Everyone stood on top of Rainier on this windless, perfect morning! RMI guide, Seth Waterfall said the climb up to Muir yesterday was perfect - not too hot and not too cold. 90% of the the entire climb is still on snow right now, but with this hot weather things are starting to melt out fast! The teams woke up around 11pm last night and were climbing by 12:30am. Seth said they had to circumnavigate around several crevasses on their way to the Disappointment Cleaver. The Cleaver is still mostly snow covered, which makes for really nice, easy climbing. The route above the Cleaver is still very direct and fast with few crevasses. Crunchy snow made for easy walking in crampons all day and with high, overcast clouds the snow remained crunchy throughout the day. On top, Seth said there was zero wind - which is a lot different compared to recent trips - *see Ed Viesturs' video on the summit in the previous post! Although there were high clouds in the sky, they actually were favorable for the climbers as the snow did not get too soft and slushy all day. The descent back to Paradise was "perfect" - with about 2 inches of soft snow over the top of a firm base. Another easy-on-the-knees descent for everyone!
Congratulations, climbers!
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