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Mt. Rainier Emmons Glacier June 20th, 2010


Dufour

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Participants: Brian Croisier, Greg Dufour

 

 

Friday morning, Brian and I packed up our gear in his car, stopped at REI for some last minute supplies, and then drove the 2.5 hrs down to Rainier national park and the White River Parking lot (4200 ft.). From there we set off on the 7 hour hike to Camp Schurman, carry each about 50 lbs of gear and food. Initially the first mile or so was pretty tame, just a dirt path through an evergreen forest. That quickly turned to snow covering the path as we moved up the valley along the White River. After a couple hours we were out at the foot of the Inter glacier and moving our way through some relatively fresh snow, with the occasional post hole, but generally movement was not too bad. The sun was shining and only a few scattered clouds were in the sky. We could see a bit of avalanche debris on either side of the valley, so we stayed in the center of the valley and made our way up it. There had been plenty of people up that route so the path was well worn, and easy to follow. We got some great mountain vistas and photos of the valley we had just climbed out of. When we got to the top of the Interglacier, we dropped down a 200’ or so on to the Winthrop Glacier. There we came across our first couple of crevasses; there was a well worn path around them so we did not bother to rope up, since we could see Camp Schurman. After 30 minutes on the Winthrop Glacier we climbed our way up to camp, as we did the clouds started to roll in, it was around 7PM so we still had plenty of daylight left.

 

Brian checked out all of the available tent plat forms, there were several, we found a great one not far from the restroom with good stable walls, but it was a bit small so I set to work expanding or ice palace. Brian got to work melting snow and in no time we had camp setup. We had a great dinner that night too, miso soup, tomato wraps, cheese, salami, lentils and black beans. Well fed we crawled into bed around 10 PM. Meanwhile the clouds had continued to roll in and we even got a bit of snow during the evening.

 

Saturday morning we slept in until about 8 or 9. It was the first time in weeks that I had nothing to do and nowhere to be so I was completely relaxed. We got up ate a bit of Brian’s super oatmeal, with dried fruit and nuts added. We started off the morning by doing a little home improvement. We expanded our kitchen area, created a nice countertop and 2 seats. We then went and met with another group of climbers, Team Bravo that we decided join forces with for the summit attempt that night. After our meeting we setup our prussiks on our rope, and practiced belaying, building deadmen with our snow pickets. The other team built a z-pulley rescue system. All of it was really good practice, all skills you hope to never use, but want to be ready if you have to.

Saturday afternoon we had sorted of late lunch / early diner around 4:30, and then went to bed around 5:30 PM. The plan was to wake up and evaluate the conditions at 11PM and then make a decision. At that time things did no not look very promising it was still snowing and the clouds were all around us and above us. The around 8:30 PM Brian and I woke up to find the clouds had cleared and we had beautiful blue skies above us! Brian went out and talked to another group of climbers that had just came up to camp, they were planning on eating dinner and heading for the summit, so it sounded like we would have a set of tracks to follow too. Things were starting to shape up. I went back to sleep for a couple more hours.

 

By the time 11PM Saturday night rolled around conditions were perfect for the climb. The air was cool, the skies were clear and there was no wind. We made a hot breakfast, drank, filled our water bottles and headed up to meet the 5 person climbing group at midnight. By the time photos were taken and everyone was roped up we set off around 12:30 AM. We made our way straight up the spine between Emmons and Winthrop glaciers, following the footsteps left by the 3 man team; we’ll call them Team Alpha, which left at 11PM. After about an hour and half we took a break so team Bravo could put on their crampons and everyone could eat and drink. This break took an agonizing 30 minutes and Brian and I started to get chilled. We resumed our climbing; coming across only a couple small crevasses no more than a couple of feet wide. We could start to see Team Alpha up above us or least their headlamps. Initially we could not tell if they were coming down towards us or continuing to ascend. The conditions were generally pretty good, usually 8 to 12” of fresh snow that was not too loose. There were however places that were windswept and were are and icy, these were a little more challenging especially in the steep sections. Brian and I took turns leading the group, and we found that team Bravo was slowing down more and more frequently. Since no one had gone higher than 12,300 ft in the past few days, with the exception of one team, that were very lost, we felt pretty good when we stopped again at 12,500 ft. This was also then time when we caught up to the team Alpha, the 3 guys that had left before us, and whose tracks we had been following. Initially we followed behind them, but soon realized they had slowed significantly because they were so tired from breaking trail. About this same time team Bravo, took an unplanned break and then decided after some deliberation to head back. Their lead man was very dehydrated and had taken a small fall into a crevasse (I don’t think he went in past his waist). So now Brian and I took the lead and took turns kick stepping into the snow to create a decent trail for both us and the three man team Alpha. We did not want to go all the way up alone, because we had not brought willow wands with us to mark the trail in case conditions deterioted. So the 5 of us steadily made our way up the mountain maintaining a beeline for the crater rim. Around sunrise we had some beautiful views, but we could also see the clouds were rolling me beneath us. By the time we were at around 13,000 ft the clouds had completely enveloped us. It was a very cold wet air and every fiber on our clothes and our hair had a thin layer of ice on it. Even the Velcro loops on my jackets and tufts of Brian’s hair froze solid and were completely white. Meanwhile the terrain got steeper and steeper and we had to start taking switchback paths up the mountain, at one point we had to climb a small 10-15ft tall ice wall that was at maybe a 65 deg pitch. These conditions continued all the way up to the crater rim, which we finally reached at 8:30AM. We were all completely wiped from the climb.

Since all the members of team Alpha were wiped out and had already been to the true summit, we stayed a few minutes and headed back down, promising to wait for us at 12,500ft. Meanwhile, I wanted to get to the true summit so Brian and I walked the half mile around the crater rim climbing another 150 ft. Conditions continued to deteriorate though and it started snowing. We could not even see the bottom of the crater; 3o ft visibility was probably around 30 or 40 ft. We had to use the GPS to find the true summit. We were super happy to have finally made it. Brian was so tired he didn’t say much. I had been dreaming of this day for the past 6 years and finally made it happen. It was 9AM Sunday morning. Unfortunately due to weather there were not any great views to be had. Needless to say we did not stay long after a bite to eat and a few photos we started back around the crater rim and then back down the mountain. Getting to the top is only halfway point. Initially we did not find it too hard to follow our own tracks back down, I was just relieved to finally be walking downhill instead of up. Eventually however we had to stop and take a good look to make sure we were still on trail. The clouds stayed with us all the way back down to basecamp so, the sky, the ground and everything around us looked completely white. In those conditions it can be difficult to determine which way is down / up. Fortunately we eventually caught up to team Alpha, and started to find our way via the willow wands that team Bravo had set on their way back down. We were so exhausted, but only took a few brakes during the decent, I could have easily just sat down and the snow and fallen asleep.

Four and half hours after departing the summit we reached basecamp. Team bravo was still there and getting ready to leave, but promised us a PBR if caught up to them in the parking lot. It was about 1:30 PM. We were wiped out. We ate some food drank a bunch of water and soup, packed up most of our gear and then crawled in the tent, not bothering to take off our boots, leaving them hanging out of the tent. Immediately after I was horizontal I fell asleep. 15 minutes later Brian woke me up. He and not been able to sleep, and it was time to head back to the car. We packed up the tent, in a cold blowing wind and snow and headed back the way we came down the Interglacier. It was about 3PM. Although we did not have as much weight from the food and fuel we used, a lot of the gear including the rope and tent were wet so they more than made up for the difference. Luckily most of the way back is downhill, and conditions were perfect for a few glissades (slides) on the interlacier.

Glissading is the fine art of sliding on your but down the snow. In order to protect my new Goretex pants I put on a garbage bag like a diaper, used my ski poles like a paddle and then found a suitable but rutt left by others that had glissaded early that day, and zipped down the mountain. In the span of about 15 minutes we probably descended easily 2000-3000 vertical feet. It was awesome! We then walked back down the rest of the glacier, found the trail and headed back to the car. It was about 7PM when we finally arrived.

First stop was the ranger station to clear our paperwork and check in with them. Then we stopped in the metropolis of Enumclaw at McDonald’s (yes I know, but hey we just burned like 8000 calories each) for some ice cream for me, and Big Mac for Brian. Luckily Brian drove back to Seattle as I started to doze off. Happy and content that we had safely summited and descended the mountain we were tired but all smiles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Dufour
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