Benzo

This post might actually fit better in "Spray" - can a mod move it there please?

Hey y'all, the wife and I are making our annual trip out to the PNW to noodle around on Rainier and then Seattle/Olympic NP, and figured I'd see if I can start putting faces to the names around here. We'll be on the Emmons side July 8-10, and probably bar-hopping in Seattle July 14th and 15th - if you're around and looking for something to do/people to chat with, send me a PM! Cheers!

Hey y'all, been lurking here for a few years soaking up a ton of great advice - never posted about any of my (+ wife) trips, so figured I'd put up a few pics from early June where we went for an Adams+Rainier two-fer. We nailed the window for Adams, getting to the mountain 2days after the park opened and only a couple days after blizzard-like conditions - kept a SUPER keen eye-out for avy prone slopes! Camped in a great little spot on the Lunch Counter and went up the following day. The south route was actually still pretty icy and a bit steeper than either of us expected, and boy is it a mental gut-punch getting to Pikers and (though expected) still seeing another ~600ft of climbing left. Bluebird skies by the time we hit the summit, and things started de-icing by the time we were coming down (around 1ish? we started late to let the ice thaw a tad). Also, a ton of what I assume are sulphur vents up there? Pretty cool! Big shout out to the guy who took our summit pic - he gave us an ersatz lesson in glissading (somehow we'd still never done it) and that is THE way to get down if you aren't ski descending. Also, big apology to the skiers who (whom?) were surely perturbed by us on the way down! We spent a night in Ashford after we descended and planned to get on Rainier and do the DC the next morning. Weather report said clear and warming, and hoooooo-boy was that wrong. We got to Paradise around 8am and it was cloud city - with that and still being kinda sore from Adams, we said screw it and decided to just do a hike to Muir. Going down it was, like, 40ft visibility from 7500-9000ft which was pretty concerning - this was the day that lost hiker at Paradise went missing, so I'm assuming it was due to the whiteout (we personally ran into a dude who got separated from his wife and kid - who it turns out decided to descend without telling him???). And good golly, we were seeing people still coming up in tshirts, shorts, and tennis shoes with no supplies! One group tried going up this steep snowslope before Panorama without even microspikes! The degree to which some people are so cavalier with their lives is mind boggling. Anyway that sort of brings me to why I posted this in the "newbies" section - even with >10yrs of trad/aid/sport climbing experience and a couple prior Rainier summits plus this recent trip, my wife and I are only FINALLY starting to feel comfortable with our skills. To any of the newbies thinking "I've got backpacking experience, so I can pull off Rainier. Surely crampons aren't THAT tough to figure out" you will fail. If you want to get a jump on the learning curve, I would personally recommend multiple guided trips - we did the independent route and are only 50/50 so far! I digress. Anyway, big thanks to the website and users, and hopefully we'll have more trip posts in the future!

Permit reservations are up now https://www.recreation.gov/sitepass/74420

Well I'll be, don't know how I missed that - thanks! Must have been overwhelmed by the GeoCities-level webdesign and pseudo comic sans script!

So evidently one needs a permit to go above 7k on Adams (I was aware Helens required one, but not Adams) - but the USDA/Recreation.gov websites are utterly inscrutable to me. Can someone do me a huge favor and provide a direct link for the Adams climbing permit? Thanks!

Oh snap, today I learned National Forests are managed by USDA and not under NPS purview - good to know. Thanks for the link!

I'm unclear on what that means - MORA says the backcountry is open to "dispersed recreation such as hiking and winter camping." Since NPS is Dept of Interior, I can't imagine a USDA rule (Dpet of Ag) would supersede their directive Speaking only for NC where I live, the state specifically exempts outdoor recreation from the stay-at-home order - is that not also the case in WA?

By the time I was at the top of the chute, they were well on their way towards Point Success - no way I was going to a couple hours to follow them up to return dropped gear that could've split open someone's skull on the way down. Never saw them on the summit or descent either - but no reports of rescues that week, so they managed I guess!

I'll be taking a couple weeks vacation in late June next year to get some climbing in on the big boys. I'm tentatively thinking about flying into Portland, doing Hood via Hogsback, then drive up to Adams and do Mazama, then maybe cap it off with Rainier doing DC (maybe Emmons, though that may be tough to budget in time-wise). Looking for partners who'd be interested in one or all of those (Hood and Adams are the priority, as I've not been on those). I'm 32 and in good shape, I've got ~10-12yrs of rock climbing experience, and have been on Rainier 3 times (2 successful) - any partners should be equally (or more) experienced with glacier travel. I'm a laid-back person who's more interested in having a good time with people than peak-bagging - if you're interested hit me up!

About 2 yrs ago I was doing Kautz - get to the chute and see these two guys starting up it and were just RAINING small-to-largish chunks of ice on everyone below. Took a golfball-sized bit of ice to the helmet even. Anyway, we go up after them (or at least when the hailstorm finally ended) and I start finding loads of stuff they'd dropped - an ice screw with draw attached, a locking biner with an atc, and another quickdraw. By the time we're at the top of the chute, we notice they've (I assume) taken the wrong way up to Point Success instead of Wapowety, and while we're heading to the cleaver you could see them evidently realize they'd gone the wrong way and decide to traverse back toward the true summit through a mess of seracs and whatnot. As far as I know they summited and got back down...? A stupefying experience, but hey - booty is booty.

Hey Zizzou, pretty far from obscure but the SO and I will be doing the DC on Rainier weekend of 6/14. If you're interested we can discuss bona fides/logistics in more depth