Jamie and I set off to climb Mt Rainier on tuesday. Our second to last Volcano in Washington, the highest in the state at 14,410ft. and the most technical. We sat in the parking lot and debated over bringing our skis. Of course we want our September turns. After long deliberation we decided to bring them, which meant climbing in ski and snowboard boots and carrying our skis and boots on our backs for almost 3 miles before hitting snow. Needless to say, our packs were not light. Looking up at the mountain made up for it.
Our plan was to hike as far as we could, camp, leave our skis and pick them up on the way down. We found a great spot just below Camp Muir where the suncups were getting huge and unskiable. As always the mountains showed us an amazing sunset and an incredile moonrise! Wednessday morning we woke up and worked our way past Camp Muir to the Ingraham Glacier at 11,100ft. where we set up camp. We hung out here, melted snow for water, ate some food and checked out the view.
Thursday, got up at 5am. Set out up the Disapointment Cleaver. Crossed some little cravasses and hiked up mostly rock for the first thousand feet. Then there were some more interesting terrain features and big cravasses with fixed lines and ladders.
Click on photos for a larger view and gallery.
Thursday, got up at 5am. Set out up the Disapointment Cleaver. Crossed some little cravasses and hiked up mostly rock for the first thousand feet. Then there were some more interesting terrain features and big cravasses with fixed lines and ladders.
Click on photos for a larger view and gallery.
As we climbed the weather started to go. We were climbing into the cloud. We got to the Crater Rim at 14,100ft and couldn't really see anything. It was really windy and only 10ft.of visibility. We found the trail accross the flats to the summit. Total whiteout! Oh well, We summitted Mt. Rainier!!!
On the way down out of the summit cloud the views were great and the wind stopped blowing.
It's awesome to live in a place were you can go from floating the river in 90 degree temps, to climbing a 14,000ft. peak, to skiing in September, to skipping rocks at the ocean!!
Jamie and I have been trying to ski every month of the year. This is our twelfth month in a row! Skiing the Muir Snowfield on Mt Rainier. It was so worth it to carry our skis up so we could ski down the last 1500ft. We had to walk a bit between snow patches, but that's alright.
Jamie and I have been trying to ski every month of the year. This is our twelfth month in a row! Skiing the Muir Snowfield on Mt Rainier. It was so worth it to carry our skis up so we could ski down the last 1500ft. We had to walk a bit between snow patches, but that's alright.
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