[TR] Mount Rainier - Emmons Glacier 6/17/2004

[off_the_hook]

Climb: Mount Rainier -Emmons Glacier

 

Date of Climb: 6/17/2004

 

Trip Report:

Went out to Camp Sherman Wednesday. Woke up just after midnight under clear skies to begin the ascent. Snow conditions at night and early morning are good for cramponing. Ascent is fairly straightforward up the corridor and zig zags abit to the Winthrop to avoid crevasses on the Emmons. No trench like the DC, but a noticeable tread through the snow developing. At the upper bergshrund, you can still basically head straight up. The traverse out to the saddle between Liberty cap and the summit crater to avoid the bergshrund is not necessary yet. The upper 1500 feet of the mountain was icy in sections, but nothing out of the ordinary. Summited at 6:30 and chilled out near the summit for an hour and a half. Winds all the way up were relatively light. We did the aforementioned traverse on the way down and it was more time consuming, but the glissade down the entire corridor, about 2,000 feet, made up for lost time! I wanted to continue the glissade down the inter glacier, but by noon it had become a slush pile so I was forced to post-hole my way most of the way down, arriving happily at the car at 2:30. Overall, a pretty standard Emmons Glacier ascent in spectacular weather.

 

We heard helicopters flying around all morning and met several backcountry rangers searching for a long overdue Liberty Ridge party. My prayers go out to these climbers and I hope they will be found soon.

 

 

Gear Notes:

standard glacier equipment

 

Approach Notes:

glacier basin trail snow-free for almost 2.5 miles and melting fast afterwards. Inter Glacier slushy in the afternoon with postholing, definitely not consolidated yet.

[JayB]

Thanks for the update. It's been a while since anyone had news about the conditions on the upper part of the mountain.