Now that things are starting to get busy for the climbing season we realized that there's some confusion with the new process for making reservations for the high camps at Mount Rainier. We thought this would be a good reason to further explain the climbing permit process.
What's changed? The only change is that we now use Recreation.gov for all wilderness permitting and reservations. However, we still use Pay.gov to collect the climbing cost recovery fee.
But let's back up. When do you need a climbing permit at Mount Rainier and what is a climbing permit exactly?
At Mount Rainier National Park you are required to obtain a climbing permit if you plan to travel to the summit, above high camps (or ~10,000 ft) or travel on any glaciers. This includes climbing the mountain in a single push without camping, or doing a circumnavigation where you are traveling on glaciers.
What constitutes a climbing permit? A climbing permit is the combination of paying the climbing cost recovery fee and obtaining an appropriate wilderness permit for your trip.
The climbing cost recovery fee is charged in order to help the park service pay for the costs associated with climbing activities on Mt. Rainier. The fee pays for:
- Staffing the mountain's high camps with climbing rangers who can rapidly respond to incidents on the mountain
- Staffing the lower mountain ranger stations to assist climbers with registration
- Maintaining a clean and healthful upper mountain free of human waste
- Flying human waste off the mountain from collection points and disposing of it properly
- The backcountry in the Park is organized by camps, alpine zones and cross-country zones. These each have limits to the number of people and parties that may occupy them each day.
- 'Single-push' climbers are placed into a high camp or alpine zone for the day of their climb.
- Each member of the climbing team must pay the climbing cost recovery fee before you all get to Mt. Rainier. You each only have to do this once for the calendar year, no matter how many trips you do in a season. It is possible to pay once you've entered the park but it will speed up your permitting process.
- We then recommend making a wilderness permit reservation at recreation.gov. Click on "Check availability." Fill out the required information and find your camping locations. If a number is listed, it is the number of reservation spots still available for that zone. If there is a "W" then only walk up permits are available. If there is a zero then there are no more permits available for that camp or zone on that day. Wilderness permit reservations cost $26.
- On the day of or day before your climb go to the Paradise Wilderness Information Center (PWIC) for west and south-side routes or the White River Wilderness Information Center for north and east-side routes to activate your reservation and pick up your physical climbing permit. You must have this on your person when you are on the mountain. This is also a good opportunity to ask the rangers about route and weather conditions, pick up blue bags and meet other climbers that may be on your same schedule. Reservations may cancelled if they are not activated by 12:00pm on the first day of the reservation. These spots then become available to walkups.
- Walk up permits are available up to 24 hours ahead of time. These are available at any ranger station but, for climbing, it's best to go to the Paradise Wilderness Information Center (PWIC) for west and south-side routes or the White River Wilderness Information Center for north and east-side routes. Walk up wilderness permits are $6. We can only accept credit cards at the ranger stations. No cash.
