fixiewrek

A v-thread tool would have been awesome, now that I know what it is! Screws held great, and we did use snow pickets when we were there for rapping from the snow onto the ice where it was still pretty steep. A second tool was pretty essential for the climb. This route will definitely change with the hot summer temps we have going on right now, so be ready for more ice than not.

Does anybody know when that video was taken?

We just did the Kautz last weekend, 15th - 16th and it was a blast, we were the only people on the route all day and when we summitted we heard stories of 1 1/2 hour waits on the Emmons, so glad we didn't have to wait there. We started hiking from Paradise around 9AM and it took us 8-9 hours to get to our camp right around 10,900 feet and there were great camp sites at the top of the Turtle. There is running water up there, but fill up at night as all the little streams freeze over at night and make it a bitch to fill up before the climb. To get to the ice chute there is actually a rappel sling that allows you to avoid going all the way up to Camp Hazard and below the Ice Cliff. It is just below a red rock outcropping, I think it's the last one you can see before the Ice Cliffs and there's actually a climbers trail right to it. You can also come back this way with just a little easy climbing. It saves a lot of time and effort. From here you cross the run-out chute for the Ice Cliffs very quickly and get to the first of the ice chutes (get up there early enough so you can scope it out the day before). The ice was a lot longer and more water ice than we expected. Although the actual water ice is only about 100-feet it's probably about 2 sections of 300 ft. ice that you'll want to protect to feel comfortable. We simul-climbed it with 3 ice screws, but were wishing we had a lot more and we were all novices on ice. After you get above the second ice section it's pretty simple to get up top. Crevasses were minimal and route finding was simple. We got up at 1AM and reached the summit right around 10AM. Getting down was another story as the ice chutes did not soften up enough to step down, so we had to do mulitple rappels to get through it. Be prepared for this and be prepared to leave gear. There is gear on the route, but I'm sure it gets grabbed pretty quickly, but keep your eyes open. One post-thought that we had is that it would have been great to haul another rope and stash it at the top of the ice and then be able to do a full length rappel down. It would have made it much easier and quicker. Once you get back to camp, prepare for glissade heaven, about 2000' of vertical can be accomplished just by sitting on your butt. I'm sure it will be a fair bit more ice since you're going in mid August. Good luck and if you want you can check out our pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fixiewrek/sets/624120/

2 of us are planning to climb Rainier via the Kautz Glacier route this weekend and are looking for a 3rd person to fill out our rope team. We were going to do it this past weekend, but the weather fell apart and our 3rd can't do it this weekend. Looking for someone with experience to join up.

The Puget Sound Chapter of Engineers without Borders is sponsoring a slide show by Steve Swenson Thursday night at Seattle Central Community College. Steve is one of America's leading alpinists who summited with the second American expedition to climb K2, made a solo ascent of Mt. Everest without oxygen, and recently pioneered a new route on Nanaga Parbat. The event will be held Thursday, June 9th at 7 PM in room 1110 of Seattle Central Community College. Come out and support a great cause and see an awesome slideshow. For more information about EWB and the event, check out the website at: http://www.ewb-pugetsound.org