Twenty Twenty Two

Mount Rainier with it's winter snow coat.

 

Winter weather still lingers here at Mount Rainier National Park with a seemingly endless atmospheric river running through the sky and the freezing levels lingering around the three to four thousand foot level.  Longer days with the sun reaching higher in the sky have made advances in bringing a spring-like feel to the lower slopes below treeline, with some pesky alders already sticking up through the snow in the Tatoosh, but above at Camp Muir and the upper slopes of the mountain there's still deep winter conditions.  Any team adventuring up on to the mountain in the winter months should be self-reliant and have their own contingency plan in place in case of a mishap or injury.  

The Tatoosh Range on a rare sun break, just south of Mount Rainier.

Check out the park's website for information regarding climbing permits this summer season.  The early-access reservation lottery results were just released on March 14th.  For those who won the lottery, access to make a reservation will start rolling out March 21st.  For those who didn't win the lottery or didn't apply, climbing permit reservations will be available starting April 25th.  There's a table with all of the important dates on the recreation.gov website.  

Keep an eye on the weather using some of the great resources we have here in the NW (see the Weather Resources tab above), make sure to get your climbing permit reservations, keep your winter fitness training plans going, and we'll see you here atop the mountain this coming summer climbing season!