jonrfrederick

Climb: Mt Rainier-Gibraltar Chute Date of Climb: 4/27/2006 Trip Report: My friend Garrette and I left for Camp Muir on Thur April 27th planning on a two day climb. The weather up to Muir was great, the snow was a little on the soft side, but not enough to slow progress. We arrived at Camp Muir and met a couple from New Zealand who had arrived at Muir the previous day and were planning on doing the Gib Ledges the next day. We made water and hit the sack to get some rest for our climb of the Gib Chute a few hours away. We left camp at around 12:30 and headed for the base of the chute there was a bit of ice fall and rock fall debris at the base of the chute which made the going a little slower, but we made it to the chute and started to ascend in perfect snow conditions. About 3/4 of the way up the chute we started to get hit with some wind, but it was not strong, just cold enought to make you not want to stop climbing. This wind was present for the rest of the climb to the summit. After the chute we proceded climbing to the summit in perfect snow conditions, soft enought to kick solid steps, but not so we were punching through to our knees. We made it to the summit and enjoyed the beautiful weather and empty summit of an early season climb. That is me and Garrette and me jumping for joy at the top. As a side note, Garrette was wearing glasses, he had just taken them off to take some pictures. We descended the mountain back down to the gib rock and then ober to the Ingram Direct route and found the snow very good unitll about half way down the Ingram Glacier. It them became very soft and I would highly recomend the use of a split board or skis or at least snowshoes to get down from Camp Muir, because the snow was super soft and not much fun to be in without them. As a final note, everyone should buy a copy of Mike Gauthier's Mt Rainer book, I just purchased it before this climb and it has so many pictures and details about every route, it almost makes the trip easy... thanks for reading about our trip. Gear Notes: valuable gear for us: sunscreen, snowshoes, and crampons