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| First morning of wildfire smoke this season. |
It seems that the high pressure of summer has finally arrived and with it so have the climbers and rapidly changing route conditions. Throughout the weekend, nearly all camps were booked with climbers: from Camp Schurman and the Emmons Flats, to Camp Curtis and the Inter Glacier bivies. As we continue to roll through July & August peak season here at Mt. Rainier, climbers should show up with some flexibility to their plan and perhaps a backup option or two. That being said, many groups were up on the mountain this weekend and a few teams had successful summit attempts despite heat and somewhat deteriorating conditions of the route.
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| Approach route onto the Emmons from Camp Curtis continue to melt out rapidly with high temps this week. |
With a rapidly depleting snowpack all over the mountain, the Inter Glacier and the approach route off the Camp Curtis ridge and onto the Emmons is melting out quickly. As of yesterday, climbers are now avoiding the obvious line in the photo and are dropping in/exiting the Emmons slightly downhill in order to avoid the steeper, slabby and exposed rock scramble. Rangers have been happy to see that nearly all parties are roped up as they come into camp. Perhaps it's only due to the more broken nature of the Emmons this year, but that section of glacier is heavily crevassed and certainly warrants the deployment of ropes, harnesses, helmets, axes and crampons (full glacial mode). Once in camp, climbers can expect to share space with many other eager climbers so camp etiquette and hygiene are paramount.
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| Full camps are a theme throughout July/August peak season. |
In terms of route conditions, the steadiness/reliability that we saw on the Emmons throughout much of the early season has finally begun to deteriorate. Arriving in camp on Friday, rangers received reports from both guides and climbers alike of a hollow route from top to bottom that was difficult to protect. Reports of large, sagging, "team eating" bridges, postholling into blackness and unnerving, soft snow conditions gave rangers enough reason to try to find an alternate route up the mountain.
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| Climbing rangers scouting a new re-route for the Emmons between 11,400' and 12,600'. |
Although rangers were able to climb via a different route between 11,400' (top of the corridor) and 13,600', the steepness and exposure of the upper pitches didn't make it an ideal alternative to the current bootpack. That being said, a variation to traverse back into the main boot pack around 12,600' still cut out nearly 1,200' of the most hollow section of track. As of Sunday morning, there was a mixed-bag of attitudes in high camp. Many parties decided that the warm temperatures and objective hazard was simply too high-risk and stayed in camp. Some parties attempted the old boot pack today and all of them turned around due to the sketchiness of the crevasses all around. Finally, a few more experienced parties were willing to attempt the new re-route and some of them had success to the top. Most folks that have been able to summit have been topping out by sunrise and returning to camp by 9 or 10 am to beat the heat.
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| Track log from the re-route on the Emmons. Green route is new, red line is the old, most hollow section of the route. |
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| Topo of the new re-route. Cutting out the old bootpack (in red) avoids a large section of hollow terrain between 11,400' and 12,600'. |
No matter what choice you make if deciding to climb the Emmons, rangers are stressing the importance of personal risk assessment and risk management amongst groups as they show up in camp. As of now, the route is no longer the "cruiser," stable route that we often expect earlier in the year. For parties with solid mountaineering experience, including excellent comprehension of crevasse rescue, running belay/anchor belay and glacial navigation techniques, the Emmons might be a great challange under the current conditions. For parties with minimal mountaineering experience and less confidence in unstable glacial conditions, the current Emmons route might offer too much hazard/risk. Even with a new re-route there is still a lot of uncertainty/risk from the first crevasses encountered out of camp all the way to the nearly 75' overhung bergschrund curtain that the route passes directly over at 13,600'. Successful and safe passage up the current route will require a full repertoire of skills from belay techniques, route finding (it will undoubtedly change daily as things continue to melt out this week), fitness and the ability to ascend and descend by early morning.
