August Ice Climbing on Glaciers

[acmcmurray]

Planning on climbing Rainier this August, on the Kautz glacier and was wondering if our party could spend an extra day and do some ice climbing on some crevasses, etc. Is this possible or are there some better places to hit up some ice in the WA area? Thanks.

[Toast]

You can ice crag on the Nisqually serracs. You'll pass right by them on your way to camp hazard.

[dbb]

The easiest seracs to reach are up on the (climber's) right side of the Nisqually. Just walk up the moraine after dropping down from Altavista and you'll come right to them. You could also do some lower-in climbing on the vertical walls of the big yawning crevasses just befor the Fan on the Nisqually. These would be totally on your way up to hazard and are pretty nice.

[John Frieh]

Ice cliff glacier - Mt Stuart would be worth your time and you could top the route out.

[Alex]

Ice cliff glacier - Mt Stuart would be worth your time and you could top the route out.

 

topping out isnt certain in August, the schrund will be enormous and span the breadth of the top-out couloir.

[John Frieh]

You can generally pass it on the rock on the right... or drop in for some more ice climbing!

[Divot]

Drop me a line if your up on the hill and need a partner for the day......

 

I wanna head to the nysq fan seracs soon again....

[rhyang]

How are things on the lower Eliot (Hood) ?

[John Frieh]

I haven't been up there this year... anybody?

 

Got a look at the ice cliff on stuart last week... looking tough this year! A late Sept/early Oct ascent might be in order!

[fishstick]

I suspect the lower Coleman on Baker would be the gold standard. The later in the month the better, but the area offers a variety of aspects that allows one to find optimal conditions (except in early season). If warm, try to find lines that are out of the sun (obvious) and dirty. Those lines will have much harder ice than the softer clean stuff.

 

GB

[fenderfour]

The lower Coleman glacier was fun this past weekend. All conditions are as expected.

[rhyang]

I haven't been up there this year... anybody?

 

I'd be up for checking out the Eliot next month sometime, if anyone else is interested... coming up from the SF bay area (former resident of portland)

 

Or, if anyone is interested in coming down to Shasta and doing some climbing on the Hotlum I'd be up for that too, though it's been a big snow year - probably later in August I'd guess before the crevasses really open up.

 

It would be cool to meet some cc.com internet spraylords

[ken4ord]

Hmm hopefully it won't be glaciers that I am climbing in the next few weeks, but real water ice. We'll see.

[pms]

Sierra's might be good this fall.