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| Sunrise from 13,000' on June 28, 2021 |
It has been a wild week across the state with all-time record temps in many locations. The weather station at Paradise recorded multiple days in the upper 80s and low 90s while Camp Muir peaked at 66.5 deg F on June 29 at 1:00PM.
As you may imagine, this has had a pronounced effect on climbing conditions on the upper mountain. Rangers climbed via the DC on Monday 6/28/2021 along with several independent climbing teams and guided groups.
Conditions were quite good although they more closely match an early August climb rather than a late June one. There were two ladders on the route, one at 11,200' and another at 13,500'. Both were well anchored and relatively easy to cross. The Cleaver was almost entirely rock and will definitely be 100% rock, top-to-bottom, by the time this post is published.
Above the Cleaver the route was very direct with several rising traverses, switch backs and crevasse end-runs. There were also several large snow bridges to cross. Many of them had boot sized holes punched in them.
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| Looking towards the summit from the top of the Cleaver |
After the 28th, and the hottest of the temps, subsequent climbing parties found several of the snow bridges had collapsed and rockfall had increased significantly. The guides have judged the route to be too risky for them for the past few days and most independent climbers have made the same calculation.
The upper mountain has not been freezing overnight and the result has been the increase in rockfall and soft/collapsing snow bridges. Once we get back into a colder weather regime and the mountain begins to freeze overnight we should see a rapid improvement in conditions.
The guides continue to make attempts at the summit daily and we expect the route to be re-opened in the next few days.
