Summit Mt. Rainier

As we hauled our sweaty and sunburned selves through the hordes of tourists enjoying the sledding at Paradise we were telling them “B+”. We spent three beautiful days on the mountain, but we had to turn around right above the Kautz ice chutes (just above the crevasses at 12000, almost the same place as last time).

We’re going to head down there this Friday! It looks like we’re going to do the Kautz route, which is a little more interesting and a lot less crowded than the DC. Which also means there is more potential for something going wrong and involving tears and/or turning back and/or not getting a summit.

I have been completely irresponsible with training, considering I couldn’t even carry my pack the whole time when I went hiking in Hawaii a month ago. I went up Baker 2 weeks ago, does that count?

Some beta on the Kautz:

Climb: On June 17th the Kautz glacier route was in great shape. Compared to historical conditions, the ice in the upper chute is exposed relatively early for the season. The first step on the glacier is neve, making 90m of snow climbing with some glacial ice exposed at approx 45-50 degrees. The second ice step in the chute is a 130m section of neve’ and ice with 70m of exposed ice. Skiers descending the route now have to rappel a short section. Right above the ice chute the slope breaks over at 12,000ft. Several soft cracks exists here and several are opening up on the way up to Wapowety Cleaver. Crossing through the icefall at Wapowety cleaver, the route crosses a scary crack protectable by ice screws. From 13,000-14,400ft the route tracks the similar mid-season route by navigating around the soft schrund at 13,600ft and 14,000ft. The surface is scowered and isolated wind slabs are eroded down to sastrugi fields yielding shin deep powder post-holing and good cramponing.

Haha!

We’re planning to summit on Sunday. We have the first two days to get up to Ingraham Flats, so it’ll be prety relaxed. Maybe I’ll get to check this off!

Three of the four people I’m doing the charity auction trip met with the guide. It could be happening as early as July 7, but everyone else seems to have incredibly busy schedules, so hopefully it happens…

I bought a guided summit trip at a charity auction, so maybe it’ll happen this year. It’s for four, so one or two people can come with me. Anyone want to come? :)

We attempted the Kautz route and made it to about 12,500 right above the icefall. Several factors, including general beginner slowness, a rain day spent stuck inside the tents, and high winds on summit day, meant we ran out of time. Next year…

Booked the expedition seminar with RMI for July 11-16. Less than 39 days!!

I applied for the WAC Basic Climbing class (http://www.wacweb.org/classes/climbingclass/default.view) this week. Now I’ve got a month to wait until they tell me if I’ve been accepted…

I’ve been trying to find people to do this with me since I moved to Seattle. Some of my friends went last year with RMI, but there wasn’t enough space in their trip. I guess I just need to go by myself (not by-myself-by-myself, on a guided group trip, but just not necessarily with people I know beforehand).