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[TR] Rainier - Emmons Glacier 7/1/2010


goatboy

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Trip: Rainier - Emmons Glacier

 

Date: 7/1/2010

 

Trip Report:

Tamara and I climbed Mt Rainier in the summer of 2010 with our friends Erin and Jammie. We got lucky with a window of climbable weather in between storms. As we were hiking in, parties were descending from Camp Schurman reporting "chest-deep powder" high on the mountain as a result of the new snowfall. I honestly doubted if it was as bad as they made it out to be, but I was also concerned about avalanche conditions with that much new snow on top of summer snowpack, as well as wondering if the weather/visibility would even lure us out of our tents at all. On our first day, we lugged fairly heavy loads up to Camp Schurman, and dug into some nice existing tent platforms with snow walls.

 

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Day Two: We spent a full day at Camp Schurman, watching the storms clear, hydrating, and acclimatizing. It was time well spent, as parties who tried to summit that day all came down reporting bad conditions, deep snow, high winds, and poor visibility up high. No one who came down that day reported summitting. We drank a lot of hot drinks and miso soup, accompanied only by a visiting Rosy Finch who seemed very comfortable amongst the snow and ice:

 

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That afternoon, the storm started to clear off, leaving flurries of fresh snow atop the Steamboat Prow:

 

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And then, as we walked from Camp Schurman up to Emmons Flats to stretch our legs, the clouds closed in again. It was hard to know what to expect the next day.

 

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Day Three: It was clear and very cold. Our water bottles had all frozen, camelback hoses useless. We left camp around 1 in the morning I think, and the wind was blowing hard. We hoped it would abate, though our hopes were not high. After gaining several thousand feet following bootpacks and weaving past the occasional headlamp-lit crevasse, the first morning light provided some measure of relief and the illusion of warmth. We passed several parties who were turning back for various reasons.

 

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As the sun illuminated the slopes below us in pink, we could trace our path all the way back to our campsite and Little Tahoma a few thousand feet below at this point:

 

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Although we had passed a few parties, we noticed a party rapidly gaining on us from below. Soon, we recognized Joe Puryear and his wife Michelle who were climbing with some friends. They blasted past us at rocket speed and quickly weaved through a short steep section where the bergschrund was opening up.

 

Soon enough, we had surmounted a short section of crevassed, icier terrain and followed the Puryears through the bergschrund, and found ourselves walking along the crater rim towards the summit.

 

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We descended back to camp, placing some pickets as we worked through that same icy, crevassed section -- and noticed a helicopter searching for a climber who had gone missing the previous day ( LINK) and hiked out the following day. As we hiked out, the weather seemed to close in again. I believe we got very lucky with the only climbable day between storms.

 

IMG_02362.JPGLINK

 

It was a great climb with the best partners you could ask for.

 

I am writing this trip report on 9/11, thinking about my friend George Cain, a NYFD firefighter who died in the world trade center 10 years ago today. It is bittersweet to remember what a wonderful climb we had on Mt Rainier, only to find out shortly thereafter that Lee Adams would die days later on the same icy, crevassed section we had noticed on the Emmons, that Joe Puryear had died climbing in China, and that the missing climber we saw the Chinook searching for would never be found.

 

Gear Notes:

A few pickets, crevasse rescue gear, crampons, ice axe

 

Approach Notes:

Trail Crews did a great job repairing the washed-out sections of trail between the parking lot and Glacier Basin

 

LINK

Edited by goatboy
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