Heavy_B

latest update says they didn't fall through a snow bridge. evidently one guy fell and they arrested his fall. Someone got up to help him and he fell pulling two into the slot.

http://www.komo4news.com/stories/37563.htm

I have an older AT&T phone that will Roam in Analog. I go to Cingular and purchase a pre-paid card and have them activate the phone. It works well up there. Using a digital phone does not from my experience.

jshamster - that's impressive. I am not worthy. We drove up there to find the road gated and said "screw it" and went somewhere else. It's closer to 7 miles to the TH from the gate. Nice work. That's a big day.

Thanks all for the great input. Don't get me wrong - I prefer to climb in leathers and/or softer shell boots, but have generally done Rainier in plastics when I'm not in the cattle trail. There will possibly be a good path up the Emmons by this weekend, but I haven't been up there to see and haven't seen any posts about it. With the forecast for this weekend we may spend a couple days in a tent anyway. IMO the Trango EVO S is not in the same class as the Freney XT.

I have a pair of the Trango S boots and love them, but wouldn't consider doing Rainier in them this early. I have a buddy flying up from CA that does a ton of climbing down there and he's insisting that he wants to bring those (he actually has the newer EVO S) for the trip up the Emmons this weekend. I told him that I thought it was a bad idea, but I've never tried them in deep snow or a big hill like Rainier. Does anyone have any feedback on this? I basically told him that it was a bad idea and offered to loan him a pair of plastics. Any feedback is welcome.

mattyg - there are several variations, but the most commonly used route begins a little further right and avoids that totally vertical section that is marked in the picture. I'll try to attach a couple pics i took a few years ago on the route.

Has anyone been up there recently? I'm just trying to get some beta on the approach conditions via Phelps/Leroy Ck.

Too funny. I was just thinking of posting a question about Del Campo yesterday to see if anyone has been up there. I was in there last year and couldn't even see the peak so we bailed. I wonder why they call it Foggy Lake and Foggy Pass.

I was in there early August in '97 and it was a cruise across the glacier. It wasn't near as broken up as many pictures show. From Perfect Pass it was a cruise of a traverse with few crevasses to navigate around. Not sure what conditions would be like now.

Was that you we ran into at your camp? My buddy and I had just come off Maude that day and talked to a couple guys that were heading up Fernow the next morning. We were camped over in the meadow.

Thanks Elevation! I thought the road was open. I've seen posts on the park website and it appears there have been several attempts, which means people are not walking 20 miles. I've done the route 3 times before and I love it. This is a first for a couple guys I'm taking so I thought it would be a great trip for them. It's a beautiful view over to the pickets etc. Thanks again. I wish I could ski without killing anyone.

I've used skis before in the backcountry and I'm really jealous when I see you guys cruise up and down in the amount of time it takes me to setup camp. Problem is that I forgot you need to be able to turn and I became a ballistic missile in 4 seconds and wiped out some trees in the process. I'm sticking to snowshoes, which suck but less people are in danger.

I was wondering if anyone has any recent beta on the sulphide glacier and approach. I'm sure I will be postholing up to my sphincter this weekend when it's 80 degrees out.

this may help a little. I didn't head over Ingalls this weekend, but I did go in over Beverly-Turnpike. We hit snow at approx. 5000' on the south side and it was solid snow from the pass down the north side. It was pretty soft, but we didn't need snowshoes. I would imagine that you would hit the same type of snow heading up to Ingalls and the traverse over would be solid snow up to the peak.