DPS

Ravens, which are Corvids, are among the smartest birds, at least as smart as cats, look for wands which mark caches. If you don't mark you cache somehow, you might lose it. I guess have a system like three shovel lengths downhill from the wand is the cache or something. I have a burly, inexpensive duffle bag which was one of my checked pieces of luggage and also my sled bag. It is made by Eagle Creek and it has locking zipper pulls. You can use zip ties to 'lock' the zipper pulls so the ravens won't be able to open the zipper. The fabric is pretty burly, maybe they could eventually peck through, but we never left a cache more than over night. We buried our caches at least 3 feet deep and marked each corner and the middle with a double length wand (two wands taped together) with our expedition name and date as per park regulations. Never had a problem with ravens. Not sure it would have made any difference, but we put goodies in the bottom, and fuel and stuff like that on the top. I'm pretty sure my Fish duffel, made of haul bag material, would be Raven proof with the pulls locked, but it was bigger than needed for a sled bag. If you are just doing the West Butt, you can easily get away with two caches. Pull sleds to 11k, one double carry and cache to 14k, one double carry and cache to 17k.

In July your biggest obstacles will be crossing the Carbon glacier and rock fall from the spine of the ridge below Thumb Rock. St Elmo's Pass is a fairly short hike (3-4 hours at most). You may want to hike in a bit further so you can cross the carbon and ascend to Thumb Rock before the heat of the day creates too much rock fall. Of course weather is always a concern, that time of year it will come from the north so you can keep a good eye on it. Watch the summit, a growing descending lenticular cloud is bad.

That dependends upon the snow conditions, weather, personal fitness, how much weight you carry and so forth. If weather is not too bad, (July is usually quite stable) 5 days should be plenty. We did it in 30 hours CTC in mid July.

It has been a few years since I climbed there, but the only route with serious lines was Diedre. Maybe that has changed, but there is a lot of very good rock there, hard to go wrong unless it is mossy and/or overgrown.

There will be a distinct trail on the DC and there will be open crevasses. Some years the route is so broken up the route detours around the cleaver, but that is rare and this is a high snow year. The guide services put in effort to keep the trail open. They fix pickets and fix ladders across crevasses.

The route is usually a cattle trail. You will need wands for caching gear. TAT has a garbage can full of wands that departing climbers donated their used wands into - no need to lug your own from CA.

The new 6000 meter boots, and many others, have built in gaitors and many pants have both elastic cuffs and grommets through which a cord can be attached to create integral gaitors. I still use gaitors but then I am decidedly old. School. As for your axe, I am 5'9" and my axe is 58cm which seems pretty ideal. For low angle terrain I use trekking poles.

I did these so long ago I forgot I could climb that hard. I thought they were easier. I was also thinking of mercy me. Is that still 5.8?

St Vitus Dance, Snake, Cruel Shoes to Apron Strings (basically the first few pitches of the Grand Wall. Bananna Peel, although pretty easy, is fun, longish, and usually not crowded.

Good choice. Park at the White River TH, hike to Glacier Basin (same approach for Emmons), head up St Elmo's Pass, cross under Curtis Ridge, drop down onto the Carbon, cross the Carbon, up Lib Ridge (bivis at St Elmo's Pass and Thumb Rock on Lib Ridge). Summit and descend down Emmons, the Inter glacier, glissgade down to Glacier Basin and hike out to the car. The hump from the TH to Thumb Rock is long, it took me 12 hours, and many parties break the approach up into two days, spending the first night at St Elmos Pass or thereabouts, the second night at Thumb Rock.

I was bouldering at the UW wall and 'The Coach' who uses about a roll per hand was telling me about his latest plan to bike to the Sierras and climb this and that when a young woman came up and asked if we had any tape to spare. I had just run out that day and I apologized and said as much. Without skipping a beat the coach turned his head and barked 'NO!' The poor girl slinked away probably thinking we were both assholes.

I was reading the current issue of Alpinist about K2. A Polish expedition burned thier novel to melt water when they ran out of fuel. Can't do that with a Kindle.

Is this a serious response? Does this produce any reasonable amount of water? The water will taste bad. The reason it tastes bad is because of who-knows-what leaching out of that black plastic into your water, probably greatly increased by UV degradation. I doubt that shit can be good for you. This technique was described in my 4th edition of Freedom of the Hills. The product was described as 'not water' but 'melted snow'. Gene had a great idea (was even printed in Climbing magazine under the Tech Tips). Wrap a Nagene water in black tape and stuff it with snow. It will melt and not taste nearly as bad as the black garbage bag. I have a black nylon water bottle carrier that hangs off my waist belt that accomplishes the same thing.

My research agrees with this. I investigated the feasibility of using Platypus water containers as light weight white gas containers. Platypus containers are made of a bilaminate material; nylon on the outside, food grade polyethylene on the inside. For the four chemical constitutents of white gas (vis a vis Coleman Fuel) nylon had good to excellent resistance. The polyethylene had good to poor resistance. The polypropylene cap also had good to excellent resistance. I wondered if Cascades Designs would do manufacture a few custom Platypuses with the material flipped over, but I suspect if I told them it was to hold fuel they wouldn't do it.

Is this a serious response? Does this produce any reasonable amount of water? Yes, this had been done for a long time. It depends on how sunny/hot out it is. Snow goes in the black bag, the black bag absorbs heat and melts the water inside. The water will taste bad. It will not replace a stove, you still need to bring a stove and fuel. This is a passive way of creating more water to save fuel.

To answer you question, there are no shuttles that I am aware of that run from Paradise to Ipsut Creek or White River trailheads, the two choices for Liberty Ridge. If for whatever reason, you have your heart set on descending to Paradise, bring $100 cash and start asking folks in the parking lot (there will be alot if you get down in the middle of the day ) for a ride halfway around the mountain and bribe them $100 bucks to do so. Some broke climbers might take pity (and your money) to drive you, but this is hit and miss. I am guessing driving east on Hwy 12 and then back west on Hwy 410.

Just a thought, most folks approach from White River and descend Emmons back to White River, negating the need for a car shuttle. This is how I did it and it was pretty reasonable. One day drom White River TH to Thumb Rock, one short day to summit and descend to the TH. I don't see any advantages to descending to Paradise. Emmons is more straight forward with fewer objective hazards than the DC route.

My daughter started climbing with me when she was 5 and quit when she was 13. She was never heavy enough to belay me. Most often she would climb with me and another partner. When we climbed together alone, I would self belay off the anchor then she would clean and follow the pitch.

Just because you can get insurance doesn't mean they will pay out on the policy. Check out the company with Consumer Reports, the BBB, etc. I found this out the hard way. My insurance policy through work refused to pay out on my disability claim, as well as a colleague's. (He had multiple myeoloma cancer and needed two bone marrow transplants.) I spoke with a lawyer who said the insurance company was one of the worst ones out there and they had built their entire practice around suing them.

This might have some good tips: http://www.summitpost.org/so-you-want-to-climb-mt-rainier/507227

This game we all play is just that, a game. It is a way to make our tedious, workaday lives more interesting and fun. Some people golf, some people run marathons, we are driven to climb. For some of us it is a way to channel our ambitions and our sport has no shortage of ambitious people. Ambition is the fuel we burn that gets us up difficult climbs. The flip side of ambition is judgment. It is a balancing act; we walk a razor thin wire. Sometimes we make mistakes and get hurt or need to be rescued. There are people still breathing because I have rescued them, some are members on cc.com. I have also been rescued by others here on cc.com. I have put other’s lives at risk. In turn, I have put my neck on the line for strangers. It is easy to point fingers and say to ourselves that we would never make the mistakes that others have made. We are too smart, too experienced, or too skilled for that to happen. Perhaps that is how we are able to continue playing this dangerous game, we fool ourselves into thinking we are immune. Nobody is immune to a lapse in judgment, an unforeseen circumstance, or just plain back luck. There are two kinds of climbers; those that have had an epic and those that will have an epic. I have made momentous mistakes and had huge lapses in judgment. I am a flawed human. Yet people still rope up with me. It is an act of grace I suppose. It certainly is not because I can guarantee them a hard summit or that I am even a particularly reliable or skilled partner. The euphoria of a hard fought summit, the feeling of perfectly balancing strength and skill against gravity, and our sturm and drang years are all too brief and fleeting. At the end of the day, it is the relationships that last. It is the friendships forged in the mountains that are important. Perhaps some of us don’t realize this or disagree. We bicker over petty issues on the internet. We puff our chests out at the crag. There is no shortage of posturing and posing in our game. I am perhaps guiltier of this than most; driven by deep insecurities and a lack of any notable achievement in climbing or other aspects of my life. But at least I respect my partners and hold them all in high esteem for they have deigned to climb with me, a deeply flawed human. Because of this I don’t ‘kiss and tell’. I have read a number of frank, honest trip reports where the OP is harshly criticized for decisions that were made on the mountain. This seems to be more than the usual armchair quarterbacking or rational analysis of possible errors. From where I am standing there are folks who are bent on character assassination. I don’t know why, perhaps it is because they are threatened by other climbers's successes. I just want those responsible to know their shit stinks, just like everybody else’s. Nobody is perfect and if you continue to climb your time is coming. When it does you better hope your partner shines grace on you and doesn’t out you in a public forum. It may just be the internet, but being second guessed or even outright attacked still hurts.

I tried my hand at guiding for a season. One client showed up with four gallon containers of water tied to her pack. I asked her why she would do that. "To drink of course!" I explained that we melt our water from the snow.

It is FAR more weight efficient to bring a stove rather than enough water for a trip. For a three day trip you would need at least 18 liters of water which weighs 40 pounds. Nobody in their right mind brings more than 2 or 3 liters. Bring a stove, yes it is an onerous task, but it is what it is. Several extra gallons? At 8 pounds a pop that is a lot of extra weight. Not a bright move. Why didn't they a) dump out their containers, or b)leave it at Muir so other climbers could use it. Makes no kind of sense to me. I have heard of climbers who speed climb Rainier cache water at Muir so they don't have to carry much, but they do it CTC in like 4 hours.

I think the variation is called the Old Chute. From the Hogsback it is climber's left of the Pearly Gates. It requires only one axe and is pretty straight forward, although the short ridge traverse to the summit is exposed. When I did the NF a few winters ago, the Pearly Gates were very icy. We saw a V-Thread that friends had left the previous day. We simply walked a short way skier's right and plunge stepped down the Old Chute, stratching our heads why everyone else wasn't doing the same thing.

Can't go wrong with either Western Mountaineering or Feathered Friends. I own bags from both companies and they are worth every penny.