5.12Dreamer

"The NE buttress looked good too. Freeze-thaw has been doing it's thing." Two parties climbed the line to the left of the lower buttress, which looked to be thin ice over slabby rock. My partner and I chose to climb the gulley, then rapped off from the top of the first pitch. The gulley was not in good shape; the crust broke easily and underneath lied 8-10 inches of sugar over poor, thin ice. From the other parties on both routes, and what I experienced down low, there is no quality snow for protection. And there is a lack of good ice (some on one NF pitch?). One exception might be the steep Buttress pitch, which looked good from far below. I think the other two parties bypassed it on the left, but I'm not sure they did that because it wasn't in shape. There does not seem to have been much freeze/thaw action, it's been too cold. I had hoped that the recent sun would improve the route conditions from what was reported two weeks ago, but it has not.

Yesterday my partner Patrick and I attempted Time Quake, which, despite seeing slightly below freezing temps all week, had deteriorated from the pics above. I led up about 25’ up the first pitch placing three screws in somewhat decent (locally) ice surrounded by poorer ice. Above, I reached a bulgy point that I did not want to climb over for fear of tools popping out of the crappy ice, so I backed down pulling the screws. Viewed from the meadow, 1/3? of the width of the uppermost pitches of Time Quake are now running water. Currently, the bottom middle of the first pitch is not touched down and considerable water is flowing underneath. The only climbable part is far left and it is questionable, but doable, by a bigger risk taker or someone more experienced than I. The other routes were not visible on the way in because of low clouds. We simply followed Jeff and Glen's track (thanks!) to the base of Time Quake. On the way out, the clouds had pulled away but the light was waning. This Too Shall Pass looked better formed as I did not see running water, although it might have had less ice than seen in the pics above. A nice hike in with a couple inches of new snow. Snowshoes are desireable through the meadow area where there are many places to drop between boulders.

I'm looking to get on some ice Thursday, reasonably reached from Seattle and return late afternoon. PM me for more details.

Ovr40, Hopefully you'll get more direct feedback from those that were there. From previous climbs of Rainier I can tell you that observation of a typical pattern the weather is following might help. For example, last year on a three day climb we observed the same pattern every day whereby early AM through late morning the mountain would be socked in. And each afternoon it would clear up nicely. So if you have a good handle on what you're seeing, and the forecast (such as no strong system moving in), you could be fine carrying on. Of course there's the risk of misreading the weather, and many would prefer to be more conservative. Best of luck!

Alright, so tomorrow's a new month already---if it wasn't obvious from the post, that's my mistake and it should be 10/1, or tomorrow.

Friday I'd like to get out and climb some 5.8 to 5.9ish crack routes at Castle Rock or elsewhere. I live in Seattle; we can sort out the details later tonight or Friday morning.

Yes Dru, quite a lame effort. Now that I've amassed the inertia to overcome my forgotten password, I'll make more of an effort. I sure have benefited from the knowledge and feedback given on this site and should contribute some myself.

Climb: Maude-NF Date of Climb: 6/22/2004 Trip Report: Anyone been out on, or had a look at the NF of Maude lately? Wondering what kind of shape the traverse from the Maude-7F Jack col is in? Thanks!