[TR] Mt Rainier- Kautz Glacier 5/9/2004

[Alex_Mineev]

Climb: Mt Rainier-Kautz Glacier

 

Date of Climb: 5/9/2004

 

Trip Report:

Left Paradise (hm… I like this phrase) at noon. Decided to climb directly to the turtle by traversing Nisqually/Wilson glaciers. It took us 6 hours and a half to reach the base of the turtle (9600ft). All the way to the base we climbed in clouds which made routefinding on the glacier quite interesting. We stopped couple times to wait out thick whiteout in order to make another move between crevasses.

 

 

Broke thru the cloud deck at 9300ft. There were two big rocks below the turtle (they are very distinctive if looking from the Nisqually glacier). We found a really cozy, flat and protected spot on the lee side of the highest rock.

 

 

Occasionally clouds rolled in bringing wind and snow, but in general it was clear from our spot up and we could see high winds blowing snow from the summit.

 

 

Woke up at 3. This was the best night view I ever saw on the mountain. Bright moon, clear sky, white Mountain, thick clouds 2000ft below with Adams, St Helens and Hood in a bluish glow.

Left tent at 4.30. Started climbing guts of the ice cliff with the first light of sun.

 

 

 

 

 

Made two belay stations while on the cliff. Ice was not very good (at least as I expected). Typically it took three hits to securely stick the tool.

Aaron leaded with his usual grace. Blue monsters around were constantly crackling making us a bit nervous.

 

 

 

Exited ice cliff few minutes after 9 and had a rest for a breakfast. This was the end of the fun part.

 

 

 

Starting from 12500ft things began to deteriorate. Aaron got slight AMS, Louise was also touched by altitude so I was the only one to break the trail. The traverse to the Success Point was getting more and more exhausting to me. Sometimes it was 2-3 feet deep powder over melt-freeze ice crust, some times just the bare crust. At 13k Aaron decided to get off the rope and wait for us. We agreed to turn back at 1pm. Later this decision proved to be very correct. The slope slowly reached 40 degrees. I was quite pushing my limits after non-stop breaking trail for 1500ft. At about 14k I did only 4-5 steps between rest-breaks. On each break I put my forehead on top of the ice ax. Each time I closed eyes I felt instantly falling asleep being on the verge of consciousness. Not good, I thought. Loosing balance on this slope would not be fun. It was 1.06pm and 14067 on my altimeter when I decided to turn back. Oh, well… a hundred feet to the summit…

Soon we reached Aaron who was dozing in harmony in a little trench on the shining slope. Descended to 12k uneventfully. Wandered for an hour trying to find entrance of the ice chute that descends below the Camp Hazard.

The chute with the exit to the Camp Hazard was the most dangerous part of the whole climb. The first problem was snow balling, worsened by the fact that the balling material was the snow powder lying on a stone-hard crust. The second problem was temperature. Rocks falling from the nearby cleaver launched few substantial wet snow avalanches while we were descending the chute. Aaron and I glissaded in self arrest position; Louise fought with snow balls descending face-to-slope (she used Grivel untiballing plates that did not seem to be helping much).

The exit from the glacier to the Camp Hazard looked amazing. Huge ice cliff above. Constant sound of dripping water. Huge blocks of blue ice here and there. There was a crevasse in the beginning of the exit chute. It was full of blue ice blocks and red rocks and looked like a cup of candies. For a couple minutes we contemplated climbing rock on the left side of the chute just below the camp, then decided we were too tired for it (I think it was not right decision. Rock looked like 20-25 feet of low 5 class, quite doable). So we climbed Russian Roulette. We Were Lucky! It took us about 15-20 minutes to get out of the chute. We were sitting just above it on the rock of Camp Hazard taking off crampons when a bunch of stones and ice rumbled down. One particularly big stone whizzed nearby and crashed right on top of our boot track. It proved that camp was a real HAZARD and we quickly moved away. Got back to the tent at 5.30, melted ice, had tea, packed and started descent.

 

 

Followed our boot tracks. I punched thru soft snow into crevasses 4-5 times. Louise had most of the problems with these crevasses since I was quite heavy and broke the bridges and she had to jump over which was hard after the climb and having a full backpack. If she was going first then probably at least one of us could pass them without dropping, but we were too tired and busy running down to stop and rearrange rope positions. Reached the right side of Nisqually at the moment when it became completely dark. This was the end of the climb and beginning of the sufferfest. Aka field of frozen boot tracks - half foot deep frozen holes all the way to the parking lot. Dancing under heavy packs on numb legs three flashlights slowly moved towards Paradise. Surely we missed a turn in the darkness and had to go back uphill to get on the fcking 'trail'. Reached the car at 10.30pm.

We saw 5 deers on the way out and I saw a few visual hallucinations before Aaron took the wheel somewhere near Tacoma and I crashed asleep.

Wow! What a climb! My best one so far and my first ice experience

 

 

I lost 7 pounds in 34 hours.

3am is too late. 1am would be just right.

Any solution for untiballing would make you very happy on descent.

3 days seems to be more appropriate for this route.

Approach via Nisqually/Wilson glaciers is melting really fast.

 

Gear Notes:

two tools, one picket per person, 4 ice screws

[sobo]

Sorry you didn't make the summit, but it sounds like you had a blast, Alex. You made a nice go of it. Quite a bit different than on Adams this time last year, eh?

[Stephen_Ramsey]

Hi Alex,

 

Nice trip report. Thanks for posting. Does the Kautz Glacier route go straight up the ice cliff? Or is it possible to skirt around the ice cliff and climb a chute off to the side?

 

Thanks for any information.

 

Cheers,

Steve

 

P.S., I don't know if you remember me, but I think we met on McClellan Butte.

[Alex_Mineev]

This time of year you can go anyway you want. Normal way is to climb to camp Hazard and then turn left and down for a hundred feet, then turn right and up on 45 degree slope. In the morning hours this would be quite safe and easy. I did not want 'easy' I wanted the cliff. There is also a climbable shelf / ramp on the right side of the cliff 50-60 degree. But I am not sure how it tops.

[Alex_Mineev]

Decision to turn back at 1pm probably saved us from a lot of trouble on descent. Summit does not worth the trouble. And I've been on the summit two times this year. If we only had one more day...!

[Alex]

The standard way is the "ice chute" that Alex describes climbers left of Camp Hazard. I wouldnt tackle the serac band directly, it *does* calve fairly regularly. When dps and I climbed this route (seems like) many years ago, we walked through a very large debris field that completely buried Camp Hazard to get to the ice chute.

[Stephen_Ramsey]

Thanks, Alex & Alex. That clears up my confusion.

 

Great pictures!

 

[Alex]

I guess I should add that your climb through the Kautz Ice Chute sounds hairball! When we did this route it was a 50 degree hard neve/ice chute, but not particularly long and was fairly casual, we didnt belay anything. This was first week of June.

 

Your summit experience kind of sounds like ours: it was blowing 80mph on top, and Dan and I couldnt stand up - let alone crawl - to the summit. We really felt like we might get picked up and tossed back down the Kautz by the wind! So we preempted that and turned around, sans summit, from Pt Success. Our climbing day was very cold, it was one of the only times I can remember ever wearing my down jacket the entire time while climbing, incl Alaska. And we were climbing damn fast!

[DPS]

When I stood up on top of point Success the wind knocked me head over heels and I had to self arrest to keep from getting blown back down the route.

 

I count that trip among my favorite on Rainier and can now proudly boast that I have stood on all three of Rainier's 'summits'; Liberty Cap, Point Success, and Columbia Crest.