A White Summit

The RMI climb today was 100% to the top of Rainier!  Although the weather wasn't the greatest, all of the climbers sill made it up!  RMI guide, Walter Hailes said the climb left Camp Muir around 1:30am in baselayers and softshell jackets - a warm morning heading up towards a cloud capped summit.  The climb was greeted by increasing winds as they ascended higher up the mountain.  The upper mountain brought low visibility with the growing cloud layer.  Walter said the the climbers' view from the summit was just a wall of white.  Upon descending, they managed to escape the clouds around the Ingraham Flats.  The team descended in similar conditions until they were below Muir on the Muir Snowfield, where the snow conditions turned a bit worse.  The snow was "punchy" and they were post-holing most of the way down to Paradise; however, the climbers welcomed a bit of sunshine on their descent.  Everyone's enjoying some sunshine down here in Ashford after a hard-earned summit this morning!

RMI guide, Win Whittaker is on his way up the mountain today.  Here's a photo that he took en route to Camp Muir on the Muir Snowfield:

 

 

Cold & Wintery!

Another cold day on Rainier - and yet another summit for RMI!  The guides radioed down from the summit around 7:10 this morning - but they didn't stay at the top for very long!  It was a frigid morning on the summit - with a foot of fresh snow! (The guides said they wished they had their skis...)  Fortunately, for the majority of the climb the team was sandwiched between two cloud layers - they weren't in the cloud until they reached the top!  There is no change in the route - it continues to be extremely direct and fast. The guides said it was really well-wanded and easy to navigate despite the new snow. The snow didn't turn to rain until they were almost back to Paradise and the snow conditions on the Muir Snowfield were prime for both walking and skiing!

Congratulations, everyone! Keep up the good work on the mountain! 

June 15 - 18 Summit Climb - Trip Report

RMI guide, Mike Hinckley carried a SPOT tracker with him on his climb - here's a full trip report from the climb and a map with the route that the climb took to the summit!

Go To The SPOT Adventure

Another Summit for RMI!

Low visibility and a moist day on Mount Rainier didn't stop the climb from reaching the summit today!  The climb ascended in the clouds with limited visibility until they arrived at the summit when they had a lucky break in the clouds for a well-earned bit of sunshine!  The guides said they were bombarded by a steady stream of groppel falling from the sky for most of their climb on the upper mountain.  Right now, the route continues to be fast and direct with little day-to-day variation.  Although the climbers were confronted by wintery, cold conditions they experienced a relatively calm, low wind day on the mountain.  


By the time they began their descent from the Crater Rim, the snow had softened, creating difficult conditions for walking downhill.  Once they were on their way down the Muir Snowfield they ran into improving snow conditions - It felt more like spring, descending on corn snow.  


Everyone is glad to be drying out here at Basecamp - but excited about their success on the mountain today!  Congratulations, climbers!

June 15 - 18 Summit Climb

Today's RMI climb went to the tippy top of Mount Rainier this morning!  The guides are all really psyched on the route on the upper mountain right now!  They say it's "the best ever" - it's quick and direct!  This morning it took the climb 4 hours and 50 minutes to reach the top from Camp Muir! RMI guide, Mike Uchal said it was pretty cold and windy on the summit; however, with sunny skies on top, the climbers welcomed their hard-earned views!  Mike said there was a cloud layer from about 13,000' down to around 11,000' - but otherwise great weather!  

The Muir Snowfield is also in great shape - Mike said there is a well-established bootpack all the way up to Muir.  It was crowded up there today - hundreds people were lured up to the mountain to enjoy this nice weather!  After a sunny, warm descent on the Muir Snowfield, the climbers are treating themselves to pizza and beer at the Basecamp Grill!

Here's a look at the climbs' path on the upper mountain:

#39 is the true summit of Rainier!
Congratulations, climbers!
Stay tuned for a SPOT Adventure trip report from the climb!

Photos from the 4-Day summit climb - June 11-14

RMI guide Mike Hinckley took some great photos en route to Camp Muir on his climb! Check out the beautiful weather we had last weekend!

The climb taking a break on the lower snowfield...breaking through the clouds!

 Rest stepping their way to Camp Muir with blue sky above!

One last rest break before reaching Camp Muir

Looking out across the Cowlitz Glacier toward Little Tahoma peak

Cloud Sandwich!

Back to the top today!  Despite a bunch of fresh snow on the mountain and windy weather today, the RMI climb reached the summit of Rainier again this morning!  

For this time of year, we're still experiencing colder than usual temperatures on Rainier but the weather is good enough to summit!  RMI guide Katy Lavek said there were big storm clouds moving in and the wind was transporting a fair amount of snow on the upper mountain.  Although the route up the Ingraham Direct is well wanded still, the path has been filled-in in places.  The climb was above a marine layer down in the valleys and for the most part, below a higher layer of storm clouds - they were sandwiched right in between!  RMI guide, Eric Endert said that the climb experienced low visibility near and at the summit; however, they did occasionally get clear glimpses of the other Cascade Volcanoes, such as Mount Adams and Mount Hood! 

Congratulations everyone! 

Burrr!

With unseasonably cold temperatures and fresh snow on the mountain, the June 12-15 summit climb reached the tippy top of Rainier this morning!  According to RMI guide, Katy Lavek, it was a "retro throwback to winter" on the mountain!  Aside from the cold and wind, they had pretty good weather with mostly clear skies, above a low marine layer and only a little bit of snow this afternoon!  The route from Muir to the summit is still on the Ingraham Direct and the route is, well...direct!  Katy said it's an awesome route and they had great snow conditions to the top.  With the cold temperatures and new snow, the Muir Snowfield has firmed up creating easier conditions for walking.  Katy said that on her descent today, the snow didn't get sloppy and slushy until they were nearly back to Paradise!

That's two summits in a row for RMI!  Congratulations everyone!

4-Day Summit Climb 8 - 12

The 4-day RMI climb is back in Ashford - enjoying the sun and cold beers!  RMI guide, Zeb Blais gave me the rundown of their climb...

The climb left Camp Muir this morning around 3:30am and headed uphill! Zeb said it was a calm morning with clear skies.  The team climbed up through Cathedral Gap on a perfect, hard-packed route.  Just above the Gap, they ran into a breakable crust layer of snow that made walking rather difficult.  The guides made the decision not to go any higher on the mountain due to high avalanche danger.  There is still a considerable amount of concern on the upper mountain right now, but with the heat of the sun over the next few days, the snowpack is expected to settle and stabilize in the near future!  After enjoying the sunrise they returned to Camp Muir.

Since they turned back at the Ingraham Flats, the climb left Muir and headed down the Muir Snowfield early this morning, around 8am.  Zeb said that since the sun didn't have much time to warm up the snow yet, they were descending on very firm snow most of the way down.  Just below Panorama Point the snow had warmed up quite a bit and the climb ran into corn snow, making the walking a bit easier! 

Stay tuned! We'll have some photos from Zeb's climb soon!

Photos from the Expedition Skills Seminar -Muir

RMI guide, Tyler Reid sent me some photos from the Expedition Skills Seminar at Camp Muir, June 6 - 11. More photos and a trip report soon!

 A climber rappelling off of Muir Peak!

Expedition Skills Seminar June 6-11

The Expedition Skills Seminar just returned to Basecamp after spending a week training on Rainier!  I had a chance to catch up with RMI guides Tyler Reid and Katy Lavek...

They said Monday, on their ascent to Camp Muir they encountered a mix of conditions with decent visibility.  The climb did get beautiful glimpses of the mountain through the broken clouds!  They spent the week above the clouds; looking down on the rain in the valleys below.  With high avalanche danger at higher elevations, avalanches were the main topic of discussion this week.  After the guides assessed the snowpack more thoroughly, finding weak layers, it became apparent that the climb would not head to the summit.

With a wealth of training under everyone's belt, including a 50 meter rappel off of Muir Peak, the climb descended back to Paradise today.  They all enjoyed warm, calm weather before descending back into the clouds that will soon burn off!Tyler said the snow conditions were pretty good on the Muir Snowfield. He said that it felt like we finally transitioned from winter to summer! 

Stay tuned for some photos from the seminar!

RAIN-ier

It's been a wet and foggy summer season on Rainier so far...Right now, high avalanche danger and difficult weather are not permitting teams to reach the summit.  Today's climb woke up to rime ice and blue sky - but an unsteady snowpack sent them downhill instead of up.  RMI guide, Miles Clark said that snow conditions on the upper Snowfield were less than ideal.  They were punching through a crust and post-holing through to softer snow.  Lower on the snowfield they encountered sloppy, soupy, deep slushy snow that made for difficult downhill travel.

RMI guide, Win Whittaker took a few photos this morning... Check out Camp Muir!

Yesterday morning at Camp Muir...Low visibility & snow.

The climb woke up to blue sky at Muir!

...and rime ice on their shelter! Wow!

June 6th Muir Snowfield Conditions

With high avalanche danger and even more new snow on the upper mountain, the RMI climb decided not to leave Muir for higher ground this morning.  Around 1am this morning the guides woke up to snow falling, high winds and low visibility.  By 7am, it was no longer snowing but the wind was blowing the snow, creating difficult conditions.  When they left Camp Muir en route to Paradise, they encountered rain at about 9,200' and thick, gloppy, mashed potato snow.  Around Panorama Point, although it was still raining, the visibility improved greatly.

Hopefully we see some more sunshine this week!  Stay tuned for more route conditions!

Photos from 5-Day June 3-7

Waypoints from today's SPOT track of the climbs' ascent to Camp Muir.

Check out Whittaker Mountaineering's SPOT Adventures!

A warm, sunny day on the Muir Snowfield...

[Taken near waypoint #10 on the map]

 

 A helicopter dropping off supplies at Camp Muir.

June 5th Muir Snowfield Conditions

Blue sky! The clouds have cleared and the mountain is out today!

High avalanche danger has brought the 4-Day climb back to Ashford already. With the climb in high-spirits and enjoying the warm sunshine and a cold beer here in Ashford, I had a chance to chat with RMI guide, Mark Falender. He said that the great weather has brought hundreds of folks up to Paradise and the Muir Snowfield. On their descent today, he said the route toward Muir was heavily traveled and extremely well wanded. Since the team began their descent from Muir in the morning, the sun hadn't had much time to soften the snow at the higher elevations, so they encountered firm and icy snow conditions high on the Snowfield. Once they were lower in elevation, the snow became soft and slushy.

Let's hope the sun sticks around for a while!

Early June Rainier Conditions

The week long RMI Expedition Skills Seminar at Camp Muir just arrived back in Ashford. Guides Jake Beren and Solveig Garhart gave me a rundown of their week spent at Muir...

Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating for the climb this week - so they did not make it to the summit. The team climbed up to the Ingraham Flats in poor visibility to do some training for a day and that was their high point for the climb. Jake says that at Muir they were right at the freezing level all week - snowing and raining on and off. Solveig said the snow was like mashed potatoes today on the snowfield - a very saturated snowpack - which, once it consolidates will make for really great snow! Visibility on the snowfield was patchy, in and out - but not horrible. Jake says he saw a few patches of blue sky - something we haven't seen a lot of lately!

Win Whittaker is leading a snow school up at Paradise in Edith Creek Basin right now - here are some photos that he just sent in!

Blue sky! A break in the clouds!

4-Day Summit Climb May 28-31st

With the summer climbing season on Rainier well underway we've had the opportunity to test out some fun technology on the mountain! We sent a SPOT tracker up the mountain with RMI guide, Miles Clark. The SPOT allowed us to track the progress of the climb on a Google map in real-time - giving us a GPS way-point of the climbs' location every 10 minutes.

Check out the map, photos and Miles' trip report from the climb!

Rainy Memorial Day...

A rainy Memorial Day here in Ashford brought snow and inclement weather to the mountain.

The guides tell me that the route on the upper mountain is great and direct - it's the weather that's keeping them from the summit. This morning, the 4-day climb was forced to turn around at the Ingraham Flats. Stay tuned - We'll have a full trip report from the climb in the next few days! Keep your fingers crossed for some better weather in the near future!

RMI 5-day Climb: May 26 - 30

Another summit for RMI today! The climb reached the top around 6:45 this morning...

The group headed up the Muir Snowfield on Friday, May 28th - RMI guide, Lindsay Mann said they ascended the Snowfield in low visibility, moderate winds and snow falling. Once they arrived at Muir, the weather began to improve. She said it was a beautiful night at Muir - with an almost full moon! The group began their ascent to the summit this morning around 2am with good visibility and decent weather. 2 guides went ahead of the group to punch in a good route - they found a lot of wind deposited snow on the upper mountain. Around 12,800' they were in the cloud cap and no longer had great visibility. After a successful summit the team made its way back to Camp Muir. Lindsay spotted a fox hanging out at Muir! Upon leaving Muir, visibility was good until about 8,500' on the Snowfield. From there the climbers made their way back to Paradise in spotty visibility and new, wet snow.

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.