A Winter Day on Rainier

Rainier felt a bit like winter today.  The RMI climbs turned back shy of the summit, around 13,300' this morning due to inclement weather.  Yesterday, the climbs ascended to Camp Muir in beautiful weather - blue skies and warm temperatures.  RMI guide, Win Whittaker said the snowfield was in great shape with firm snow and a well-traveled boot pack to Muir.  The snow is beginning to melt out in Paradise and the climbs will soon be forced to move over to the summer route to Muir instead of heading straight up Pan Face to Panorama Point.  Over night, a winter storm blew in and the climbers awoke to snow falling at Camp Muir.  They left Muir in heavy snow with the wind blowing around 40 mph.  The route is still on the Ingraham Direct and continues to be fast and straightforward.  There is one ladder in place over a crevasse around 11,700'.  Climbing with very little visibility and in high winds, forced the guides to make the decision to turn around short of the summit.  Win said that upon arriving back at the Ingraham Flats (11,200') from their high point they found at least 3 inches of fresh snow!  He said it was a winter storm up there!  With a freezing level of about 6,500', the climbers descended in snow until they reached Pebble Creek and completed their descent back to Paradise in the rain.

Hopefully our summer weather will return soon!