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[TR] Mt Rainier - Gib Ledges 1/25/2014


climbwa

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Trip: Mt Rainier - Gib Ledges

 

Date: 1/25/2014

 

Trip Report:

Knowing we had to take advantage of the awesome weather this past weekend, aikidjoe and myself decided to go check out the Gib Ledges on Rainier and hopefully get a 'winter' ascent on the books.

 

Made it to Muir Friday night, and planned for a Saturday summit day. Not wanting to rush, we decided to spend Saturday night in the Muir hut.

 

The haul up to Muir was really icy, but the lack of wind and incredible star display made the post-sunset skinning really memorable.

 

We left Muir Saturday morning at 4:30, and headed for the ledges. The trail we followed took us up the wrong gully, and it wasn't until after we watched the sun rise that we realized that the chossy, exposed ledge we were looking at was not actually the start of the route. We scrambled over a small rock ridge and found the real start of the ledges, which to our surprise were actually in pretty good shape.

 

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We were really excited by this find, as the two teams that had left before us that morning had turned around at the sight of the wrong start to the route!!

 

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The ledges went really quick, and not once did they feel overly exposed. Similarly, the exit chute went great at a relatively low angle with great snow that was perfect for climbing.

 

Several thousand more feet of perfect snow conditions got us to the crater rim. I topped out in a tshirt! We dropped our packs and made the walk over to the true summit, where we spent the better part of an hour with no wind and sunny conditions before heading back over to start our decent.

 

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The lack of wind allowed us to see/explore some of the steam vents along the rim!

 

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We descended the Ingraham Direct, which went smoothly. Several crevasses to jump over towards the bottom (exciting), but other than that it was pretty filled in.

 

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Spent the night at Muir and skied down to the car Sunday morning.

 

Overall, very solid 'winter' ascent on an interesting route I have never been on before!

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

We brought two pickets each in case the exit chute proved difficult. We did not need them.

 

Approach Notes:

Star filled, wind-free night hike along the Muir snowfield.

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