First Winter Seminar of the season summits!

RMI had a great start to the New Year with a successful summit on a Rainier Winter Seminar. The trip lasted from Jan 3rd-8th. RMI guide Andy Bond was kind enough to give us a trip report.

"Heading up to climb a mountain in the dead of winter in rain is never a fun proposition, which is exactly what we were faced with on this January seminar. Leaving the Paradise parking lot in the rain for the 4500’ climb up to Camp Muir the group managed to push through white out conditions and rain all the way up to 9200’. The nice part about some storms in the Pacific Northwest is their low cloud ceiling or a marine layer, which meant Camp Muir was above the clouds and in the sun. The warm temps and nice weather up at Muir gave us a great chance to do some training for our summit climb push the next day. Practicing self-arrest, cramponing and rope travel before moving onto building anchors and crevasse rescue the group was able to work on and build skills needed to climb Mount Rainier and similar mountains.

We awoke the next morning to warm temps and not a breath of wind. Leaving Muir at 6 am we climbed the Gibralter Ledges route, which used to be the standard route on Rainier offering a more direct route to the summit. Climbing on the upper Cowlitz Glacier we saw the sun rise from the East painting an amazing array of colors across an incredibly clear sky where Mount Adams, Hood, Jefferson and Saint Helens were all visible. After enjoying these magical couple of minutes it was time to enjoy the steep climbing and sense of exposure the Ledges route gives a climber. You start by traversing along snowy ledges at the base of Gibralter Rock until you reach Gibralter Chute offering some 50 – 55 degree climbing with the Nisqually Ice Cliff to the left. Once out of the chute we were able to walk a pretty direct line to the summit switching backing over the filled in crevasses to the summit crater. After a safe descent back to Muir where the weather turned to near white out conditions we all enjoyed the comfort the shelter of the bunkhouse gave us from the storm. A long and hard, but very rewarding day left us with a sense of great accomplishment." Andy Bond

Thanks Andy for the great trip report. Check back this winter for more Mountaineering, Skiing and Snow shoeing trip reports.

WM