Water

not trying to get into the pee pee match here but just adding my 2cents/opinion: I have a handful of different puffies and I'm always happy I have a hood and often wish the ones that don't had one, even if I have warm hat(s)/balaclava/beanie/etc and other stuff that is hooded with me--a hood is always beloved by me. don't try to buy a jacket for 1 mountain and trying to make it work for 3 others at various spots around the globe, cross those bridges when you get to them, in the scope of it a few hundred bucks for a jacket now vs for then.. and as mentioned using two is not a total wack idea. I have climbed in mont-bell tec down jacket once during single digit temps and low teens in the cascades and it was fine--but it was sunny, zilch humidity, and we paced ourselves very well. I even had a event shell on top of it. Maybe the pits were damp but I don't know, but it was needed even while moving to keep me warm. For climbing (most of the time a single day affair down at hood) I just use a softshell and a base layer with a nano puff pullover as my insulator if I need it (rarely do) as I know I can sweat the shit out of it and not worry too bad. Plan for the majority of conditions but be hedged for worst case. Just another hat in the ring but for 'summer' on rainier personally I think you can use down or synthetic equally, just use half a brain about it. If you sweat like a sasquatch and heavily plan on using it to insulate you while you do are exerting yourself at full capacity, don't get down. If you're mostly planning to use it at rest stops and around camp then down is okay, or if it just gets used near the top and you're coming down that day you're fine. I dont have a problem really getting down damp if it is for a day/if i know it will be sunny later/etc. If the weather is utter crap chances are you won't be going up in it anyways.

in the above pic the bright dot towards the bottom is the top of the magic mile lift/start of the lift that goes to the top of palmer. I believe. just across a shallow gully to the right (East) is silcox hut. silcox is not where the top lift appears to terminate, thats just the top of the palmer lift.

from http://www.nwac.us/weatherdata/timberlineupper/ it looks like the wind dropped to about nill for much of the southside after midnight once it swung around to be from the north, then it looks like maybe it started coming around from the east now that we have high pressure and some off-shore flow for a day or two. would love to hear how that jives with anyone who went up

Nice TR. Well documented. For some reason I find myself going to north a few times a year...Myself and two friends climbed it on the 10th of September (day before ya) and met up with one guy on his 3rd attempt. Just the 4 of us on Sat and it was pleasant. I took some pics of the interesting rocks (red and bluish), wondering if it is any influence of iron/copper? Anyways the moat sure was choice, eh? I would dispute that the SE ridge is not used so much--indeed it is the only way I've headed up each time. Veering to the north side of the ridge in a few spots is cool and you get to walk under some really cool gendarmes, and it is obviously as tracked on that side as the south (pick your own adventure). ran into group of 10-12 mazamas in July and they moved slow and kind of held us up for a while, though let us pass once they finished setting up a fixed line early on where the S and SE ridge meet the 'summit' ridge. the group size and being on north (and not middle) seemed incredibly ambitious/naive given everyone but the leaders moved with very little confidence. And one student yelled at me for littering because my buddy threw a banana peel at me and I tossed it down the mountain. lol. an orange peel!!! my wilderness experience is RUINT! sorry for the tangent!

rich

i think this is awesome. you can close the forum but it'll still be icy hot when it comes back!

I always have some basic of extra gloves, sit pad, shovel, plenty of food. this winter just decided to bite the bullet and bring along enough for a more comfortable night out, even during a basic day snowshoe in the woods with wife or friends. Reactor stove, first ascent peak vx jacket, some monster mittens. I consider it training weight.

1) someone else more knowledgeable can probably clearly answer but my guess is that is is probably 'not allowed' but if you're sharp with it you can do this, biggest risk probably being another party uncovers it (as you know muir in the summer can be a zoo of people) or an animal (fox or raven) gets into it. a) having a clear note with it would hopefully prevent pillage b) store it securely, well under the snow. 2) 6400ft at sunrise is the highest paved road in WA. WA experts can weigh in probably you can get to 7k somewhere but I doubt 8k. From the perspective of seeing more and experiencing more of the NW, hitting South Spur of Adams or doing Hood would be awesome. But the merits of informing yourself about your own climb by doing any pre-hikes going to Muir is probably exceedingly more valuable to your team. You will pick up the week-of beta while there, from a variety of sources, and will gain the beginnings of the irreplaceable first-hand knowledge/experience (and thus confidence) of at least the lower section of the mnt. Just speaking from experience but my first time seeing/climbing any volcano it always seems the most imposing, even if I encounter more challenging conditions on a later climb. Doing the start of it can give a lot of confidence.

academically speaking I'd carry a weather balloon and a canister of helium obviously. go light and fast, except for that gear and some food. if i fall in, I'll float out!

I'd 2nd the Adams route but if hood is still in shape (really just depends on the weather/snow both this spring and acutely during the time you'd be here in July) then that could be a go. Hood being marginally more technical but personally I think less of a gruel to hit than Adams southside. But my vote would be for solo Adams south spur. easier to spend time at elevation (you can hang out at pikers at 11k till sunset even. I'm no expert on acclimatizing but I'm not sure going up adams 2-7 days before rainier actually will help your blood chemistry and all that to an appreciable degree, but, will certainly tell you if your fitness, packweight, etc is dialed in--its an excellent 'am i capable of this?' primer without much skin on the line.

if you fall make sure to e-rest yourself.

I have the couloir-hard to beat the size/weight/etc for glacier and alpine or whatnut. but in hanging in it just a few minutes doing some CR practice/pulling on the rope, did myself some nitfy chaff/bruising, way easier than I would have expected. So, heed the 'hang in it' aspect if you're going to be using it that much. For instance I don't even consider it as a 2nd harness for me or a friend for indoor TR'ing.

i still dont know wtf is the diff between old chute and mazamas chute but 'think' i know after this weekend, it being the first time in many forays over a few years that I heard anyone demarcate the two. going up from 'hot rocks' veering to climbers right, that way, was well tracked semi-steps, of crudish dry snow about 2-5 inches deep over a layer of hard ice. so that bit of snow over the top helped imo. downclimbing was okay i guess a 2nd tool coulda been nice since i was only able to get the tip of my ice ax in for upper body anchoring whilst i was kicking below to secure my feet, but, meh, just concentrate and it was fine. there was someone who was doing their first climb and they were sketched out there and uber slow. i think the other spot where bkb0000 went down had a bit more snow--its where the skiiers/boarders were descending 10-20 ft before strapping on.

well i would move slow if i had 2 backpacks on! Didn't even see that till i zoomed in on the pic at home. no criticism of your pace intended. from the HB the slope about 15 foot higher from where you were looked more like a shelf than a steep traverse-seemed like it might be easier. glad you were okay--when someone called out that you were motionless and 70ft lower than when we last saw you, we all looked and were ready to book it over there. that part where you were is in the lee of the ridge so i think the snow was probably was deeper like on the east side of crater rock. i think the inversion didn't help so much with the projectiles.. it was right about 32 in the shade, even around 1pm, but, in the sun about 45 degrees.

same day, saw this fellow seeming to follow (like 45 minutes behind?) a partner going up well late (1:30?) along west crater rim (at about hogsback level). We couldn't really comprehend what was going on as they traversed the steepest part at a snails pace. then we looked over and saw them motionless at the bottom of their slide. we called and they gave a limp thumbs up and said they were fine. Now that I see the pic, do they have two backpacks on?

i think this route, and thread, is calling mawwwmot pwwince

mawwwwwwwwwwmet pwwwwwwwwince! you may hate the "sanctimonious" attitudes here, but, as evidenced by every single one of your threads, that is the attitude here or at least what you get, eh? so why are you even bothering to post and ask for advice, are these threads helpful for you? I guess it is attitude I've seen plenty of people who sincerely want to listen and learn get plenty out of the site and even offerings for time on rock/ice/snow. if someone posted a link to their post warning someone, and a link to a news article about someone's subsequent death due to something they did against advice (like climbing rock/icefall routes during an extreme inversion)--then what, you'd suddenly heed that persons advice? But not until they've demonstrated? Either way you come off dumb as fuck (whether you won't listen prior or do listen after evidence). also A LOT is two words, you keep spelling it as one, maybe you can learn that unless you need to get the cred that i've mastered the dictionary. in closing, nigeria is a land of contrast. MAaaaaaawwwwwwwmet PWWWWWINNNNCE!

whenever I see the OP's name I can only help but to say it in my head as the priest from the princess bride: mawwwment pwwwince!

To answer your question, yes, people do have experience with the other class three routes at that time of year.

have only made it to the north cascades once and i got the book for christmas-inlaws are always looking for a book to get me at the holidays and this is something i feel spoiled to own!

#4 was a non-sequitur #2 and #3 (palmer/southside) are basically the same thing. #1 is going to be a more 'wilderness' feel but st helens definitely has terrain traps not found on southside of hood and would be much better with a partner. That said on most decent weekend days in the winter/spring you can find 20 to 50 people going up. point of clarification about the 'sno-park pass' -- someone correct me if I'm wrong but here goes: 1) if oregon plates on car, buy oregon pass. Valid in OR and WA snoparks 2) if WA plates on car, buy WA pass, valid in OR or WA 3) WA plates with OR purchased pass = no bueno in WA have fun

even though i mailed them a year+ ago and asked them to correct it and they said they would, petzl still lists the shaft of the aztarex as T rated in places when it is B rated. http://www.petzl.com/files/all/en/Products/comparaison/comparison-table-ice-axes.pdf

wasn't going to say anything but the vignetting on the pictures is extreme. if intentional so be it, if just out of camera maybe get that lens looked at or some lens correction going on pp. but maybe you added it since there is a dark halo around this trip due to injury. there is a reason the catchphrase 'doctor's orders' exists in the first place. You're the patient, be patient. heal well.

the 'road' to st helens will in high likelihood be 'open', unless that is it snows a tremendous amount at lower elevations starting in early May (unlikely) The main thing with that is after May 1st I think they start selling permits or some dumbshit, and after May 15th they limit the # of permits to 100/day. The road to the highest 'climber' TH won't likely be open but Marble Mt Snow park/TH will be and you can still climb from there (adds something paltry like 2miles and 1000ft extra--it is the defacto 'winter' route). Chances are you can say screw-it to the permit esp if not on a weekend.

http://weatherspark.com/#!dashboard;q=Government+Camp,+OR,+USA use that to find your historical best data for what week makes the most sense