Brewer

I love Acme maps. And now I must love this one more. THANK YOU.

I'll drop what I've found here in case anyone else comes by. The "corridor" is cut in 'twain by a bit of a jumble of crevasses, and most people now traverse to the right into a fairly open snowfield, then zig-zag up until they get up below the bergschrund. At that point it's a high traverse to the right and up the ramp to the snow cap. You *can continue straight up to the upper part of the corridor, but you need good snow conditions as pick placement and crampon points need good purchase to mantle yourself up and over. Some people have been jumping that crevasse on the way down, but it started turning people around as the weekend progressed. A number of snowbridges are going to collapse soon, including the one just up the hill from Schurman. Weather was beautiful for our acclimatization and relaxation day on Saturday and lots of teams found the summit. On Sunday morning, we were the first team out of camp at 12:30, and just after the sun came up around 13K' some clouds and fog came in, so we didn't get any views or much time on the summit. It cleared up later on our descent. Lovely time.

Excellent. The WX this weekend looks mighty fine so far, although the forecast has moved from "clear" to "mostly clear"... Thanks for the updates.

Anyone have any good beta on the Emmons route? A friend and I are planning on a 2-night trip up there this weekend. Weather looks good so far, and the Rainier Climbing Blog says that the upper route is in good condition, but the trip down from the Inter-Glacier to the Emmons is getting trickier. Anyone have any input? How's the bergschrund? Are parties traversing right to the saddle, or is it more direct? Thanks, -me

Awesome. Thanks for the great info. I was hoping people wouldn't jump on me for not putting this in "newbies" or "kids" sections. I'm fine with this moving over to the kids section at any point, I just put it here to get some more eyeballs on it. Thanks again for the info, and if there's more, keep it coming!

My son (nearly 5) is nearing the point where he could top-rope outdoors. He's got our 14' backyard climbing wall mastered (with routes), and I think next year he'll be ready for some real rock. Does anyone know of any good top-roping areas in western Washington that would be good for someone who's only 4' tall and with lotsa nice big holds? My usual climbing partner mentioned spot(s) off exit 38 I90, but couldn't be very specific. Nearby camping and/or picnicing spots (official or otherwise) are a bonus. Thanks,

I'll add my agreements to the consensus here: Took the 6-day mountaineering intro course two years ago on Mt. Baker. Kurt Hicks was also my guide and he and the rest of the course were wonderful. From what I've heard and what I've experienced, they're a classy operation.

i, too, am curious of current conditions. anyone?

I'm curious about conditions on the glacier also. If you go, or if anyone else has info, I'd love to hear it.

PM'd

C'mon. You know you want to.

I've got a potential partner for this route that I am currently obsessing over (the route, not the partner), but he's a bit of a wishy-washy flake. If he falls through (hope to find out within the next week), I'd like YOU to join me! When: Some weekend in July (I have Fridays off, too) Where: Mt. Stuart, Ice Cliff Glacier How: Hike in, camp, summit and exit next day. Interested? -Ian

FWIW, I've only been on a few mountains here in Washington so far, but the only Verizon service I've found on Rainier (Muir), Baker (Easton), or Shuksan (Fisher) was on the ridge just west of Sandy Camp on Baker above the end of the Railroad Grade at about 6200'.

So we wound up driving down to Timberline (4.5 hours) and got there around 5 or so. Anything above the lifts was socked in. Wind was BLOWING (gusts around 30-40?). Packed up and snoozed until 12am, when the wind was still humming and rain started to fall. We slept another hour hoping for a change, at which point the rain was coming down much harder, and knowing the summit was likely off the table we decided to bag it since I didn't want to go play in the dark and windy rain/snow for not much gain. Slept till 5 and woke up to about 3/4 inch fresh snow (blowing in horizontally) and bugged out of there. Wasted gasoline, but Olive Garden in Gresham was yummy!

Yeah, I've been all over that shit for the last week or so. Webcams, weather.com, noaa.gov, avy forecasts, weatherunderground, iphone weather apps, I can't get enough info. Not to mention trip reports for all south side routes.... We've got a couple altimeters too, so that will be a useful tool. Damn I'm getting anxious to go. Thanks again!