Central Mowish Face Trip Report 7/26-7/28

[jpark42]

A partner and I did the Central Mowich face on Rainer and boy were we in for a ride.

We started from Mowish Lake and planned on doing a carry over. This is the suggested route and after checking out the area/route I can see why. Rather then try and thumb our way back my partner and I rented a car and parked it in the climbing parking lot at the White River camp ground. We camped over night on the 7/25 at Mowish Lake camp ground and started bright but not early on the 26th. The approach is pretty chill until you have to drop on to the Mowish Glacier. You take the Spray Ridge trail which is well marked and the cut off for the glacier is fairly well marked and the route finding is fairly straight forward. As soon as you have to drop onto the glacier is where the fun begins. To get to the Mowish Glacier you have to drop about 1000ft "scrambling" down really shitty rock. I suggest for anyone attempting that they do this early and get it over with because further up the ridge it starts to cliff in spots making getting down even more of a pain in the ass. As soon as you get on the glacier route finding was extremely tricky because of open crevasse's. The guide book we used suggests that you cruise straight up the Mowish Glacier to get to high camp. This is the route we took and the route finding was a huge pain and it tooks us a long time to get to the first high camp at 8400ft. I don't know why the guide suggests using this route because from high camp we could see a much more straight forward and easier approach to high camp. When you first get onto the glacier you will see a huge compression zone with a rock face on climber right before the terminus. If you cruise down to this rock band you can access the right side of the rock ridge. From that point it is a simple cruise up snow fields and talus slopes to high camp. This seems much easier then route finding through the heavely crevassed glacier. But I digress. The high camps at 8400 was super sweet and had plenty of places to set-up tents or bivies. The nice thing this high camps is there was running water so we didn't have to melt any snow. This high camp also gives you a decent view of the Central Mowish Face so you can preview your route. We started out early but not bright on the mornning of the 7/27. We crossed the shrund at about 10400ft by scrambling up so "rock" and traversing over to the snow slopes. From there we cruised up 40-55 degree snow and ice slopes until we reached 12700ft. We wanted to do the standard grade III route that accesses the rock ledges left but unfortunately the access gully was rock instead of ice so we did the right grade IV variation. The variation is a blast adding three pitches of 50-70 degree alpine ice to the route as well as a 1000ft of 60 degree hard pack snow to access the liberty cap glacier. We got to the top of liberty cap glacier around 4pm and started the slog to our next campsite at the summit crater. Finally we woke up at late on the 28th and started our decent down the Emmoons Glacier route and arrive back at the car around 530pm. Overall this was an amazing route and lots of fun. Though we didn't get to do our intended route the area offers plenty of options from which to choose from a couple things to keep in mind if you decide to do this route.

1)When you get to the Mowish Glacier quickly get to the right side of the ridge using the above directions. It will save you a lot of time and effort.

2)Bring guides for a couple of different routes in the area. The nice thing about this route is that you can access the Mowish Face, Sunshine ridge, Central Mowish Face, and the Edmunds Face route from this high camp. It also gives you a good vantage point so you can check out the different routes and see whats in.

3)The first 1000ft has a ton of rock fall so I suggest moving through this section quickly also if it is a windy day be prepared to be peppered with small rocks and small chunks of snow/ice beening blown off from the top of libery glacier while you are climbing the face.

4) Whats nice about this route is after the first 1000ft rock fall isn't as much of an issue, except for the above issue, and since the route faces NW the route doesn't get sun until very late in the, around 2pm, which means that you can take your time and enjoy the view if you like.

5) Finally, I suggest camping in the summit crater because carrying over the Emmoons on the same day would be an extremly long day and seeing the looks on the guided clients faces when you wake up as they are summitting is priceless.

[TREETOAD]

Great TR thanks, did you take any photos?

[jpark42]

My friend took a few photos that I will post as soon as I get the chance. Unfortunately, this route doesn't lend itself to taking a lot of photos because of the commitment level and steepness of the route.

[SemoreJugs]

Way to go Jeremy!

[ScaredSilly]

This link has a link to a whole bunch of pictures from last year:

 

http://mountrainierconditions.blogspot.com/2006/07/mowich-face.html

 

Coming in from Carbon River is the best option - but this year not so much.

 

[spicoli11]

From last weeks trip for turns on the russell

 

 

 

[spicoli11]

but I'm not sure where the "mowish" is

[Pandora]

What do you think about skiing it?

[spicoli11]

I think it would be fun...but probably to late I think. It looked icy up high and dirty bird down low.

[jpark42]

The middle section would be cool to ski but the upper section I think stays really icy all year because it is pretty step and doesn't see a whole lot of sun. If you wanted to do a ski descent from this side I think you would find the Edmonds Headwall route and better ski down. But since I haven't been on this route I wouldn't be able to tell you with a 100% certainty

[jpark42]

PS: it is actually spelled Mowich and here is a cool picture from my trip.

 

 

Edited August 21, 2007 by jpark42