jane

I climbed south side of Hood on August the 5th. I reached the summit ridge before sun rise and hurried down before the rock fall started. The route was more challenging comparing to the early season photos.

We summitted Rainier via the Kautz Glacier on 7/27. The left side of the ice chute had lots of snow. If you want a steeper version, the upper part of the right side was alpine ice and took in screws well. The crevasses on Wilson Glacier and Nasqually Glacier are increasing by day but still fairly manageable.

It seems that accidents on Hood tend to receive more attention than that of Alaska or even Rainier. Why? Personally I do not welcome the media hype if I am gone missing or dead.

Mike, I just don't understand why Lucia didn't order the two clients and himself to stake in snow pickets or ice screws as anchors before he let Bridgewater climbed out.

We ended up attempting Gilbrater Ledges. We arrived at Camp Muir on the 22nd. The weather was stormy. We waited for a day. On the 24th, the weather improved, but the avalanche danger was too high, after a slab test. So we decided to just play around. We ascended along Cowlitz Cleaver up to Beehive. While ascending, we witnessed avalanche going down the Gib chute. It was a good decision that we turned around. To our knowledge, no party submitted from any route during the 4/22-24 time frame. The weather was just too much. Jane

Hi, Mike, Thanks for the advice. Yes, we did plan on going as 2x2 teams. We started hard training months ago. Three out of four had previous big alpine experience. We just hope we will have good weather and be lucky. We are keeping track the weather and your post on this Forum. thanks for your time and effort! Jane

Hi, Mike, Four of us are planning on doing L.R. during April 21-26. You said the rock fall is a problem, especially bellow the Thumb Rock. Is the rock fall less frequent before the sun hits? I mean, shall we opt for an early start everyday, say, 3 am or 4am? thanks Jane