wishiwashigh

Thanks for the beta Dan. We arrive in Seattle on May 9th. I think the road to WR opens on the 20th of May. How many miles is it from the closure to WR campground? I think another trip to the pawn shop to pick up some bikes might be in order. -Nick

Were planning to come in from Isput. Just wondering what the trail conditions are like. I did Liberty from Isput last year so I know the road to the campground is closed. I also know the trail from the campground is a mess. But what about the trail to spray park??? I'm not sure how it held up through all the flooding. Any insight or suggestions would be awesome! -Nick

the link to the pics changed. Here it is! http://picasaweb.google.com/audibletruth/LibertyRidgeMountRainier2008#

Can anyone recommend a good guide book for climbs in the Andes? I'm looking for something that covers all the bases, Planning, logistics, routes, weather, ect. I just started looking into South America and don't know much about it. All I know is I wanna climb there and rent some donkeys to carry my gear to Base camp

Trip: Mount Rainier - Liberty Ridge Date: 5/12/2008 Trip Report: Liberty Ridge May 12-18. We made it, but not without great difficulty. I think we bagged the first accent of the year. We started from the Carbon ranger station. We biked the section of road that was closed and blazed trail all the way to the base of the freakin mountain in deep freakin powder! Approach took 3 days due to bad weather(rain), the climb took 2 days, and the decent took another 2 days. The carbon offered almost direct access to the base of Lib ridge. There was only a few crevasses the we had to jump or end run. We gained the ridge on the west side. The climbing was good and clean in the morn but and soon as the temp went up the hard snow turned to deep slush. It was some of the most terrifying climbing I've ever done. Just unstable deep slush, no good axe or boot placements, no pro....horrible. so we free'd the whole route and only broke out the rope for glacier travel and the bergshrund. At the Thumb there was a constant showcase of avi's, ice and rockfall. Summit day was 15hrs of exhausting climbing in deep snow and hard alpine ice with a constant attack of falling ice and rock. Jeremy took a softball sized piece of ice to the arm and I got hit in the helmet with ice so hard it all most knocked me out. It left a big dent in my helmet. Uriah got hit by rockfall in the tent at our high camp and our brand new mountain hardwear EV3 has a nice big hole in it. Needless to say we slept the rest of the night with our helmets on. The upper route was solid untill we gained the slope to the left of the BP. the snow got deep and sticky. Every time I pulled my foot out to kick another step 50lbs of snow would be stuck in my freakin pons! So I had to beat it out on my other foot. Terribly exhausting, so the three of us rotated breaking trail 10 mins on 20 off for 3+ hrs. Above the BP the deep snow instantly turned to hard alpine ice for the last 400ft or so. We opted to take a more direct and difficult route to gain the cap. the crux was 60ft of WI3+, ate up all 5 screws and a pickett.FUN,FUN,FUN!!! got to the summit around 730(too late to descend) so we droped down a bit, found shelter from the feirce winds and bivied @ 13900 ft. woke up to high winds and made the decision to pack up and drop down anyway. As soon as we got down below the summit plateau the winds abated and with the exception of a couple route finding mistakes the decent went well. The emmons was in great shape minus some pockets of deep snow. Here is the link to the pics.... http://picasaweb.google.com/audibletruth/MountRainier2008 Gear Notes: Snowshoes- need 'em, we wouldn't have made it. Bikes- use 'em. screws- for up high. 5 was perfect for the route we took. picketts- we took 2 for a team of 3, worked well. helmets- wear 'em Approach Notes: Long and hard

Anyone been up to the north side of the mountain? any insight on approach, carbon, and ridge conditions would be awesome!!! pics would be even better!!!!

Does anyone know if Carbon River Rd. is open to traffic? If not have a date? What about access to WRC?

yeah, the trail is clear all the way to dick creek camp.

I was on the north side going for Lib ridge the 22nd-25th. Same conditions. It took 2 days to get from 1700 ft. - 8000ish. only got to see the mountain once when the clouds broke for about 5mins. waited a day to see if the weather would turn then decended. came all the way from the east coast too. oh well, just another reason to come back next year.

LOL. Don't think the Blue crab can be beat. Not with some good old bay spices. You guys don't know what your missing. Now i'm sure your salmon can't beaten. We will see soon who has the best seafood flava, the mid atlantic or the pac nor west. As for the altitude, were taking an extended two day approch to the base of Lib Ridge to acclimate. That pike place market looks awesome, I think I'll stop by there right after the airport. A couple more questions. Can a ferry be taken from Seattle to Bremmerton? How long? $$$? Does Seattle have bad rush hour traffic? How long does it take to get to Seattle from the airport? Thanks again, -Nick.

Flying in from Baltimore on friday to attempt Rainier. Word on the street is that Washington knows its seafood. Anyone know where I can get a good Alaskan salmon dish. Or even a fish market.I'd rather cook it myself. Flying in to SeaTac and staying in Bremmerton so anywhere around the Puget sound will do. Thanks all.