JBC Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 Climb: Mt Rainier-Fuhrer Finger - Descent via Kautz Glacier Date of Climb: 6/18/2006 Trip Report: How I spent my Fahter's day: A very quick trip report from Father's day weekend - Climbed the Fuhrer Finger and descended the Kautz Glacier this weekend with my daughter and her (now) Fiance this past weekend. (She proposed to him on the summit!) We took a leisurely 3 days to do this climb. A three day summit climb is a great way to do things if you have the time. Conditions on both the Fuhrer Finger and the Kautz Glacier were excellent! I have never seen the mountain this time of year with so few crevasses! We climbed to high camp (9200' on Wapowety Cleaver) on Saturday. Camp was approached directly via the Nisqually/Wilson glaciers instead of the fan. the approach was extremely straightforward with no open crevasses to deal with. I highly recommend this approach over the fan right now! Sunday we summited via the Fuhrer Finger. We encountered a few crevasses crossing the Wilson to get the base of the finger. One crossing involved using a snow bridge to get across a 6' wide crevasse - the worst one of our whole trip! Snow conditions on the route were excellent - well frozen and consolidated the entire morning. The trip up the finger was very straightforward with no real route finding or rockfall issues. The route was very straightforward all the way to meeting up with the Kautz Glacier route. The upper Kautz was also very straightforward all the way to the summit. The route is relatively direct from 13000' clear to the summit weaving only slightly to avoid a few crevasses and ice falls. Once again there are virtually no crevasses to cross! We descended to high camp via the Kautz Ice chute. In the afternoon the chute was fairly soft snow. There is still no ice in the chute. Once again the route is very direct and there are very few crevasse detours or crossings. We spent Sunday night in high camp and descended Monday morning back via the way we came. Our efforts to wand the route in were well worth it as we hit the clouds at about 8000' and had relatively poor visibility the rest of the way down. We followed our wands down the Wilson and across the Nisqually with no problems. Weather BTW was very nice above the clouds which stayed at about 7500 - 8000' the whole weekend. Monday's descent from high camp was completely windless and I would guess anyone who summited had a perfect day! We did have a fair amount of wind on Sunday, but again it was a wonderful summit day! Jim Couch Gear Notes: 'Standard' glacier gear Helmets Pickets Wands Approach Notes: The approach from Paradise is still all on snow, well packed with no need for snowshoes. Approach to high camp via Nisqually/Wilson glacier is direct and straightforward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad_A Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 Very cool; great story. Thanks for the report! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
To_The_Top Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 Good job, got stormed off that route awhile back. TTT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 Damn! What do they have planned for a honeymoon? K2? Cool story, sounds like a great climb all around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zloi Posted June 22, 2006 Share Posted June 22, 2006 Congrats, Jim. I'm curious why you decided to descend by the Kautz rather than the FF route. The Kautz ice chute must surely be steeper than the FF, unless you were worried about rockfall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryland_moore Posted June 22, 2006 Share Posted June 22, 2006 She proposed to him on the summit! well, I guess we know who's going to wear the pants in that family!!!! Congrats Dad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBC Posted June 22, 2006 Author Share Posted June 22, 2006 Congrats, Jim. I'm curious why you decided to descend by the Kautz rather than the FF route. The Kautz ice chute must surely be steeper than the FF, unless you were worried about rockfall. My major concern was rockfall late in the day. I also did not want to cross the Wilson glacier again (the only real crevasse we had to cross all weekend was on the way into the base of the finger.) The Kautz chute varies from year to year. It was no steeper than a few pitches we did in the Finger this year. The chute is actually in excellent shape, and had no ice whatsoever. It was also kind of fun to let them see a different route on the descent. Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RocNoggin Posted June 22, 2006 Share Posted June 22, 2006 geat job on the climb and congrats to the family! :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weekend_Climberz Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 Awesome TR Love is always better in the mountains Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katy Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 i climbed the same route on the weekend of the 25th and it is still in great shape. the only diffrence is that a big bergshrund has now opend up near the end of the finger at about 12500 ft. we traversed to the right and crossed over some big ice blocks forming a slightly sketchy snow bridge requiring a small leap at the end. at the time it was the only way we found to cross. it is however very easy to protect and good fun. congrats to your daughter! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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