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Пожалуйста (I don't speak Russian and I looked that up) it's a long single-day trip for sure. Many people camp at Lunch Counter on night one and then make their summit bid the next morning. not sure if you need permits for that but probably. space to camp at the trailhead can be tight - i had to cowboy camp on some open grass by the road once, but it all worked out. good luck!

Yeah that west side looks real sketch

spasibo! Thank You. I have attempted one time at the end of May, reached 9986 feet and went down. but we started around 5 am. it was car to car, driving in the night. This time planing about getting there the evening before and staying in the camp or car.

I know this is 2015 but curious I want to solo the traverse but was wondering about the 5.8 /5:7 climbing I have the whole last week of July off so want to take advantage

Beautiful 😍

there will be plenty of people up there. take more sun protection than you think you need (hats, buffs, glasses - sunscreen never lasts long enough). Take lots of water and start early. 3 AM from the parking lot is probably early enough if you're fast, otherwise it is more pleasant as a two-day trip. take a trash bag or waterproof pants for the glissade down! (remove crampons for the glissade)

Hmmmm....important distinction....let's see....I think the west side?

Trip: Mount Rainier - Emmons Central Trip Date: 06/30/2025 Trip Report: When looking at Emmons from Sunrise, Andrew got the idea of trying a route that would connect with a feature similar to the Emmon-Winthrop route corridor but positioned in the middle of the expansive glacier. This feature starts around 10k and provides easy direct access to the upper mountain. I was skeptical about the idea until I had a closer look myself a few weeks ago while climbing Cowlitz Chimney. We could not find any information about this route and decided to refer to it as Emmons Central. Please, let us know if you know the history or previous ascents. To spice things up Adrew pitched starting the glacier terminus. We scouted access to the moraine Saturday afternoon and took closeup picture of the route to weight our options. The pictures did not show any clear paths to the corridor but the “right” side variation looked the most promising. Sun morning, we hiked and shwacked to the terminus and started making our way up the glacier. The idea was to skirt very broken up lower section on the right, then hook left trying to ascend to a rocky ridge in the middle of the glacier. We could then follow the ridge for a little bit until being able to push right to access the start of the corridor. We identified one potential make-it-or-break-it crevasse below the rocky ridge but did not see any clear dead ends along this option. After leaving the moraine and getting on snow we started aiming for a nunatak at 9400 following open slopes with minimal crevasse issues. From here we initiated our left hook as the glacier became more broken up. After some navigation we reached the crevasse with a question mark and were able to get across on an exposed but solid bridge far left. This brought us to the rocky ridge where we set up the camp at exactly 10080ft. Being in the middle of a glacier with the largest area in the contiguous US and having dry ground to sit on was awesome. Looking up from camp revealed crevasse problems we did not see in the pictures. The general plan was to keep going right and that is exactly what we did in the darkness the following day. It was obvious when we finally gained the ramp because there were no crevasses in sigh as far as the headlamps could shine. The angle starts around 40 degrees and gradually eases off with elevation as it trends slightly left. Around 12.5k the route connects with the late season DC route variation. To our luck we ran into set of boot prints around this elevation. Later on the boot path became marked with wands so my guess is that the guides or rangers prepared the route for when the regular DC gets too broken up. We followed the boot prints and wands until connecting with the regular DC and the well beaten path to the summit. We descended via the standard Emmons-Winthrop route. Gear Notes: pickets Approach Notes: Moraine trail to "End of maintained trail" sign then follow a boot path down. We then hiked along the vegeration up until it looked more open

Yikes, yeah that would do it. I’m curious was that on the west or east side of the buttress?

Pretty great, the force is strong in this one.

Well done surviving an attempt on that one! It was on the list until it I saw it firsthand in 2007 and realized I wasn't nearly tough enough.... but maybe it was the massive/serac rockfall that strafed the approach while we watched, or at least that was the mental excuse I used all these years.

The North Peak of Index is a proud outing. One of the difficult 10 if you didn't know and now you have first hand route details for going back for the full traverse.

So GREAT!

Trip: East Fury - North Buttress Trip Date: 06/29/2025 Trip Report: In the couloir leading to the buttress from its east side, the drawbridge is up. It’s hard to think of a route in the cascades that I haven’t climbed that I was more excited to try. From Luna col the position of upper snow arete looks insane. And the photos in this 2017 report don’t hurt: https://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/topic/100747-tr-mt-fury-north-buttress-6232017/?tab=comments I was lucky to find a partner inspired enough to take a day off and put in the considerable effort to get out there and check it out. Saturday was a little cloudy and not too hot, which kept things relatively smooth on our way from big beaver to Luna Col. Even though I’d seen it before, the first sight of the northern faces of the southern pickets that rewards the grind up to -6400 was literally breathtaking. I let out a little pious whoa. The last mile or so took approximately forever but we arrived well before dark, 11.5 hours after drop off. A ghost set up our tent. From the col the couloir didn’t look too promising but wasn’t obviously impossible so we proceeded to go for it the next morning, leaving camp at 5am (4:30 might have been better). As in the trip report from 2017, we trended left on the descent to Luna lake, which worked well. From the lake we traversed W and SW, bottoming out around 4500’. At this point we could see the snow was not continuous in this first couloir and quite a bit lower, maybe 15-20 feet, than in the 2017 reference photo. We found a ~5.0 exit onto slabby rock and got up to easier ground. Continuing up we traversed as quickly as possible across the exposed face to the entrance of the main couloir. From below it still looked worth trying. But only about 200’ up it we encountered a hidden moat spanning wall to wall, just above where I am in this photo. It was tall and unnervingly hollowed out. Questing up and left on the rock for a bypass was fruitless. I found steep slabs without much pro. And transitioning from boots and crampons to rock shoes while exiting a tenuous snow location onto a narrow rock stance turns out to be very awkward. At 30m I ran out of rope (folded 60m half), placed a piece and down climbed on top rope back to the snow. We down climbed the steep snow back out the couloir. About to down climb to the first couloir. Looking up on our return to Luna lake I thought, hmm, we came down that? It looks improbably steep but is actually reasonable. All throughout the cirque there was surprisingly little activity given how warm the day was. At camp 12 hours after we left the evening was unpleasantly hot and buggy and I impatiently awaited the reprieve of dusk. In the meantime there was some helicopter activity near Outrigger. I hope everyone involved is all right. The heat was considerable already at 7am the next morning when we began our descent. I used crampons but there really was no hard snow to be found. We took a long break at the stream by Luna camp and it seemed then that we’d make our 5pm taxi in plenty of time. One small delay occurred when we saw two bear cubs climbing to the top of a tree right off of the trail. Mama wasn’t making herself seen or heard, so we backed up a little, made a bunch of noise and gave them a few minutes to clear out. We didn’t see the cubs again and did see the mother a little bit off trail, not acting aggressively. Checking the time. As the afternoon miles went by we realized that we were slipping behind and had to really push to get there right at 5pm. The driver was very nice and encouraged us to take the time to cool off in the lake. I don’t know if I have it in me to try this route again but if I did it would have to be possibly even earlier in the calendar, and in a year with above average snow pack come June. The west side alternative doesn’t appeal much to me, the photos from Steph Abegg make it look like overhead exposure would last a lot longer than it does while traversing in from the east. Gear Notes: Crampons, ax, whippet, 60m half rope, single picket, light rack and some bail gear Approach Notes: Big beaver to Luna col to Luna lake

https://www.climbing.com/culture/ethan-morf-youngest-climber-free-el-capitan-in-a-day this is hilarious and awesome. I mean that’s how I learn how to do almost everything. Just fire up YouTube and watch a couple videos and get after it.

Looking for some folks to climb mt.Adams in July. Prefer to start 3 am.

Thanks for your TR, Christopher! Dan and I had our own alpine adventure on the NW arete of Argonaut this past weekend, approaching and climbing to the summit on Saturday, sleeping near the summit, and descending Sunday. I am definitely glad we did it this way -- it made for two relaxed days without any need for headlamps and the snow on both approach day one and post-rappels day two was great for climbing, never too firm or icy. We thought the climbing was really fun and the whole trip had good adventure factor. I felt silly wearing trail runners and carrying light mountaineering boots AND rock shoes but it worked well for me; I think if I'd been climbing a whole lot of 5.8 recently I'd probably have felt good in approach shoes/not needing a third pair of footwear. We brought a single rack and that worked for us for 5 long pitches with a tiny bit of simuling. We were able to avoid MOST of the slide alder but luckily we weren't carrying skis and it wasn't the "trap you in place" variety so the handful of minutes of it didn't feel too tuff. We both switched to rock shoes for the "slab crossing" before the snow finger. The rock was sticky and great. There was snow under the big summit block so we didn't go thirsty with our summit bivy (beautiful sunset!). The descent made us think a little bit, but there are a lot of rap stations and trees and lots of beta. We did three single rope rappels and some 4th class downclimbing that could have been avoided... Here are our pics in case they're helpful for people heading out soon or hoping to check snow conditions in the area (high-quality photos are Dan's): Snow finger (that's a false top to it) Snowfield on the descent before starting rappels: Our second single rope rappel into the gully, we walked across 4' of flat snow then butt scooted/au chevalled the moat to get to the notch, rapped off tree on other side for third rappel: The traverse from the bottom of the raps over to the south side of the Colchuck Col was BEAUTIFUL:

Trip: Mount Index - North Face Trip Date: 06/29/2025 Trip Report: Kinda tired but figure I should write some stuff down while it’s fresh in my mind. I’ll split this into two parts, the story and the beta. The Story is pretty simple, me and a partner decided to go for the Index traverse on Sunday and Monday. We had extra time on saturday so we hiked into lake serene to make for an easier morning. Without light on Saturday night, we made the mistake of trying to bivy at the flatter spot in the topo on the north of lake serene. This is very schwacky. Don’t do it. It wasted a lot of time. Anyways, Sunday am we worked our way up the talus and then up to the ridge. It was still a little wet and loose so we decided to rope up. Halfway up, my partner bonked and our pace slowed considerably. We made it to the summit late and decided that in his condition it wouldn’t be safe to commit ourselves to the rest of the traverse. A nice summit bivy ensued and then 16 rappels + downclimbing the next day. We chilled in by the lake and hiked out at a reasonable time. In the descent we also realized it was prolly a good idea we didn’t commit ourselves to the traverse. It fingers were beat and the rock was so warm that touching the rock was truly painful. Wouldn’t be fun to be forced to climb in that. My partner has a brain and realized this blue collar suffer climbing aint for him, but if anybody wants to get on something suffery with me, let me know. I got a lot of time this summer and like to put my head down and work. Anyways on for the beta Beta: Approach via Lake Serene. Take the trail around the lake to the talus field. Follow the talus field up, eventually getting near the cliffs on the left but not on them. Eventually you will be forced into the bush to the right of the cliffs where there is a faint climbers trail. At times it can be decent but often, its only marked by the fact that you can see the ground every once in a while. Bushwack 4th class up onto the NE Ridge, pulling on lots of branches. Eventually you’ll get out of the schwack and onto the ridge. Take the easiest looking route up, roping up if you feel necessary. Climb this until you reach a slab with two pitons under a roof. Once here take the leftward brush filled ramp for about 50ish meters until you reach a short E facing exposed rock rib. This is a great pitch with exposure above lake serene. It will quickly ease up into a nicer gully below an open book feature. Climb to the treed ledge on the left side below this open book where you’ll find the crux pitch of the route. Start up on left side of the open book before traversing right on smaller holds to get to the easier gully above the open book. Here you’ll find a block with a lots of slings for a nice belay. At the block, climb hard right out of the gully and then climb straight up the steep trees and brush until it gets too steep. Here you should see a small hidden ledge going around right. Take the narrow, exposed ledge around the right skyline where you’ll finally see the North Bowl. Traverse, pulling steep brush, to get into the open bowl. Once in the bowl, the route goes up the steeper long gully on the left. Work your way up this thing, staying on the right side of it for most of the time. Eventually, before the gully turns right, you’ll find yourself on a nice ledge to the right of the gully with a slung tree and a piton + nut anchor above it. Climb up here and then to the left back into the gully. From here(when the gully turns right) it is 60 meters of steep bushwacking up to the toe of the North Rib. The North Rib is the highlight of the route. Stay right on top or barely(a few feet) to the right the entire time. This can be led in 2-3 pitches or one easy simul. It is exposed, but the holds are great unlike the rest of the route, and the location is amazing. Once at the top of the ridge, quickly climb up the small slabs onto the summit ridgeline. Scramble this, along, or slightly to the right for most of it until you reach the summit. slab with pins below roof. Ramp off to the left great exposure on E facing rib topping out of open book looking down rightwards turn at end of gully filled with steep branches. Taken from toe of N. Rib ig I'll have to come back for these guys summit bivy summit ridge scrambling(taken on way back) Gear Notes: Double rack to #2 but a single would probably be fine. Bring lots of double length slings, you'll be slinging a lot of shtuff. Approach Notes: Lake Serene -> boulder field -> Shwack

Thanks Jason! Yeah, can't go heavy on a carryover route with 5k' of technical climbing regardless! 😂 Though I definitely would have liked some trekking poles on the descent and warmer bivy kit on night two... oh and more food! You can always have more food!

Yeah, for sure, though summiting the Grand in a whiteout right after several loud thunder strikes was definitely more than I wanted in that moment!

That is an impressive week for anyone, dads or not! I guess SUP vs. canoe rental is one way to force yourself to go light.

Awesome! Looks like you nailed the conditions.

Looking for 3rd member to join our climbing party! Previously committed member had something come up and can no longer go. We will be climbing Mt. Baker via Easton glacier on July 22-23, 2025. We have some extra climbing gear you can use (ice axe, helmet, etc) and some flexibility with the dates if that affects your decision to join. About me: Avid backpacker who wants to continue practicing mountaineering. I have climbed Mt. Baker three times, twice via the Easton glacier route. Basic glacier travel experience. Please reach out if you are interested or have questions!

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

Kev - Like Jason said, Index is what you are looking for if it's granite crack climbing. It's world class, but you need to learn the area a bit before setting up a rope solo system. Start a grade under what you usually would. Index grades are not soft.