Kautz Cleaver

[dmuja]

Just curious about this route (Kautz Cleaver) as a possible alt route to the crowded DC. How hard is it? I'm thinking there is some steep stuff up high but Mike's book isn't clear (to me) about it after it joins with the success cleaver route. He seems to say one is steep and exposed and the other is not more than 35 degrees - but they join up high right?

 

Any general beta would be helpful -thanks

 

Doug

[ivan]

the last 1000 feet of the mountain is pretty much the same from all sides...a moderately steep uphill slog on the top of the dome. the only steep portion on the kautz is the section just left of the icecliff, right above camp hazard, and even that isnt' too severe. the rest is a slog fest.

[DonnV]

I think Ivan may have misread your post and assumed you were talking about the Kautz Glacier. The Kautz Cleaver is quite a ways left of Hazard and definitely finishes more steeply than the typical Rainier slog. I have not done the cleaver itself, but have done the easternmost Success Glacier Couloir, and those two routes merge for the last couple thousand feet. What I remember of the upper section was that it was consistently 40-45 degrees and had maybe one very short steeper section at the very top (about where Gauthier shows the Headwall route joining on page 108). We used no protection and had no problems descending the route.

 

I have often recommended the SG Couloirs as a good moderate route to avoid crowds. From what Mike G says, the Kautz Cleaver would offer the same, and be less prone to slides (the lower SG Couloirs are not a good place to be in anything but pretty stable conditions).

[dmuja]

Thanks Donn, yeah I was speaking of the Kautz Cleaver. We're still young'ns as mountaineering goes and were hoping to find an "easy" (relative) alternative to the DC route. Still learning about the different kinds of snow up there so I don't know if we have the judgement yet to climb "steep" snow without having someone along with a bit more experience..

 

Doug

[cluck]

If you are looking for "easy" on Rainier... go do Emmons Glacier. Climbing isn't steep. As a long as your party climbs on a rope and knows how to haul someone out of a crevasse, you should be OK. Once this route is "in", it is well marked and climbing Emmons is a case of "follow the trench." Less crowded than DC, but still pretty busy. Food for thought.

[nerdom]

But be forewarned that it's a LONG approach, as Rainier trade routes go. Also, forego Camp Shurman for the Emmons Flats.

[Pandora]

My dad and I climbed the Kautz Cleaver as our first non-dog route on Rainier a couple years back, 4th of July weekend.

 

We approached via Comet Falls and Van Trump Park and camped at around 8400 feet on Wapowety Cleaver. The next day we got a late start, which was a bad idea considering how warm it was. At around 11,000 feet the ice chunks started whizzing past. Somehow we managed to avoid getting hit directly (more than once or twice anyway) and topped out after the longest summit day ever. There were a couple spots higher on the route that were either fairly steep or had a bit of exposure, but it's sweet and you'll dig it.

[mattp]

I've always thought the Kautz Cleaver looked like a good route. Kind of a "Liberty Ridge light" in that it is a remarkably straight-line ridgecrest, rising out of the middle of a glacier, leading straight to the top. I bet Pandora is right - it's a sweet route. Go for it! (And take lots of pictures to post here on cc.com.)