DC Route Update 6/21 — Happy Solstice!

Summer is back on Mount Rainier and the DC is in great shape. The atmospheric river and weeks full of cold weather helped refresh the upper mountain. There are currently no ladders on the route and many of the snow bridges are thick, or one can step over the collapsing bridge to the other side. Temperatures are hot for the rest of this week however, so expect things to change rapidly.

From Ingraham Flats you travel straight up hill on a boot track highway. An independent party reported that in the heat of the day one of their party members broke through a hidden crevasse just on the edge of the boot pack, a short ways above Ingraham Flats Camp. Don't let the many footprints before you make you complacent on the route. At what is called "high crack," just below the Ingraham Ice Fall, daintily step across a bridge and go slightly down hill before contouring straight across to the nose of the cleaver. Travel here is quick and easy right now. The exposure to ice fall is not as severe as past years, but the hazard is still there and the rockfall danger just before the cleaver is there as always, so time is of the essence when you move through this traverse. 

Looking at the traverse onto the Cleaver that is exposed to rockfall and icefall hazards.

Travel around the somewhat sheltered nose of the cleaver following a handline (not a fixed line - do not ascend or rappel on these) to an open face that has snow that is rapidly disappearing. This is probably one of the main cruxes on the route right now, especially when descending in soft snow conditions. The traverse is exposed to rockfall (especially from parties above) and falling is not an option. So focus on your footing and move smoothly and quickly through here. The guides have worked hard to maintain a handline and a well shoveled trail to ease travel, but things are melting out rapidly. Don't clip to the handline and don't expect you can depend on it to catch a fall.

Looking at the steep switchbacks that are above the cleaver.

The trail is mostly on rock generally following the spine of the cleaver, occasionally bumping left to a couple switchbacks in the snow. From the top of the cleaver, go straight up towards the crater rim for a couple hundred feet, following many steep switchbacks that don't mellow out until about 13,300 feet. There are “fixed” pickets along the more exposed faces here. You might want to consider using them for running belays since a fall here on the steep switchbacks would be hard if not impossible to arrest. Please do not move the pickets or take the carabiners.

It is difficult to pass other parties on these upper switchbacks. So look up and look down to plan ahead. Communicate with the other parties.  And be courteous.  It is better to wait a little longer in a safe area to allow a party ahead to move through a bottle neck than it is to wait right behind them or entangle them while exposed to ice fall or steep slopes.  

From about 13,300 feet, the trail meanders up to the crater rim crossing a few large troughs along the way that will open up at some point to reveal the large crevasses hidden beneath.

Weather is looking great for at least this coming week on Mount Rainier. We look forward to seeing you on the mountain.