Home > Trip Reports > April 12, 2008, - Gib Ledges and Kautz Glacier

April 12, 2008, - Gib Ledges and Kautz Glacier

4/12/08
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Posted by daveb on 4/13/08 1:55pm
Mt Rainier
Gibraltar Ledges ascent with Kautz Glacier descent

Original Content http://staff.washington.edu/dlbrown/small/Kautz.htm


Rainier from near Ricksecker Point with ski descent.


Ascent in red and descent in green.

I left Seattle Thursday afternoon hoping to climb and ski the Fuhrer Finger on Friday.  However, lack of an overnight parking permit got me ousted from the Park.  Since the entrance gate doesn't open until 8, an ascent was out of the question.  So I camped outside the park and settled for skiing from Camp Muir to the Nisqually Bridge on Friday.  On the way back to Seattle, I stopped by Longmire to fill out all the necessary permits for my next Rainier outing.  As I was filling out my solo permit, I glanced at the person walking in the door.  It was Jason soon followed Hannah!  Jason and I skied the Coleman Deming on Baker last October and Steph and I had Hannah over for dinner a couple months ago.  They were going to climb Gibraltar Ledges and ski something back to Paradise. I happily decided to join them.

After supper at Longmire, we headed to Paradise where we decided two things: skiing the Kautz Glacier would be the descent and sleeping didn't fit into the plan very well .  We skinned to Camp Muir with the setting sun under clear skies followed by a moonlit mountain and falling star.  We stopped at the public shelter for a little rest, then headed to the Gib Ledges.  A crusted snow surface sometimes allowed for great booting and other times allowed for not so great post holing. 


Hannah working hard.

Hannah and I swapped trail breaking duty and stopped near the start of the ledges to wait for Jason.  His stomach had been bothering him at Muir, and he wasn't really sure what was causing the problem.  As we waited, two climbers caught up to Hannah and I.  They said Jason puked, then told them he had done the mountain in 10 hours.  I don't think they believed him.  Unfortunately, Jason had to turn around.  So Hannah and I continued, across the ledges...


Hannah traversing on Gibraltar Ledges with Nisqually Ice Cliff and Alpenglow on icecap.

...and as the sun rose...


Sunrise with St Helens and the Nisqually Ice Cliff.

...up Gib Chute.


Hannah climbing the Gibraltar Chute with the one eyed Nisqually Ice Cliff staring.


Sunrise above Gib Chute with Adams (photo by HC).

We continued up the summit ice cap having to dodge a few hidden crevasses.


Looking up the summit ice cap from Gib Rock (photo by HC).

From Point Success we clicked in for the descent down the Kautz.  The first 100 vertical feet were hard, wind blown ice pellets and provided a little needed challenge.  The snow changed to a firm base with a thin, smooth, and edgeable powdery surface.  With lowering elevation, the powdery surface deepened and eventually provided full on pow turns.  The powder thickened with the descent, but remained very enjoyable.


Hannah skiing midway down the Kautz glacier.


A couple turns later with St. Helens in the background.

Neither one of us had descend the route.  However, Hannah had climbed the route previously, and in November I had climbed to the base of the Kautz ice cliff.  A ramp penetrates the ice cliff in the Kautz Glacier and is the only ski able route down the glacier.  We were a little nervous as we neared the cliff from above hoping to find what we had only seen from below.  Many locations were clearly not the ramp, ending in a intersection of ice and air.  At one location, the glacier rolled over and hid its true identity to those willing to go a little farther.  I cautiously skied the roll and let out a holler when I saw the nice steep ramp of snow we were looking for!


Skiing the ramp on the Kautz Ice Cliff (photo by HC).

The ramp provided another little needed challenge in the form of a breakable crust necessitating jump turns down and below the entire ramp.  After descending the ramp, we traversed below the Kautz Icecliff (shown below) to a fixed rope that ascends a short vertical section of rock.


Hannah skiing below the ramp in the ice cliff.  The ramp is behind the ice towers on looker's right of her.

From the fixed line, it's a 6,000 vertical foot ski descent to Paradise.  I was anticipating either breakable crust or deep sticky snow from the Turtle back to Paradise, but we were both happily surprised to find enjoyable spring skiing all the way to the fan.  The spring snow/slush/somethingness provided the first knee deep turns I've ever had in anything but pow.  We met Jason at Paradise and enjoyed looking back at Rainier and our two sets of tracks dropping from the summit.

While we were eating supper at Copper Creek, Jason was trying to figure out what made him sick while mentioning the 6 capsules of Advil (or aspirin?) he took before the climb....


Enjoying the Wapowety Cleaver (photo by HC).


Congratulations, having climbed the Kautz route I thought the headwall was steep, but skiing it....nicely done!!!  Talk about taking advantage of a good weather window and making the best of it!   8)  Great pictures!  How is Fuhrer Finger looking? 

Back to back (with no sleep) Muir to the bridge and Point Success to Paradise?  That's hard core daveb!  That would be more skiing than from the summit to sea level and nearly equivalent to climbing to the top from sea level.  You set the bar high sir.  Way to go.  Sorry to hear that Jason was ill.  Sometimes despite all of the preparation, things beyond our controll get the best of us.  It sounds like it worked out well however that Hannah was able to continue with her last minute partner.  A fortunate turn of events for both of you to be sure.

Thanks for the inspiring TR.

Nice Job!!!

Nice work! What time did you drop off Point Success?

Thanks for the TR dave. It makes me that much more jealous I didn't make it.

On my way down I took a few pics:

http://cascadecrusades.org/misc/rainier/DSC_5224.jpg
http://cascadecrusades.org/misc/rainier/DSC_5243.jpg
http://cascadecrusades.org/misc/rainier/DSC_5229.jpg
http://cascadecrusades.org/misc/rainier/DSC_5226.jpg
http://cascadecrusades.org/misc/rainier/DSC_5215.jpg

Thanks for the great TR and excellent pictures - I hope Charles lets them stay (photo guidelines seem to be looser these days). You really took advantage of the weather window!

Lisa, the finger looked good to go.  Both Jason and Hanna had already done it, or else that may have been our descent.  Trumpetsailor, we dropped off the summit around 11 and made it to Paradise around 2.  As always, great photography Jason!

Hey Dave, Jason, and Hannah- great to meet you all on the way up to Muir. Glad your trip went  so amazingly well, with sweet, sweet photos!

Drew

Good job, you both have +1 relative to me for that one.  Gotta get motivated to ski the Kautz before the chute goes to ice.

author=daveb link=topic=9776.msg39324#msg39324 date=1208148944]
  As we waited, two climbers caught up to Hannah and I.  They said Jason puked, then told them he had done the mountain in 10 hours.  I don't think they believed him. 



Almost fell off my chair laughing when I read this. Without a doubt one of the smoothest trips I've ever had on the Mountain; pretty awesome for our first outing together.  :)

I'm still ticked. You lucky bastards got it good. You can't imagine how hard it was for me to sit and look up at the sunny mountain, thinking of you gliding down it.

We saw your tracks as we were heading down the Muir snowfield. We looked for the uptrack up the Kautz and never saw it, and then put it together: they climbed up and over the Gib ledges. That's bad ass. Maybe i'll have to go back next weekend and tick that off the list. How long did it take from Muir to Point Success?

Wow, game on with that one.  Timing is everything!  Can't imagine the odds of being at Longmire getting a permit and having two people walk in the door with that kind of a plan and invitation, and being ready to go.  Curious what the winds were like for you?  We encountered 'knock you down' type winds Sat in The Oly's and heard of similar winds up byThe Pass.

Nice work you two.  Too bad my balls have shrunk to nothing  :'(

Boot, the winds were light, although the others may have more to say about conditions up on the summit. The conditions were deep snow but you couldn't have asked for better weather. Climbing up under the stars were awesome.

Dave C. I know how you feel, especially after seeing how sky and ryan have been killing it. I feel inadequate.  :'(

By the way Jason, meant to add: thanks for adding your pics.  As always those are some hot images!

Jas - But I guess we're both bringing home le pay cheque.

Great trip!  Love the pics!

We skied to the Turtle Camp via Van Trump and were surprised to see down tracks from Hazard with no up track!  I figured it had to be a traverse trip via Paradise.  Mary said there must have been a Hummel in the group, she was almost right. (sorry Jason!)  Great trip report! -  Eric.

author=David_Coleman link=topic=9776.msg39374#msg39374 date=1208213321]
Jas - But I guess we're both bringing home le pay cheque.

Speaking of which, can I borrow a few bucks? I need new boots :-)

Great trip Dave, Hannah, and Jason. Dave- your uturn at Longmire was badass. That picture of Hannah breaking trail in the darkness has made me re-think what counts as a big day. Wow.

Oh hell yeah! That rocks. Noyce peeps.

author=David_Coleman link=topic=9776.msg39368#msg39368 date=1208211659]
Nice work you two.  Too bad my balls have shrunk to nothing  :'(


Ahem. Don't worry, Dave. Clearly balls aren't needed for this kind of thing.

Mighty big ovaries, for sure.  ;)

author=David_Coleman link=topic=9776.msg39368#msg39368 date=1208211659]
Nice work you two.  Too bad my balls have shrunk to nothing  :'(

Just don't say the P word.

No worries there Barry, that's what Amar is for.

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april-12-2008-gib-ledges-and-kautz-glacier
daveb
2008-04-13 20:55:44