Mt. Rainier in Winter Aspirants: Get Ready!

[JasonG]

From the NWS long range discussion:

 

.LONG TERM...MODELS ARE STILL IN GOOD AGREEMENT THAT THE UPPER RIDGE

WILL MOVE SLOWLY EASTWARD NEXT WEEK...PROBABLY ENDING UP NEAR THE

COAST OF NORTH AMERICA AROUND THURSDAY. NORTHERLY FLOW ALOFT OVER

WESTERN WASHINGTON WILL GRADUALLY BECOME MORE NORTHWEST AS THE RIDGE

NEARS...AND IT DOES NOT LOOK LIKE ANY WEATHER SYSTEMS WILL MOVE

THROUGH THE AREA. THE FREEZING LEVEL WILL GRADUALLY CLIMB AS UPPER

HEIGHTS RISE WITH THE APPROACH OF THE RIDGE...EVENTUALLY REACHING

AROUND 10000 FEET ON THURSDAY. CLEAR WINTER NIGHTS...WARMER AIR

ALOFT...AND LIGHT OFFSHORE FLOW SHOULD LEAD TO A STRONG INVERSION

AND SOME AIR STAGNATION ISSUES AS IT ALWAYS DOES IN THIS PATTERN.

MCDONNAL

 

Looks like a good window is approaching....I have to work next week of course. Write a TR!

[CascadeClimber]

Summited Saturday. Windy but manageable. Great route conditions (Gib Ledges). Returned to the hut to find it overrun with people. Really, really glad to have had the upper mountain to ourselves and had a quiet Friday night in the hut with just two others. Surreal January weather.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Summited Saturday. Windy but manageable. Great route conditions (Gib Ledges). Returned to the hut to find it overrun with people. Really, really glad to have had the upper mountain to ourselves and had a quiet Friday night in the hut with just two others. Surreal January weather.

 

Overrun? Like >max capacity with people sleeping on the floor and on top of eachother? :-)

 

With such weather I guess it is par for the course- such a rare, bizarre weather window.

 

Congrats!

[JasonG]

Nice work Loren! Did you ski the Ingraham like you planned? I was wondering about the winds. On Shuksan yesterday it was surprisingly windy, given the inversion. Nothing severe, but we weren't at 14K either!

 

That is very cool when you have the upper mountain to yourself, I remember that as being the best part of my winter experience several years ago.

 

If you get a chance it would be cool to see some pictures!

[CascadeClimber]

I'm working on a full-blown TR for my web site. In the meantime, my partner posted some pics over on TAY:

 

http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=27095.0

 

We did ski the ID, but chose to downclimb the bottom 1/3 of it; through most of the icefall. It was skiable, but a fall would likely have had severe consequences, so we put the pons back on and downclimbed.

 

It was windy on Columbia Crest, but we were able to tuck out of it just below. We also had some significant gusting down on the Ingraham.

[JasonG]

Thanks! I will look forward to the TR on your site, always a good read.

[dougd]

CC,

 

Congrats on your winter summit of Rainier. It's a real accomplishment. Great that you were able to take advantage of the weather window.

 

Aside: I remember being shocked by how much the icefall has receded from Sept 1981 when my little brother and I climbed the DC, and June 2011 when I climbed the Gib Ledges route and descended the DC... The icefall as I remembered it was all but gone.

 

d

[CascadeClimber]

CC,

 

Congrats on your winter summit of Rainier. It's a real accomplishment. Great that you were able to take advantage of the weather window.

 

Aside: I remember being shocked by how much the icefall has receded from Sept 1981 when my little brother and I climbed the DC, and June 2011 when I climbed the Gib Ledges route and descended the DC... The icefall as I remembered it was all but gone.

 

d

 

Yep. I don't go back that far in the Cascades, but my first route on Rainier was the Kautz in 1995. We walked up and down what is now several pitches of alpine ice. The exit chute at the end of the Ledges has exposed rock now, too, including a couple giant boulders that I thought would tumble down Gib Chute last summer.

 

The places Jens and I used to serac on the Nisqually in October just ten years ago are now just piles of dirt.