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Looking up the South Mowich Glacier towards St. Andrews Rock.
Sunset Ridge is the rimed skyline in the middle of the photo. |
Sunset Ridge is currently in good condition. Overall, the Puyallup & South Mowich Glaciers were navigable and the bergshrund crossings were passable without too much effort to find a suitable bridge, although with the warm weather in the forecast, the lower 'shrund may collapse soon and impede travel to the upper ridge.
Crossing the South Mowich Glacier is straightforward and no major crevasse crossings were required
(Photo 1). From there, we encountered mellow climbing around the bottom buttress of Sunset Ridge up to the bergschrund
(Photo 2). We found firm conditions up the 1800' lower "pyramid-face" before gaining the Sunset Ridge proper at 11650' There is a short section of easier, but technical climbing on the ridge before bumping out climber's left onto the upper Mowich Face
(Photo 6). Once on the face, we found firm 55-60 degree snow with glacier ice a few inches below the surface that accepted ice screws. This sectioned involved roughly 1300' of front-pointing
(Photo 8) From the top of the face, easy navigation led up to Liberty Cap, and from there, across the saddle to Columbia Crest.
This route involves a fair amount of elevation gain and mileage from the base of the route. The route itself clocks in around 6400' of gain over 5 miles plus the approach and descent. It's a big push, but well worth the effort for the views of the western side of the mountain. That said, the location of Sunset Ridge is one of the more remote locations inside Mount Rainier National Park, so it see's very little traffic. Expect conditions to be different from this description and come prepared for technical climbing, long days, rock and icefall and the possibility of impassable crevasses or bergshrunds.
The following photos are listed in order starting from the lowest elevation.
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| Looking up the lower portion of the "Pyramid" on the lower portion of the Sunset Ridge route. The bergshrund was crossable far climber's right, below the saddle. |
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| Looking downhill from the top of the "lower pyramid" around ~11,500' |
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| Looking down Sunset Ridge. Puyallup Glacier is the large glacier seen below. |
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| Navigating steep snow and rock along Sunset Ridge. |
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Looking towards the upper Mowich Face. Minimal snow on the ridge forces the route
onto the face, opposed to following the ridge all the way up to Liberty Cap |
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| Looking down the Upper Mowich Face toward Sunset Ridge |
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| Steep 55-60 degree snow on the upper Mowich Face |
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| Overview of route taken from camp at 8500' on the S. Mowich Glacier to Columbia Crest |
