Nick's Ski Descent of Mount Rainier

Whittaker Mountaineering's Rental Manager, Nick climbed Rainier the second week of May - here is his trip report and some photos from his climb...

Walking downhill has always been my least favorite part of mountaineering. You’re usually tired after a long ascent, all the motivation of reaching the summit has fizzled out, and snow conditions are often beginning to deteriorate. And while it may seem like it would be easier on the body to walk downhill, after a couple thousand feet of descent your legs can turn to jello. Then in the back of your mind you know that most accidents happen on the way down. Rocks that were frozen on the ascent are now starting to melt out and fall onto the glaciers. Seracs weaken and threaten to spill tons of ice down the mountain. A slip or fall can be more difficult to arrest when facing downhill. Okay, you get the picture...

My dislike of walking down mountains combined with my affinity for skiing led me to a logical conclusion: a ski descent. Ever since I began skiing in the backcountry, a ski descent of Rainier had been a personal goal. In even the worst snow conditions, I have always felt more confident on skis than on my own two feet. Plus, skis allow for more efficient travel both uphill (with skins to grip the snow) and downhill, reducing the jello factor. For me, skis are a no-brainier.

My good friend and climbing partner, Matt, recently started backcountry skiing and shared similar goals. We had climbed Rainier together before a couple of times, which ironically were the two longest, most painful descents I’ve ever experienced on the mountain. So armed with that valuable experience, we hatched plans for Matt to fly up from Salt Lake City in May and spend a week in Ashford, hoping a for a weather window to make things happen.

With a close eye on the forecast, we finally saw our window appear and headed up the mountain. We left Paradise in low visibility, but we knew the cloud deck was well below Muir and sunshine wasn’t far away. By the time we reached Panorama Point, we broke free of the clouds and enjoyed the clear skies that would continue for the remainder of our trip. The storm from the days prior had dumped a fair bit of new snow, about 4” at Paradise to more than a foot at Muir.

After a leisurely skin, we arrived at Muir around 3:00 pm and enjoyed the calm breeze and warm sun. There were a couple other groups that also had plans to summit the next day, and we ran into Amar, who I had skied with before and was also planning on ascending the Ingraham Glacier Direct. Although he had two partners for the descent, they were planning on climbing a different route. Since Amar would be going solo, we offered him a place on our rope the next day. Rather than climbing as a team of three, we decided that he would join us if we ran into one another on route the following day. So we relaxed, melted snow, and prepared dinner, in no hurry to crawl into our sleeping bags because an “alpine start” was nowhere in our agenda.

We awoke around 5:15 am to another beautiful day, cloud level still hovering around 7500’ but very little wind and clear skies up high. Sleeping in was another great benefit of skiing. Rather than beginning our ascent hours before daylight, which I am never a fan of, our plan was to allow the sun to soften the firm snow high on the mountain for improved ski conditions. Matt and I departed Muir just after 6:00 am, opting to boot using crampons rather than skin because we were concerned about potential icy sections around Cathedral Gap. One set of snowshoe tracks from another party who had left several hours prior helped to consolidate sections of the route below Ingraham Flats, but the occasional posthole had us wishing we were on skis. In the interest of time, we decided to continue booting until the Flats, where we would transition to skinning.

*Arriving at the Ingraham Flats

After a quick break and now enjoying the extra flotation of our skis, we roped up and continued ascending the Ingraham Glacier, which appeared as smooth and continuous as I had ever seen it. Our pace slowed a bit when we began to encounter breakable crust over unconsolidated powder just above the Flats. Breaking trail in these conditions was rather difficult, but offered a secure grip for our skins and greatly reduced the chance of an uncontrolled slide should one of us fall. We soon reached the party on snowshoes, who had been making very slow progress given the snow conditions and wisely decided to turn around just after we passed them, around 12,000’. At about 12,500’ and just after the only real crevasse crossing of the day, Amar caught up with us. Now a rope team of three, we began a series of long switchbacks on the upper mountain. Snow conditions were much better at this point and we continued skinning up the firm, wind-affected glacier. A few icy sections on the last 1000’ vertical were fairly easy to avoid, never requiring the use of crampons.

*Matt, skinning around 13,500'

*Amar, just below the crater rim

Just below the crater rim we ran into Amar’s other two partners, who had ascended the Nisqually Cleaver. Our group of five skinned up to 14410’ Columbia Crest, the true summit, where conditions were breezy but not too cold. The ascent had taken about 6.5 hours, not bad given the trail breaking but a bit longer than what we had estimated. However, Matt and I were both feeling great, agreeing that it had been the easiest climb we’d ever had on the mountain. At this point, the original plan was for Matt and I to descend the Fuhrer Finger. However, it was without much debate that we decided to descend the Ingraham Direct instead. Our concern was possible wind-loading of the Finger, which could create high avalanche danger in the steep chute. Coupled with the breakable crust conditions below 12,500’, it seemed like an unwise choice to ski a route we had never climbed before in what were potentially dangerous conditions. We stripped our skins and skied off the summit and back down to the lowest point of the crater rim, were we took a longer break before our descent.

*Nick (left) and Matt on the summit!

Now it was time to actually enjoy the trip back down the mountain. Thrilled to not have to walk down, we left the crater rim at about 2:00 pm. Despite the heavily wind-affected snow, the upper 2000’ of the mountain proved to be quite good for skiing. I had never been that high on Rainier without being roped up, and the feeling of exposure while staring down at thousands of feet of glacier was incredible. Not a feeling of intimidation or fear, but rather a complete sense of freedom. Even though nobody else was there to stop me in the case of a fall, it was the first time I had zero concern of sliding uncontrollably or plummeting into a crevasse. I had a huge smile across my face as we made our way down the upper Ingraham Glacier.

*Still high on the mountain, Matt skiing down

*Just before the snow turned bad ...

Unfortunately the good turns ended all too soon. By the time we reached about 12,000’, the breakable crust made skiing much more difficult, even downright scary. Not scary in the sense that you could tumble down the mountain, but in the sense that your knees will be destroyed should your ski tips suddenly dive under the icy surface crust and submarine into the deep unconsolidated snow below. Careful turns (which were more often than not of the downhill-facing kick variety) brought us back to Cathedral Gap where conditions improved a bit. A quick traverse across the Cowlitz Glacier found us back at Camp Muir a little less than 2 hours after we left the summit, a majority of that time spent dealing with the breakable crust.

Our stop at Muir was very brief. Unlike the day prior, there were many hikers and climbers up at the camp enjoying the warm weather. Matt and I took off a few layers, packed up some climbing gear, and quickly departed to enjoy sections of nice corn snow down the Muir Snowfield. Just above Panorama Point, we descended back into the dense layer of clouds that we had experienced the day before at similar elevations. Our world suddenly shrunk to less than 10 feet in any direction. We had one last glimpse of Rainier, said our goodbyes to the mountain we just skied down, and carefully found our way back to Paradise. We were back at my truck 2.5 hours after we left the summit. All and all it was a very successful trip, certainly breaking the streak of long and miserable descents that Matt and I have on record. I don’t think either of us will ever walk down the mountain again.

*Their last view of Rainier on the descent, Panorama Point.