DonnV

Well put, Matt. I also did it many years back. Even though we got rained on overnight while bivied on the Middle summit, and even though we summited the Main peak in a dense fog and couldn't find the descent and had to spend a second night on the Main summit, and even though it SNOWED on us that night (this is in August and the precip chance was 10%), I agree the traverse is a classic. In a Cascades kind of way, for sure, but a classic nonetheless. Good job guys!

Sounds like a great time, and that's about the most enticing group of pictures I've seen in one TR in a long time. Thanks for posting!

I've done this a couple times and had no problems with acclimatization, but neither time did we "run up" to the summit. Keep in mind that, if you aren't going to descend the same day, you have far less reason than usual either to get an early start, or to move fast on the way up. Sleeping a bit longer and spending a few more hours at your high camp, and taking a very leisurely pace to the summit, will leave you better acclimated by the time you reach the summit.

Anyone up for a couple days at Smith? I live just north of PDX and have rope, rack and car. Would prefer trad up to about 10a, but anything will do. PM me if interested! Donn

Excellent job, guys! Nice TR and great photos. The Ptarmigan high camp has to be one of the best on the mountain.

JeffH and I climbed the Adams Glacier this morning and found pretty good conditions. Had to put in a lot of shallow steps in a breakable crust, but nothing too bad. We approached via Divide Camp Trail and camped at 7500-8000' on moraines below the north side of the NW Ridge. Took snowshoes and would have used them going in except we found a good boot track up to timberline (Hendorama's?). We started early, 2 AM, mostly to get down before snow softened on the descent (it never did until well below our camp). The route up the right side of the glacier is very straightforward. One crevasse at mid-height is the only obstacle and it is passed fairly easily right now on the far right. We traversed left across the entire glacier to skirt below the final line of seracs, slogged over to the summit, then descended the NW Ridge. Temps were perfect until about 9 AM or so as we neared the bottom of the ridge, then got very hot. The snowshoes weren't necessary, but we used them most of the trip down from camp and were glad we had em' in the softening snow. The only stuff we saw come down the Adams was some debris on the climber's left side of the glacier at about 7:30 last night. I thought the conditions we found were very good considering that it never got really cold overnight. I wouldn't want to be on it tomorrow, but if it cools off after that I'd guess things will firm up pretty well. And if our tracks are still there you'll save a lot of time! There were also other more interesting lines up the center of the glacier for anyone with a second tool and maybe a few screws. Here are a few pics. Have a good time if you go! The north side from near Divide Camp Camp below the NW Ridge JeffH high on the route JeffH traversing below seracs near the top of the route The route

Two of us are heading in there tomorrow, and I also am not sure what to expect for snow conditions. We're going in via Divide Camp, and may just hike up the NW Ridge (or bail completely) if things don't look good. High 80's in PDX on Thursday. I can let you know Friday what we find.

I'll toss in one more suggestion. I also did the traverse back in the mid-70's, and finished by coming out the Dosewallips trail. Very memorable trip. Years later my wife and I did a loop from Lake Quinault, hiking the Skyline Trail to Low Divide, then down the river trail back to Lake Quinault. The Skyline Trail would be an outstanding way to finish the Bailey Traverse. Not an easy trail - lots of up and down - but incredibly scenic, with great campsites, and not heavily used. About the best way to stay up high for as long as possible while leaving the range. Have a great trip! Well worth doing.

The earliest I've done the NR was the first week of June a couple years ago. I was on the summit a couple weeks ago and, judging from the amount of snow up there, you'll find NR conditions at least as snowy as we did back then. The one piece of advice I'd have for anyone going up this early is to only go if you can do the direct gendarme finish, or unless you're a pretty good ice/mixed climber. We had lots of snow on the route, which really created no problems for the most part. We were in boots all the way to the gendarme, where we switched to rock shoes for the next 4-5 pitches (all gendarme stuff was totally dry). But I remember looking at the original finish (rap into the gully and up the other side) and thinking that it would be really difficult. Really plastered with ice. As it happened, Colin H. was soloing up ahead of us that day and did do some variation across and up that gully, but it looked hard to me. In a nutshell, don't plan on the "easy" finish being easy. The rest of the route made a great outing with all the snow on it, and the gendarme finish was completely free of snow until above all the harder stuff.

In this case, that's just too good a comment to pass up. I'll be 55 in another week and a half (and way too old to have my feelings hurt by a bad guess). And I don't really know how old my 3 partners were, but probably all somewhere in their thirties. Nice to have your original text back, Ivan, but the fact that Oleg saved it is a bit scary. He seemed really normal on the climb, but I'll sure be watching him more closely next time.

Climb: Mt. Stuart-Stuart Glacier Couloir - Gang Bang Recap Date of Climb: 5/7/2005 Trip Report: I wish I could recreate Ivan's excellent TR from yesterday, but that's beyond my talents. But I've gotten a couple of emails this morning from buddies who are wondering where the photos are that I told them I had posted of our climb. So, since the data crash seemed to leave yesterday's photos alone, I'm reposting them along with my best shot at summarizing Friday and Saturday on the north side of Stuart. Sorry if I miss anything or remember it wrong. I suffer from data loss myself sometimes. After reading the TR last week by DPS of his climb with Juan, Heinrich and Wazzumountaineer, and getting more info from DPS and Juan, four of us (OlegV, vw4ever, jhulbert and me) drove up from PDX and hiked in Friday to camp in the boulder basin below the Sherpa Glacier. We camped near Goatboy and his wife, who had a smooth cruise up the Ice Cliff Glacier the next day. Beautiful place to camp except that every trip to get water meant punching through your previous steps at least twice. A miracle no one busted an ankle in the minefield. Our team of 4 left camp about 3:30 AM and headed up to the base of the route. Excellent conditions all the way up to the WR notch. One lead up from the notch and I almost stepped on the ATC dropped by Wazzumountaineer a week before (it's in the mail, Kurt). Further up out on the north side we could look down and see Ivan, Nolse, Kyle and Travis below in the couloir. Ivan and Nolse were slumming on SGC and going car-to-car after finding Dragontail Madness and NW Face of Stuart out of shape and abandoning earlier plans to bivy and climb the next day, too. They flew up our steps even though Ivan felt like it was cheating, and were right behind us as we neared the summit, but invisible in the dense fog. Nolse will be creating a verbal cc.com identification system for situations like this which will involve calling out "Did you lose a windshirt on Girth Pillar?" We had a straightforward descent down out of the fog to the Sherpa and back to camp. Ivan and Nolse picked a hard finish to the top and took a wrong turn on the descent but eventually were on their way down the Sherpa, where Ivan took a tumble. Jeff saw it from camp and we were all able to look in time to see the body come to a stop not all that far above the schrund, which has opened enough that it might have complicated things for him had he not stopped. Looked exciting from where we were. We packed up and started hiking out just as Ivan and Nolse were starting to negotiate the dangerous traverse of the boulder basin (possibly the crux of the climb for all of us). We hiked out a good part of the way with Goatboy and his wife. They were off to drink lots of beer while we four just hit the road for PDX, arriving home at about 1:30 AM. Nolse and Ivan hiked all the way out somewhere behind us. Ivan got blisters from boots that he hates, had THC to help take his mind off the pain, but missed his mp3 player. They split up at the parking lot and Nolse drove off somewhere and Ivan crashed right there in his car. Kyle and Travis have never been heard from again. Here are the photos I posted yesterday in the lost thread. Oleg and Jeff at the start of the couloir. Chad heading up the lower section. Jeff just above the ice step. Either Ivan or Nolse is well above the crux bulge and the other is above them hidden by rock. Kyle and Travis are hard to pick out but they're below the bulge on the climber's right side of the couloir. Ivan and Nolse are in the center of the photo on the last stretch of the couloir. Kyle and Travis are easier to see and are together at their belay spot below the bulge. Oleg finishing the last tricky move to the summit. Coming off the summit, showing why we have no panoramic vista photos. Still smiling on the traverse to the false summit. And finally, practicing synchronized descending below the false summit.

I'd also recommend checking out Fifth Season They have a recorded report (see the link on their home page) but I've also had good luck calling them directly right before heading down there. I've always been able to talk to someone in the store who was just up on the mountain, and they've been dead on with current route conditions. Seem to be good folks, and they could answer any of your questions.

Robert, I climbed Curtis Ridge many years ago and would absolutely recommend it. It is the most technically challenging (I know that doesn't say a lot on Rainier) and offered the most varied terrain of the different Rainier routes I've done (15 or so), and has great position. There is a spectacular, if small, bivy site near 10K, a small rappel to do just to get to there, and a bit of alternating between snow and rock on the upper route. It probably does have more objective danger than most routes (the snowfields were pretty littered with fallen rock), but we experienced no rockfall at all and the rock we climbed on was really pretty good. We did hear tons of stuff falling off over the Russell Cliffs. There are variations on dealing with the first major rock buttress. Our version gave us one very short pitch of easy 5th class on relatively decent rock and good pro. Other than that, I think we placed 1 screw and clipped a fixed pin as we exited the highest snowfield and entered a narrow couloir that led to the upper slopes of Liberty Cap. One consideration on this route is that the hardest routefinding is right above your bivy. Bring at least one serious headlamp. We approached in the afternoon from White River, spent one night at St Elmo's Pass, next night at 10K, then summitted and came down the Emmons on day 3. I've also done Ptarmigan and I'm heading back to do it again this year. The high camp at 10,200 is as good as it gets and puts you up close and personal (but totally out of danger) with the huge ice cliffs on Liberty Wall. Our climb was a winter epic that made everything above high camp pure hell, so I can't really sing the praises of the upper route. But like Curtis, I think it's a route that offers more varied terrain (and route variations) on the upper section than most of the other more commonly done Rainier routes. You aren't just endlessly trudging above 10K. I'm really looking forward to getting back there in more sane conditions. My opinion is that both of these routes are more interesting, challenging, and aesthetic than Liberty Ridge. Hope you get onto one of 'em and good luck if you do. Donn

Terrific show, guys. I was really glad I was up in the Seattle area and could make it. It was a very impressive trip, super slides, interesting stories, and a great (and very humorous) presentation by all three of you.

Awesome pictures and a great accomplishment, guys.

Nice TR, nice pics! I did this many years ago and had similar feelings of seriousness about the entire climb, but especially the descent. I think Nelson captures it pretty well. "Once the decision is made to tackle the route, many climbers report feeling on the summit a certain kinship with the mountain amid the rugged chaos of ice and rock that make its setting so exceptional. But those successful climbers also feel a certain abiding apprehension at the thought of descending the loose rock and steep snow." I just remember that the descent to be done seemed to cast a larger-than-usual shadow over the thrill of making the summit. Good work guys! And glad your rope held up. That could have made things interesting....

Nice TR and photos, Steve. If we'd been 30 minutes faster on our climb we would have met you on top. And nice job getting around the permit problem. I think Mountain Madness was the main culprit.

Josh, I don't think staying on the crest at that point is at all impractical, and I'd guess it gets done that way often enough. It does look like it would be the hardest rock climbing of the route, though (maybe 5.8 or so??), and much more time consuming for most climbers. As far as keeping the route "pure," that's an interesting point. At the spot where you initially rap off of Torment onto the glacier, you're doing that to bypass what looks like a very tough section of the crest with some very steep gendarmes. I wondered at the time if anyone has ever tried that section directly. In any case, a pure crest climb would leave you with many more raps along the way to get off of even the minor towers that can otherwise be climbed around. But a pure crest climb might be an interesting objective. We decided that, with two tools, we'd go without pickets and probably go unroped. By the time we got there it was clear that Aaron's footwear was not the best for steep snow, so we tied in the rope full length. That left us both in a "one guy falls, two guys die" mode for about 50-100 feet of the traverse, but allowed me to belay Aaron for the last 200 feet. It would have made all the difference at that point to have had even one picket. It's really hard to recommend what to take for that traverse. Very dependent on conditions and on one's comfort level with traversing steep snow.

Climb: Torment-Forbidden Traverse Date of Climb: 7/13/2004 Trip Report: I was about to post for a partner for something alpine this week when I saw that AaronB was looking for a Rainier partner. I countered with a suggestion of the Torment-Forbidden Traverse, he was game, so on Tuesday morning we were on our way up into Boston Basin for a 2-day trip, planning a bivy on the route. We missed the opening of the road by a couple of days, so we had an extra 2 1/2 miles of hiking to reach the trailhead. Low on the trail we encountered one pair who had bailed at the start of the traverse due to incoming weather. Shortly after we met another pair who had almost completed the traverse when a thunderstorm hit before dawn that morning, forcing them to descend without continuing up Forbidden. We knew some thunderstorms were forecast for midday, and while we were getting a bit of drizzle on the way in, we hoped that the worst of the weather had simply come through earlier than expected. That proved to be the case. The weather improved throughout the day and we enjoyed clear skies all afternoon. We took a bit of time getting started on Torment's SE Face. There are a few options for how to leave the snow for the rock, and we may not have made the best choice. After 2 belayed 30m pitches we simulclimbed the rest of the largely 3rd and 4th class to the summit. A bit more confusion about where to get the traverse started cost us some more time, but we were eventually rapping down onto the north side glacier. The party from the previous day had made a second rap to clear a shrund as part of a long steep snow traverse before regaining the rock, and we decided to follow their tracks (another option would have been to make a rising traverse on rock to regain the crest earlier). At the second rap I demonstrated to Aaron how to avoid having to holster or stow your ice axe when rapping down steep snow. During my windup to toss the rap rope, I cleverly caught a loop of rope on my axe, which was planted behind me, and flung it skyward along with the rope. It gracefully spiraled up and out, catching serious air, and landed perfectly, spike first, almost exactly where the rap ended. I was about 15 feet short, but I'll do better next time. After finishing the snow traverse (which was probably nearly as steep as the later "crux" traverse), we climbed a solid and enjoyable rock rib back toward the crest. Near the top of the rib we found a comfortable bivy (mentioned in Nelson), but the views just weren't all that we had hoped for. I took a few minutes to explore and found a great spot on the crest with sensational views and we moved our gear to there for the evening. I had packed a cartridge stove for melting snow, so we were able to refill our water bottles while we sipped Aaron's port, smoked my cheap cigars, and enjoyed the last of the sun on Johannesburg and the sea of other peaks to the east. Fantastic place to spend a night. The first obstacle in the morning was the crux steep snow traverse that bypasses the next section of the crest. The snow was fairly soft. We wore crampons, but I probably could have gone without. Wearing boots I found the traverse pretty straightforward. Aaron had opted for some lighter approach shoes for the entire trip, and as a result he was having a much harder time on any steep snow we encountered. But we were soon enough across that section and then quickly back up onto the crest where the real cruising starts. Very enjoyable ridge running most of the way to the base of Forbidden. The weather had been hazy and had become cloudier, but it was still ideal climbing weather. We left our packs at the base of the West Ridge and started up just as a party of three was heading down the couloir. A short way up the ridge we met cc.com's own Winter and his wife (newlyweds!) on their way down. We continued simulclimbing to the top and, since it was later than we wished it was, spent just a few minutes there before starting back down the ridge. Lots of downclimbing and lots of raps put us back down on the glacier, a few hours later we were at the car drinking ice cold beer, and a few hours later yet we were back in Seattle. This really is a great alpine outing. Lots of work! Incredibly scenic. This was the first time Aaron and I had climbed together, and it was a good idea for us to plan a bivy on the route. That removed any serious time pressures and allowed us to move fairly slowly and cautiously (each day was about 12 hours). Not to mention that the crest of the traverse ridge is a pretty awesome place to wake up in the morning! Thanks to Aaron for a great climb. Thanks to Goatboy and others for beta. Thanks to those two guys that got stormed off for putting in a some steps we could use. Some photos here and a few more in the gallery. Aaron on the summit of Torment with the traverse to Forbidden in the background. Aaron on the first steep snow traverse. This section can probably be avoided by a higher rock traverse back to the crest. Nice view to wake up to! The rest of the traverse as seen from our bivy. The crux steep snow traverse is sunlit. Aaron happy to be back on the solid crest after the snow traverse. Aaron high on the West Ridge of Forbidden. Gear Notes: 1 60m half rope crampons 2nd tools 4 small-medium stoppers, 4 small-medium hexes, 3 cams 6-7 single runners, 1 double We simulclimbed most of the time on the doubled rope. We used our second tools on the steep snow traverse but definitely could have done without. I would bring a second tool only if it was later in the year, or if I was planning on again launching my ice axe in the rap line. Aaron meant to bring 2-3 double slings, but somehow only brought one. I got back at him for that by forgetting to retrieve it as I left one of the rap stations. And if Aaron does this route again, I know he'll take real boots! Approach Notes: Road was closed for us for 2 1/2 miles but is now open.

I think if your rock skills are good the KER would be a straightforward downclimb. And the top of JPG is a bit steep, but only for a few hundred feet, and then you'd have smooth sailing back to camp. We considered that, but just went for the Russell. You'll know on the way up whether or not backtracking makes sense for your team. You could also diagonal down across toward the Russell as we did, and then regain some elevation and climb back to the col atop JPG, avoiding the KER downclimb completely. Lots of options.

Climb: Mt. Jefferson-JPG Date of Climb: 7/6/2004 Trip Report: On Monday and Tuesday, swaterfall (Seth), vw4ever (Chad) and I had a really enjoyable climb of the Jefferson Park Glacier route on Mt. Jefferson. We left the trailhead about 1:30 PM and had an easy and uneventful hike in to Jefferson Park and up to a bivy site near the top of the moraines. Weather was great and the route looked in good shape. We were sacked out by about 9 PM and up at about 2. We brewed some coffee and tea, took our time packing, and were roped up and moving at about 3:45. Temperature was very mild. Snow wasn't rock hard, but firm enough for good cramponing. We were able to take a very direct line straight up the glacier until we reached the main schrund near the top. Chad checked out the left side and, while it probably would have gone with enough time, and would have gone very quickly with harder snow, the soft conditions made it far preferable to skirt the whole damn thing on the right side, where the schrund didn't quite span to the right wall. We quickly did that, and Chad led up a short stretch of 45-50 degree excellent hard snow that brought us to the col at the head of the glacier. We were about 2 hours to here. We sat for a few minutes at the col for a while to eat and enjoy the last of the sunrise, then Seth took over there and led up the completely bare and dry knife edge ridge, tossing a few slings and nuts along the way as running pro. Once off the top of the KER we encountered relatively poor soft snow conditions that really slowed us down from here to the summit. Seth had some snow give way on him almost right away but fortunately was able to do some weird one-handed arrest to avoid a hard landing (or bounce?) on some rocks just below. Between there and the summit pinnacle he threw in a couple pickets in some steeper parts of the traverse, mostly due to suspect footing rather than slope angle. Along the way we kept looking down the east face at every possible access point, thinking we might spot a mostly snow covered way down for our eventual descent, but everywhere we looked is quite melted out by now and nothing looked at all reasonable. While none of us had ever been up Jefferson, we had to guess the summit pinnacle itself was in relatively poor shape, covered with the same fairly soft snow we'd been on since the top of the KER. Seth more or less waded up an initial steep section, placing one picket where he could. I felt sorry for him at first. Then I remembered that he got to live all winter in Ouray and didn't feel sorry for him any more. A traverse on easier ground, with a couple more pieces of running pro on rock, led to one more move around a steep corner. After some aggressive snow removal operations, Seth quickly moved around the corner and up to the summit ridge where we had only a scramble on dry rock to the top of the north horn. About 5 hours from camp to summit. While the weather had started out very mild early on, it had become fairly cold and windy on the traverse to the summit pinnacle. At the very top, though, it was warm and calm and we relaxed for about a half hour enjoying great views and reading the register. JPG had just been done a day or two before (we had seen tracks most of the way up), and we were the fifth register entry in all for 2004. We knew that Jeff gets climbed far less than most of the other Oregon high summits, but the register was even sparser than expected. We opted for one rap off the summit ridge to avoid some soft downclimbing, then had a fairly easy walk off the pinnacle. We had decided to descend the Russell Glacier, just west of JPG. That worked great once we reached the top of the Russell, but to get there we had to endure a long descent down and across the top of Milk Creek Cirque. Very soft, very hot, very unpleasant. Still probably better than the long traverse across the Whitewater Glacier, which would have been baking in the sun all morning. We ran down good snow on the Russell to where a reasonable traverse on moraine and the rock- and mud-encrusted lower section of the JPG brought us back to our bivy, about 9 1/2 hours after we'd left that morning. The weather was still very pleasant, but the forecast cloudiness had been slowing increasing for several hours. We leisurely packed up, had a fast run down snow to Jefferson Park and, as always, a hike out that seemed much longer than the short hike in. The glacier section of the route is in great shape right now, although the schrund may be harder to pass soon. The snow on the traverse to the summit pinnacle should only get more consolidated as it melts away. Conditions on the pinnacle itself will probably be changing rapidly right now as the remaining soft snow disappears. I know the chossy 4th class is no picnic, but I'd have to think that dry conditions would be a bit better than what we found. And while we could have had better snow conditions up high, we all had a great time on this route. Lots of variety - you're never doing anything long enough to get bored with it. I had been weathered out at high camp on my one previous attempt on Jefferson. It was the first time on the peak for both Seth and Chad. We were all very happy to have tagged this summit. A few pictures here. Many more in the gallery under donnv and swaterfall. Jefferson from the approach trail. JPG from bivy site. The KER and summit from col at top of JPG. Looking back down at JPG from the KER. The traverse to the summit pinnacle, seen from KER. Seth wades up the summit pinnacle. Gear Notes: 1 60m half rope 3 pickets - used a couple 3 screws - not used 2nd tools - not used 5-6 pieces rock pro (stoppers, hexes, tri-cams) - made 3-4 placements 5-6 runners - very helpful, especially doubles We used no gear on JPG itself. The KER in dry conditions is very easy but very exposed. A few double slings around blocks makes good running pro if you want any. My guess is that, in better snow conditions, we would have placed no pickets anywhere, but they were helpful (if a bit hard to place solidly) in the lousy snow we had up higher.

Three of us summited via JPG yesterday (Tuesday). I'm sure one of us will post a TR today or tomorrow. In short, the JPG itself was straightforward. Easy to skirt the schrund on the right side. The KER was completely dry. We had soft, mushy snow across to the summit pinnacle, which itself still has lots of soft, mushy snow. I just loaded some pics into the gallery. And again, someone will post a TR soon.

Great TR! Great pics! Good job!

Good job guys! You made the most of three days. Nice TR, Seth. And now you know that a camera is the One Essential in that area!

Climb: Mt. Adams-North Face of NW Ridge Date of Climb: 6/28-29/2004 Trip Report: On Monday and Tuesday, Matt (mguilfoyle) and I climbed the North Face of the NW Ridge on Mt. Adams. We left the Killen Creek trailhead at the crack of 4:15 PM and quickly hiked up to Adams Glacier Meadows, hitting intermittent snow probably about 2 1/2 miles in. We camped fairly low in the Adams Glacier Meadow area, had some dinner and grabbed a few hours sleep before waking at 3 AM, and getting moving by about 3:45. Neither of us had been in to the base of the Adams Glacier before. It's a LONG walk before you get to where you feel you're actually going up. At the base of the actual icefall area, we went a few hundred feet up the Adams Glacier in very soft snow before moving right onto the NFNWR. We were about 2 hours out from camp at that point. The traverse out onto the face could definitely be more of a problem later on, but we had smooth sailing out onto the 45 degree face. The snow was immediately much firmer and cramponing was excellent. Like so many other faces, this one looks so much more intimidating from a distance than it actually is (compare the first and last photos below). We were probably never on anything steeper than 45 degrees, and the angle dropped back closer to 40 after several hundred feet. In the conditions we had, the face was a very straightforward, wide snowfield. It's easy to see why good skiers (way better than me!) would want to ski this face. No doubt later season would bring some more technical climbing challenge. We topped out on the West Summit at about 8:45 and had about a 1/2 hour walk across to the summit. No one else there, but by the time we left 20 minutes later we saw two climbers coming up from the false summit on the south side. We briefly entertained the idea of descending the Adams Glacier. It had looked like a highway for most of the way, but there was a broken area that completely spanned the glacier at about 3/4 height. We thought we probably could have found a way through it, but since we hadn't been able to see it closely, and since it was getting warmer, we headed for the standard North Ridge descent. There had obviously been lots of recent traffic on the NR. Plenty of snow made it a bit faster than it will be later in the season, and we were back in camp 8 1/2 hours after leaving in the morning. A very hot hike out on sore feet seemed to take twice as long as the hike in, but the cooler had done its job and we were able to start the drive home with very cold beer. Nice route, good weather, and very good conditions except for a few hundred feet of soft snow at the base of the Adams Galcier. I was in the area two weeks ago and things are changing fast, but depending on what that one section up high is really like, the Adams itself definitely still looks like a good objective if you're prepared for maybe a short bit of technical work. We saw tracks indicating it had been climbed within the last couple days. The NFNWR is the face just right of the Adams Glacier. Matt just before sunrise, with Rainier behind. Just before leaving the Adams Glacier and moving onto the NFNWR. Matt on NFNWR. Matt descending off of the West Summit. Ahead and left is the top of the North Ridge, and in between is the top of Adams Glacier. The NFNWR from the North Ridge, with Adams Glacier just this side of it. We moved onto the face just above the lowest rock bands in the lower right corner of photo. Gear Notes: Brought 2 pickets, 4 screws and 2nd tools. We used none of it, but it could all be useful later in the season.