron.  Lowell and Carl with Bruce Goodson did it in 3 days back in 1996.  Lowell wrote a nice article that got published in Backcountry magazine in Nov 2002.  I believe Lowell also attempted it with Gordy in a day (of course) some time later, but got turned around.   Lowell also mentions a couple of other parties who did it in 1986 and 1990, both in 5 days.  The Boulton Gang also did it on foot in 1969 in 6 days. 

http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/subjects/R.html

The 24 mi and 14000' of gain was deceiving.  It felt like more...supposedly it can be done with something closer to 12,000' of gain, so we may have added some by taking a couple lower route options.  I think it would also be done more easily early in the season with better coverage if you can get a solid weather window.  I could see the potential for doing it in 2 days going lighter early in the season, but not sure about 1 day.  I'll leave that to Lowell  ;)

Great job -- I love reading about all the other folks, doing other things on the same mountain while we were up there.  Nice work!

Awesome, I really wanted to do this trip last week, but didn't want to go solo. It's cool to see that you guys got out there and were able to do it. That's exciting to see and inspires me to make a more conscious effort to plan better for it next year.

damn!  That's an amazing trip- it has been on my list for awhile!  Well done, for sure.

Well that sure is a round-a-bout way to go! ;D  That's a great TR and awesome trip you guys had, nice work.  Can't wait to see more pics!  Is it feasible to circumnav at a higher elev on the mtn (not counting the crater)?  It would be interesting to see how the trip time changes according to altitude.

We should have a race, with different teams restricted to different elevation zones.

Marcus, I think we may have seen you guys heading up to Ptarmigan ridge.  Nice work and good decisions there .  I gazed frequently on the Mowich face wondering what it would be like to try skiing, and glad to be where I was. 

Jason, definitely do this trip, but not solo!

Merk, more pics posted.  We often commented on how savy Molenaar was with the route choices based on obvious knowledge of the Mountain and terrain.  I think he nailed it.  Going higher might shorten the circumference, but I expect it would get more technically difficult.  I wonder what is the optimal altitude for ski touring on a mountain?


Heh -- thanks, but we were with some friends over on the Emmons (the one glacier you didn't touch!).  The Ptarmigan ridge crew was Skye and Dan, I believe.  Out of my league :)

Good job, Paul! Glad you finally got this one done!

Very cool.

I've also always wanted to do this (for the views) since first reading about Dee's trip, but never got around to it. I'd want to take my time for photos though.

Did your uphill leg get more tired with all that traversing in the same direction?

Congratulations on completing this project Paul! You were really persistent. I'm glad we had a chance to ski the Paradise to White River traverse together last year. It's cool to have circled the whole glacier system.

With the warm spring we've had, it looks like the glaciers were more icy for you guys than when Carl, Bruce and I did it (July 5-7, 1996). But it's still a beautiful trip. Carl was the one who wrote the story for Backcountry magazine, not me. It was one of the few times he complemented his lens with his pen.

author=Merk link=topic=7573.msg30225#msg30225 date=1184190693]Is it feasible to circumnav at a higher elev on the mtn (not counting the crater)?  It would be interesting to see how the trip time changes according to altitude.


It's not really feasible to circle the mountain higher, or at least not practical. Mt Rainier is shaped like a bell. It has a rounded top, steep sides and then it flares out at the bottom. The high level orbit runs roughly at the level where the mountain flares out. Higher there are a lot of icefalls and rock cleavers and they would provide many obstacles to traversing.

Dee Molenaar's book was the first to popularize the high level orbit. But credit for pioneering the route goes to Hal Foss, who was a member of the Cascadians club of Yakima. He did the route in 1967 and repeated it a year later with Molenaar and others.

really nice pics and a great adventure !  kickasskitty missed out  ;)

author=jd link=topic=7573.msg30261#msg30261 date=1184293670]

Did your uphill leg get more tired with all that traversing in the same direction?


...interesting thought.  how about doing it clockwise?

Very nice Paul and group, great TR and photos, congrats to all for achieving your goal . 

It's always fun to live vicariously through someone's fascinating TR  :). 

Wow - what a nice trip! Congrats - I am glad you were finally able to do it. Great pictures!!

Great acomplishment!... congratulations to you all...Jerry

paul and gang--wow, nice report and photos!!  so impressive!  :)

That's a beautiful, inspiring trip. thanks for the write-up and pics.

Commendable effort Paul and gang!  Sounds like an amazing trip you had.  Very inspirational - would love to do the same some time.  Congratulations.

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2007-07-11 07:19:27