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[TR] Rainier - Ptarmigan Ridge 6/29/2017


mgetlin

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Trip: Rainier - Ptarmigan Ridge

 

Date: 6/29/2017

 

Trip Report:

Hey folks! There has been some good action on the north side of Rainier lately, and we are especially grateful to whomever put in the fantastic boot pack on Ptarmigan!

 

The recent report (last month?) is very thorough, but there have been some notable conditions changes...that said, conditions are near perfect so if you're looking at her, go for it!

 

We left the car at 5:15 am on Tuesday and had a very leisurely day getting up to high camp where we arrived a little after 2. The glacier travel was very straight forward and we almost walked a straight line across the entire ice-scape of the north side.

 

We dropped down at 4:15 am and crossed the ice cliff runout at a jog before dropping the rope to solo the first 1500 ft, which we did in an hour.

 

Two simul pitches with bomber ice screws got us to the mixed pitch, which consisted of about 40 feet of low 5th scrambling leading to a cruxy little boulder problem which was made even more interesting by a half centimeter thick coating of verglas. It was reasonable but certainly not trivial in the conditions we found it, with the only passable line being noticeably overhung.

 

We shuffled and wheezed up and over and floppy-legged our way down the Emmons. All in all we were 5 hours on route and about 14 hours camp to car. It's a long couple days, but one of the truly great routes in the PNW. It's big, complicated, and interesting. We just loved it.

 

The experience was made all the better by the fact that between crossing the Winthrop glacier and when we got down to Camp Sherman, we did not see a single soul. When does that happen on a nice day in June????!!!!????

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

5 Screws

2 Pickets

3 Pins

40m 7.6

 

 

Approach Notes:

White River to High Camp

 

DSC00631.JPGDSC00644_1_.JPG

 

 

Edited by mgetlin
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