dmiller Posted June 21, 2004 Posted June 21, 2004 (edited) With all this warm and sunny weather, Aaron and I decided to go for a Summit attempt on Rainier via the Emmons/Winthrop Glacier route. We arrive at Mt. Rainier National Park on Friday evening and after registering for the climb we decide to do a one run outing at Chinook pass. We were amazed at how warm it was at even above 5500 feet at 9:45pm. I figure this would be a good way to get ourselves loosened up and ready for our climb on Saturday. We decided to get all of our gear set up and ready to go before getting a couple of hours of sleep. It's now 3:00am Saturday morning and 10,000 feet vertical climbing is ahead of us. The Glacier Basin trail is pretty much snow free for the first 2.5 miles after that snow patches can be found until you reach the Glacier Basin campground where snow is continuous from around 5800 feet on up. The snow was surprisingly firm on the Interglacier but I new it would soften up in the Afternoon. We hike all the way to the top of the Inter Glacier and due to a slight navigational error we are stuck doing a class 3 with some class 4 moves 200 foot loose scree and rock scramble down to Camp Shermon. Next time I'll know to hike towards left and hike up to Camp Sherman staying to the left to the Prow to avoid that rock scramle. Was not fun doing in Alpine Ski boots with my 195cm Salomon Ak Rockets tagging all the rocks. Now the fun really begins. It's a straight foward and easy route to follow all the way to the Summit with only a few crevasse crossings. The only thing to watch for was blue ice on the last 500 feet before the Summit. Unfortunately Aarron only made it to around 11,000 feet. Got to give him credit though, it's not easy logging over 10,000 feet of elevation gain. He figured he'd wait at Camp Sherman while I summited. Arriving at the Summit at around 1:00pm I spend little time soaking up the views for thunder clouds were building up. Strapping on my skis I'm treated with a variety of snow conditions from Solid ice to perfect spring corn below around 12,000feet. Above that elevation the snow was very uneven and not easy to make linked and carved turns. Once I reach the Corridor quality of snow is near perfect corn with only a few crevasses to watch for. As for the Inter Glacier I'd recommend to get an earlier start if you want to do a ski outing over there. My GPS only clocked in a sluggish 43mph making only 6 turns for 3000 vertical feet, now that's dissapointing!!! So much for my speed rush of the day. After getting over 8,000 feet of skiing vertical, it's now back to the trail. This is when I wish I had a camera. I encounter a bear walking up the trail. It gets to within 20 or so feet of me. So I did the make my self look big, made noise and slowly walked facing the bare. Once I felt that it wasn't going to charge I decided to walk up the trail slowly. For 15 minutes I walk back up hoping the bare would've veered off. Nope, It's still following me. Finally I come accross two hikers and tell them there's a bear behind me. Now there's 3 of us. The bear then finally decides to head off into the woods. Finally, I can now head for the car. 13 hours and 44 minutes round trip. What a day. Serious vertical, calm winds at the Summit, Ice near the summit, sluggish skiing on Inter Glacier, and a bear encounter. Edited June 24, 2004 by dmiller Quote
Skinveen Posted June 21, 2004 Posted June 21, 2004 I now just accept your posts and enjoy reading the abnormal adventures of dmiller, but WTF was anyone thinking, trying to keep up with you on this one?! BTW, you didn't do that in downhill boots did you? Quote
AJScott Posted June 21, 2004 Posted June 21, 2004 That is what I kept telling myself WTF WAS I thinking trying to keep up with this guy! DMiller is a machine...I learned a lot about what is possible traveling light and setting a strong pace, with some work I hope to be able to keep up with this guy, we have another outing planned for next weekend. http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/503/5600rainier_007-thumb.jpg http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/503/5600rainier_031-thumb.jpg http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/503/5600rainier_033-thumb.jpg I took a lot of photos of your descent dmiller, but unless you know what to look for, you just look like another little dot on the emmons. Quote
AJScott Posted June 21, 2004 Posted June 21, 2004 I have been having the worse luck trying to post a picture on a post... Quote
AJScott Posted June 21, 2004 Posted June 21, 2004 grrr...could someone explain how to post a photo for me... Quote
cracked Posted June 21, 2004 Posted June 21, 2004 I have been having the worse luck trying to post a picture on a post... You're fine, but no tags. Just or . Your mistake was not putting the tags on the same line as the urls. Gotta be on the same line. Way to go guys, that's a big daytrip. Quote
jonthomp Posted June 21, 2004 Posted June 21, 2004 Way to get your summit, Donnelly! And, yes, Skinveen, I am certain he was in his full-on, beastly alpine boots just like always. Sort of like training with ankle weights. Quote
Raymeister Posted June 22, 2004 Posted June 22, 2004 My team of 3 were on the summit on 6/19 getting ready to descend at 1pm when we spotted this skier heading down a couple hundred feet of ICE. I remember thinking to myself "Holy Cow! That dude is CRAZY!!!!" Congrats-that's one heck of a day! Quote
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