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[TR] Rainier - Emmons Glacier, leisurely! 7/3/2010


goatboy

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Trip: Rainier - Emmons Glacier, leisurely!

 

Date: 7/3/2010

 

Trip Report:

Climbed the Emmons route as a party of four in a narrow window of good weather between storm systems. Took a LEISURELY four days and enjoyed the acclimatization it afforded.

 

Day One: Hiked in through mist, rain, and light snow. Great bootpack leading all the way up to Camp Schurman. Route goes up the center of the Inter-Glacier to the muddy and miserable Camp Curtis, then drops down onto the Emmons for a quick jaunt up to Schurman. The grind up to Schurman is 5000 vertical feet and feels further with 4 days of food and fuel!

 

Day Two: Took a rest day up high, eating and drinking and getting to bed early. Tried to convince my body to create more red blood cells.

 

Day Three: Woke at midnight in high winds, with frozen camelbaks, fingers, and toes. Made coffee and breakfast, visited the bathroom, and got everyone tied into the rope by headlamp, finally started shuffling up the hill by 2 AM. Saw one party about 1000 feet above us on the route.

 

The route is in outstanding condition right now. Very straight and direct shot all the way to the bergschrund around 13000 feet or so. The party who started ahead of us turned back due to a party member feeling the altitude. We pressed on and encountered a few other parties along the way who caught up to us.

 

The fierce winds finally abated as we arrived on top, and we enjoyed about 45 minutes or so of the lovely views up top (we could see from Mt Baker all the way to Mt Jefferson).

 

Arrived back in camp by 3 PM. The winds picked up again that night and clouds rolled in obscuring the upper mountain.

 

Day Four: Kind of a grim weather day, with big gusts of wind, lenticulars, and bleak gray skies to the west. Nice day to hike out. Hope the weather improved for all the folks we encountered hiking in.

 

Summary: Great climb and very straightforward route right now. The schrund crossing will get more challenging as it continues to melt out, but is manageable right now. Felt lucky to get a window of decent weather on schedule with our plan. Lots of parties turned back the previous two days due to weather.

 

Pictures: Having trouble uploading them right now from my Mac, for some reason. Will do so later if I can get it to work.

 

Gear Notes:

Took 4 pickets, pulleys, prussiks.

No need for ice screws or snowshoes or anything like that.

Took 8 fuel cannisters and hiked out with 2 full ones (which we gave to another incoming party who hadn't brought as much as they had hoped).

 

Approach Notes:

Trail to Glacier Basin is washed out for 1.5 miles but flagged and redirected pretty well. Otherwise, great bootpack all the way from InterGlacier to 12,500 or so, and wanded pretty well too.

 

Interesting to note how many parties roped up for the Emmons section between Camp Curtis and Schurman, and how many didn't. Also interesting to note some parties roping up for the Inter Glacier, and others not. The glissade down the Inter Glacier is incredible right now!

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He was saying that then we were kind of laughing thinking about how we'd find 'Steve from Seattle.' Kind of a big city, maybe we can all meet up later and tell lies about our trip.

 

We had a blast but half of us turned back at 12.5k and the rest at 13.2k from fatigue and wind. We saw a few people descend who were coming from Liberty Ridge but I think everyone that day going up Emmons turned around. I'll get some pics up next week when I get around to editing them all.

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