fear

Ditto that. The Mountain is hungry this year. Be extra cautious out there... I hope everyone else gets down ok. I know there was at least one other team still up there. Weather going to shit tomorrow night it seems -Fear

No news copter pilot in his right mind would be close enough to Rainier to stir up squat. Now the actual Chinook or whatever copter has to pluck them off will certainly stir it up. Just the wash alone from a big copter can trigger avalanches in the right conditions. -Fear

From our little jaunt up to Thumb Rock last week I was thinking of that foot or more of snow that must have fallen in the meantime up there. The entire route left of the pyramid looked like glare ice. 12"+ of snow + 50 degree glare ice...... Yikes.... We were also postholing 20" or so with every step where it wasn't ice. Damn that'd be slow going... Hope it works out ok for them.... -Fear

La Sportiva K4S solves the abrasion problem with a urethane coating. I've had mine now for a few months to replace plastics on Rainier. Worked awesome, totally waterproof. Much much lighter than plastics. Built on the Makalu last. Warm down to 0 or so. As warm as my old purple koflach's but not as warm as the new Arctis Expeds.... Fine for 3 seasons on Rainier. Took mine a few hundred heavy pack miles to break in though..... -Fear

Right on the Cowlitz downhill from Muir. Close. Some nice ones too for ice climbing.... Keep in mind once you cross from the snowfield over the little rocky ridge( where the shelters are), that you are on the glacier and there are crevasses everywhere that you can't see yet so rope up. -Fear

For a simple day climb: We bagged Mt. St. Helens while we were out there for fun after getting blown off Rainier. Easy ~5 hour climb up and down from the Climber's Bivouac.... Total whiteout, blowing 40-50, FUN! Monitor Ridge runs almost dead magnetic North-South so it's really simple even in a whiteout and not steep enough to really be a problem... Bring crampons, axe and a few layers. -Fear

Below the Black Pyramid on the Willis side. Can't get any more clear than this: http://www.king5.com/cgi-bin/bi/video/wmPlayer.pl?title=www.king5.com/ki_051704chopperrescue.wmv -Fear

Scrape as much of it off as you can, pre-treat with Tide, scrub it in. Wash on warm heavy-soil cycle...... You'll probably need to re-apply any DWR after this. -Fear

Boy.... You shure got a purty mouth..... -Fear

Any modern tool will be fine for you. Honestly, the tools aren't going to hold you back for awhile and it'll take awhile to learn what you like. So get something you can get parts for easily and locally. Usually that means BD or CM tools/crampons. Only buy tools you can try. Make sure the grip feels good to you wearing gloves and that you like the swing/weight. Personally I love CM Quarks and BD sabreteeth for WI up to 4 or so and any alpine stuff I'd ever do. I was leading WI4 this year in leather Makalu's with sabreteeth. But it's a personal thing. Don't fall for the "shaft won't plunge" BS for curved tools in the mountains. The more curved the shaft though the harder it is to drive pins and such with the hammer. No big deal but something to keep in mind if that'll be an issue for you. For a beginner with crampons the most important thing is fit. If one pops off, you're screwed. Adjustable rake, mono, dual, staggered points all won't mean dick if it's dangling off your ankle 25 feet over your last screw. So make sure whatever you get fits nice and tight with your intended boots. And always get the anti-balling plates. Take it slow..... and don't fall... -Fear

If weight and compressibility are truly your main concerns then down is your best best. I just got a new "Swift" down bag (20 degree, generously sized since I'm huge, 2.5 pounds, compresses to a big cantelope )from Feathered Friends right in downtown Seattle across from REI. Hey it's expensive but at least my money isn't going to China... They'll custom cut whatever you want... -Fear

It wasn't us you saw.... we only saw two guys sitting at the first bridge on the far side rocks. Actually those were the only two people we saw in 3 days on the entire mountain. We did stop to chow at the Carbon terminus on the way down but probably around 4-5PM maybe. Couldn't even see the mountain at all by then. Nice hike up eh? Took us 6 hours up to 7300 and about 5 up to Thumb. Nicer when it's not pissing rain though.... Two groups were going up with us for LR the same day according to the ranger when we got our pass but they never made it even to the Carbon as we had the only footprints in weeks. Did you see the helicopter 5/25? They were looking for somebody just at the weather went to Hell. They flew over the Carbon where we were watching the show 3-4 times. First pass the pilot got real close to the summit and looked like he got some major schooling in wind turbulence. Wonder if someone got hurt that day? -Fear

Climb: Rainier-Liberty Ridge Date of Climb: 5/23/2004 Trip Report: I'll fill in the details and post pics in a few days once I scan them in. Climbers: Bob Blake from CT and Matthew Coutture from VT 5/23 Basically we headed up from Ipsut on 5/23 in windy pouring rain with what looked like an iffy three day weather window. Past Dick Creek Campground we had about 50 yards visibility(no gps). No snow till well past Dick Creek. We got pretty lost and ended up on the lower Carbon. Finally regained the Curtis ridge around 6500. Note: Don't do this. Regained the Lower Carbon and camped on the glacier around 7300. Big perfect spot with a huge broken off serac to play on nearby. Lower Carbon was easy. Blue skies settled in that night and we got great views of the route. Huge shrund up top and about 900' of ice to the left of the Black Pyramid. Eeek. No other signs of anyone being here since the rescue. Deep snow/slush. Note: Bring good light rain gear. 5/24 Headed up to Thumb early. Post-holing hell all the way. Weird crust and holes up to my knees (with 36" legs). Upper Carbon is getting pretty scary. Lots of jumping but the route is still not too bad if you don't mind 4-5' jumps. Gained the ridge pretty high under threat of severe rockfall. Lower ridge almost totally melted out. Note: Gain the ridge before sunrise if you don't like rolling the dice. Mom would not approve. We gained the standard eastern side. Head sized rocks rolling by on all sides. Once across, the western side of the ridge was more technical than we expected. We had two sections of hard 45 degree or so hard water ice sections to traverse beneath rock bands. One tooling for sure but a fall here would be a very bad thing. We are charging a $10.00 fee for every party later this season that uses our postholes that go pretty much the whole way. Enjoy the trail. Thumb Rock was pretty much what we expected. We were beat from breaking trail the whole way. Note: BEWARE THE RODENTS at Thumb rock that destroyed my summit socks, clothes and wrecked our food. I've got the pics to prove it. Called for weather report via cell. Bad weather predicted certain for late tomorrow night/Wednesday. They kept moving the weather up which concerned us. We figured 10-12 hours in these deep snow/ice conditions to Liberty Cap. Plus we had to get down. We didn't want to leave Thumb until 4am to get a little light since we'd never done the route. Cutting it too close for out liking. Very hard decision but we decided to bail before the storms hit. 5/25 Absolutely gorgeous morning at Thumb. Hardest thing I've ever done leaving in these bluebird conditions. That sucked. Cleaned the mouse droppings and piss out of what remained of our chewed gear. What the FUCK are rodents doing at Thumb Rock? How the hell did they get there? Down we went. Depressed for sure. The upper Carbon was missing a few snow bridges that we had crossed 24 hours before. Rockfall from the ridge was extreme once the sun came up. Spent the morning down on the 7,300' Carbon lounging in the sun and ice climbing seracs. By 10AM the first hints of high winds were showing up at the summit. Mare's tails streamed off the summit. By 11AM the entire top was totally socked in with a huge lenticular. By 11:30AM you could hear the wind screaming up there and the lenticular cap and awesome cloud formations around the summit had descended to Thumb Rock. Damn... That went to hell fast. We were almost giddy with our girlish decision to bail but pretty damn humbled too at what was a close call.... We kept flip-flopping our decision at Thumb the night before. Bad weather would persist and get worse for 3 more days. Very fast winds up high were doing bizarre things and sending waves of ring-like clouds down the Willis wall that looked like open mouths.... Time to go.... down down down to the truck by 6PM just in time for the pouring rain to start again. I'll post pics this week and fill in some blanks. This is the first time I haven't managed to grab a summit on Rainier. But after seeing what can happen on this route I'm very glad we made the decision we did.... Be careful out there..... -Fear

Then don't fall. Roger that....... lol... that's what I usually say. -Fear

Since we're headed up there.... Any idea where this happened? Sound like maybe they were rounding the corner underneath the "Black Pyramid".... Never been on the route so I've only got pictures..... We were planning to travel unroped unless we were belaying in order to travel faster. We're both usually comfortable soloing easier ice. I hate being roped with no pro.... Really creeps me out. Kinda makes me wonder now.... If both partners could effectively stay on opposite sides of the ridge and travel side by side(like on a knife-edged ridge)... but I don't think that's possible for most of LR..... We don't have enough pickets(2) to really have an effective running belay. Only two screws a piece as well...... Short 40m 8.1mm rope. I don't want to start a what-if war over the accident, I just don't wanna end up in the same situation.... -Fear

If you're going to really NEED the screws and be placing them from less than secure stances don't dick around with cheap screws. Go BD Express or Grivel 360's. If your stances are always secure and you'll usually have two hands to work with the Ti ones are ok. On bulletproof ice though you'll need to chop a little starter hole and swear a lot with the Ti ones. Don't use the cheap Ti ones (red cap) in the "downward pointing" config everyone raves about now. Their threads are way to small for much pullout strength. Point them up, away from the impact. -Fear

Well, We're heading up LR via Ipsut starting on Sunday if the weather looks good... Team of 2. We plan to descend via Emmons and back over to Ipsut... 3+ Days of food 4+ of fuel. Hope to be out by Wednesday or Thursday night. Couple questions: Once down at Schurman what's the best/fastest way back across the Winthrop and across Curtis? Looks like taking a left at Steamboat Prow would be on the map and diagonal down to Curtis... But that lower Winthrop looks like crevasse hell. Do folks normally go all the way back down to Glacier Basin and back up over Elmo's or just risk the Winthrop? Anybody recently climb LR and have conditions/route help? How's the Carbon, etc.... The video from the helicopter of the unfortunate accident seems to show good coverage and not too much ice on the upper section. Can't see the step up high though....... Thanks! -Fear fearnot@emailcorner.net

If anyone has details as to exactly what happened to cause the accident that'd be great. I'm sure the surviving partner has better things to do now though... Reports of a 30 foot free fall have me wondering where they were? -Fear

Rule #1 - It's a free country.... If having kids makes you too worried to climb more dangerous routes.... don't. If I had three small children I sure as hell wouldn't be climbing Lib Ridge. That being said I don't fault people who do. See rule #1. When I do have kids I'll certainly still climb. But I'll choose more moderate ground and be much, much more critical of conditions. My choice.... and maybe yours. Rule #2 - It's a big world out there. It's a big world out there with lots to do besides climb. So instead of constantly raising the stakes as I get better at climbing I'm also fine starting to do something else... But aqain I don't fault people who only climb and do so at a level I'll never attain. Hell.. I love reading about their insane exploits. Rule #3 - Life is long. Nothing wrong with taking some time off from climbing and doing something else for a few months or years either... The hills and mountains and frozen waterfalls will still be there if you decide to come back... -Fear

I'll still take her.... And I'll let her bolt whatever holds she damn well wants to my walls... -Fear

Is it true that getting him down earlier couldn't have saved his life? Obviously I am not saying they should have tried to get there sooner; they did everything they could and more. I am just more curious about the actual injuries he recieved. Was death inevitable, or could have something been done? Obviously having two days go by after receiving a massive head wound isn't good.... Two hours would still be too much. If he would have lived or not and what kind of shape he would have been in if he had is all really impossible to know... With any Head/brain trauma is very difficult to predict outcomes... Again, Cheers to those brave souls who tried their best! -Fear

Let the family/friends set it up and let us know where to donate to. 3 little kids and all.... Man... that just sucks... Kinda scary when we think of our own close calls on Rainier that only ended differently because of luck. I still remember the sound of the microwave oven sized block that almost got me years ago on the DC....... We're also bound to start climbing LR this Sunday... -Fear

Get me the name and address of that pilot. How much to ship a case of beer from CT to WA?.... Hmmmmmm. Good job everyone! And props to his partner that kept his shit together! -Fear

How were the conditions up there when they started on Saturday? Looked real, real crappy from the reports and webcams I saw... Was it clear above 10k or something? Hope the weather improves for them..... -Fear

No. I made it to about 10k. The past 2k were clawing and falling up knee-deep volcanic dust and scree. At that point I turned to my partner and said "Let's do another route..." He agreed. People I talked to that had done it said descending it was no big deal as long as you wanded it well on the way up. Kinda like walking off the edge of a beachball was how it was described.... -Fear