[TR] Mt Rainier April 23/24th - Fun in the snow - Gib Ledges (sorta) 4/23/2010

[saxybrian]

Trip: Mt Rainier April 23/24th - Fun in the snow - Gib Ledges (sorta)

 

Date: 4/23/2010

 

Trip Report:

First trip report so if it sucks, don't kill me!

 

I'm from Texas so Rainier is quiet a trip for me. I've done 2x before this trip, made it to the summit once and didn't once due to sleeping past the alarm. I've been told that making it to the summit your first few times can give you a false sense of security on a mountain, and they're right.

 

I arrive in Spokane to partner up with 2 friends, Bryson and Roland. We head to Mt Rainier base by 1:00pm after a detour and get our gear packed. At this point we knew there was a storm-a-brewin, temps were gonna drop and the wind was gonna pick up. Weather report said lows in the 20 and max wind in the 50's. Not too bad.

 

We finish up the packing and layering of clothes. Decide that since we can see Muir, the cloud ceiling is about 11,500 and the temps were about 50 we'd start off in softshell pants, underarmor shirt, synthetic t shirt, beanie and some gloves. Also floation was required due to 2ft post holing.

 

After about 15 minutes and me learning how to use snow shoes, we get a decent pace started and start up the mountain. At about 6500 (panarama point) the temps drop a bit, probably in the low 40's and wind picks up a tad with sustained winds in the 20's with gusts in the 30's. Not too shabby, I've been in worse. We opt to put on a light shell jacket. [img:center]http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs324.snc3/28797_386109128170_634153170_4046021_1860883_n.jpg[/img]

The clouds had dropped, and about 7200 feet (pebble creek) the winds picked up to about 30-40mph sustained with gusts in the 40-50's. The weather is starting to get worse, spin drift is flying in and starting to sting with new snow falling. We take a short break, throw on some mittens, mask and goggles and continue our way up in this little storm.

[img:center]http://hphotos-sjc1.fbcdn.net/hs324.snc3/28797_386109138170_634153170_4046022_1327564_n.jpg[/img]

A bit further into the trip all hell broke loose. At about 8500-9000ft the clouds envoloped us, the snow was thick falling and spin drift flying made it almost impossible to see 20-30ft in front of you. The winds were in the 50-60's with gusts in the 70's and temps were in the mid 20's at this point. The only good thing was the wind was blowing at an angle with us going up hill which made this a bit easier. However at this point I noticed one very bad thing, during the hiking process my tally-wacker had come out from my underwear and decided to chill out in my soft shell pants. When I noticed this it was numb! A quick nip/tuck and it was starting to get sensation again. (Averted disaster)! about 500ft up from that we took a small break, and my mates looked at me and noticed my facemask came down a bit and I had a purple cheek with ice encrusted on it and I didn't know it. Not a good sigh, however we're at 9500ft and Muir is only 700 vert away. Keep pushing!

[img:center]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-sjc1/hs324.snc3/28797_386109148170_634153170_4046024_3871184_n.jpg[/img]

By 10,100 feet, we saw 2 rock ridges one on the left one on the right and no sign of Muir since visibility was almost 0. We went up a bit, didn't see it, and didn't want to pass any of the ridges and end up on the glacier or off a cliff, so we opt'd to find a spot and make camp there. After 30 minutes of hell setting up a tent and downing a puffy jacket and shivering like I've never shivered before we finally have a tent up, anchored with Hiking poles, snow pickets, ice axes and backpacks. We get in out of the weather and relax.

 

Now me being a gentleman I talked to my wife pretrip about pissing in a bottle in a tent and since I don't know these folks well, I don't think that's a cool thing to do, however they have both perfected the piss in a bottle technique which I regret not learning prior to this trip. At 2-3am I had the worst urge to pee and had to take it up. Temps were in the 5-10 range and wind was in the 70's with gust in the 80's. I walk out with head lamp, pee watch it free and fly off with the rest of the spin drift. It would TOTALLY suck to be down wind at this point.

 

We wake up the next day after sliding down in our tent since we didn't have a flat ground and couldn't dig out a platform int he weather to a decent visibility and Muir about 100 verticle feet from us and a 10 minute walk away. (so close yet so far the day before) with a foot of new snow, and a wind loaded gib ledges and upper mountain we opt'd to head to muir, dry or gear our, eat and head down.

 

The weather on the way down wasn't much better, visbility 300ish feet, 40mph wind and about 1 hour into the trip a urge to blue bag which I was NOT going to do. However after 2.5 hours of hiking / route finding we hit pan point, I see the solar potty and about let the flood gates go. I walk over ready to go, and see the following sign "Closed for Winter." Holy Crap I think, out comes the blue bag and out comes the rest. After packing it up, and another hour of route finding and a giant blister later we get to the parking lot and head out.

 

 

 

We spent the next day in vantage rock climbing.

[img:center]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs304.snc3/28797_386109223170_634153170_4046035_3795068_n.jpg[/img]

 

Here's the telemetry weather from Muir during our trip.

date time temp hum low avg max direction

4 24 1300 13 90 34 47 57 210

4 24 1200 12 90 20 37 57 210

4 24 1100 13 89 9 32 46 211

4 24 1000 13 88 8 21 34 211

4 24 900 11 91 7 16 37 210

4 24 800 9 89 5 13 27 210

4 24 700 8 90 7 19 42 210

4 24 600 7 91 23 45 60 211

4 24 500 7 91 10 27 55 211

--------------------------------------------------------

(some missing data for this range)

4 24 300 5 88 31 51 67 210

4 24 200 5 88 34 56 73 210

4 24 100 9 90 49 63 83 210

4 24 0 14 94 43 60 74 210

4 23 2300 16 95 51 64 73 210

4 23 2200 17 95 49 64 76 210

4 23 2100 18 95 51 61 75 210

4 23 2000 20 97 46 58 69 210

4 23 1900 21 97 51 69 89 210

4 23 1800 23 98 70 77 87 229

4 23 1700 22 98 45 65 84 247

4 23 1600 21 96 28 47 62 258

4 23 1500 21 87 26 38 51 257

4 23 1400 22 92 20 35 51 253

4 23 1300 21 78 22 34 41 251

 

 

Gear Notes:

Cold weather gear, LOTS of it.

 

Approach Notes:

Compass / Map / Good sense of direction

[CascadeClimber]

Good, humble TR. Had an adventure, stayed within your limits, and came home safe, if a little frost-nipped in unfortunate places. Thanks!

[JasonG]

So . . .was this forecasted and you were just trying to punish yourself for something really, really bad, or did the weather guys miss this? Now you probably realize why not many around here willingly head up Rainier in a storm.

 

JG

 

 

[Whatcomboy]

That is the biggest blister I've ever seen. Did you wear cement boots?

[saxybrian]

As I stated it was slated to storm, but not until late that day and was only supposed to last a night or 2 at most which we were gonna wait out at Muir hut and attempt a Sunday night summit bid. Looks like that got foiled, crap happens but it was one of the best teaching experiences I've been on in my life.

[JasonG]

Ah yes, should have read more closely. A glutton for punishment . . .

[nhluhr]

Next time you go up, take along a copy of this in a ziplock bag:

http://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/upload/mapcompass.pdf

 

and use your compass (with the correct declination set) to navigate your way safely up to Muir and back. Don't forget to account for barometric changes on your altimeter when deciding where on the map you are and when to change bearing.

 

It would also be a good idea to familiarize yourself with various landmarks (Mclure rock, little africa, moon rocks, anvil rock, and the various 'handrails' you can follow along the way.

 

If you use a GPS, ensure your unit is set to NAD27 when comparing any UTM or lat/long coordinates to this map

[saxybrian]

Want to tell me how to navigate landmarks in this.

 

[img:center]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-sjc1/hs324.snc3/28797_386109148170_634153170_4046024_3871184_n.jpg[/img]

 

We were on course with the compass bearings but I was more affraid of the 70mph wind blowing us to the east (paradise glacier) and getting stuck on that in a storm.

Edited May 12, 2010 by saxybrian