Alpental area; Mt Rainer???

[tytyler]

spent the morning (sat) tooling around the steps at Alpental...forgot my "soloist" belay tool. Probably better off..talk about crowded. There was about 8 at Alpental I and a few groups at alpental II & III. A bunch of other people were just playing on the steps as well. The ice was coming in pretty nice (some fat areas and others thin). No one looked to be having problems with pro. A few nice pillars forming (hopefully they'll last). We'll see what happens with this next weather system.

Anyone been to Rainier recently? Any word on Narada, Mikes Gully area? Or even Skookum?? Looking to take a little overnight tues/wed.