[TR] Mt Rainier - Fuhrer Finger 5/13/2012

[mattschweiker]

Trip: Mt Rainier - Fuhrer Finger

 

Date: 5/13/2012

 

Trip Report:

Jeff and I headed to Rainier this past weeked the climb and ski the Fuhrer Finger. We had an easy day Saturday, leaving the car at Paradise at noon and arriving at camp (9300ft) at approx 4:30. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather on the mountain.

 

 

We left camp at 4am and headed across the glacier and up the finger with ski's on our backs. At the top of the finger, the other group continued along the ridge while Jeff and I traverse onto the Upper Nisqually and continued the long walk to the summit.

 

 

Jeff had already summited via the finger and wanted to save some gas for the ski descent so he stopped a few hundered feet short and boiled some much needed water for our trip down while I continued on and tagged the summit. We encountered variable conditions on the descent, from hard crust at the top and getting more wet and heavy the further down we descended. The snow in the Finger was pretty good corn. It was a long ski run down!!

 

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Nice job Matt! How long did it take you from camp to summit?

[mattschweiker]

Thanks, approx 8 hours, we weren't in much of a rush because we needed to snow to soften up for skiing down.

[jstreet]

Some photos of Matt...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mark11]

We were one of the groups up on the ridge. I snapped a picture of what must have been you guys ascending the Nisqually.

 

[img:center]http://www.atmos.washington.edu/~gingrich/nobackup/rainier/R0012050small.jpg[/img]

[studem-16]

Very nice!!

 

What was your final pack weight?

 

Did you just have one axe each for the finger accent?

 

What were the cravasses like on the upper Nisqually Glacier, and was it easy to find the cut off to descend down the finger?

 

Thanks!

[Kibbles Kyle]

Is finger all snow right now or were there water ice sections to deal with?

 

Thanks. Great pictures! Can't wait to get up there.