Tahoma Glacier

[mattp]

It is a very scenic route. If you opt for an extra night on the mountain, there is beautiful camping around St. Andrews Park or up toward Tokaloo Rock.

 

As you ascend along Puyallup Cleaver, the route descriptions mention either going onto the glacier at something like 9,500 or going over St. Andrews Rocks, and I would definitely opt for the glacier if possible (there is some steep terrain with some nasty fall potential in the climb over St. Andrews Rocks).

 

Unless the situation has changed drastically since I was there, I would avoid descending the Sickle. When I went down that way one July we found it to require some technical downclimbing which caused us to loiter way too long beneath a whole bunch of seracs that had sun on them.

 

If you want to be smug about the whole thing, climb to Liberty Cap and blow off Columbia Crest. Most of the "climber's climbs" on Rainier go to Liberty Cap and up there you won't find a bunch of guided parties and people crawling around on all fours just so they can sign their name into "the book."

[JCW]

Doing Rainier's Tahoma Glacier in early July. Wondering if anyone has any info on conditions or general beta on the route.

 

Thanks