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| Looking down from the Disappointment Cleaver towards Ingraham Flats and Mt Adams in the hazy background. |
It has been a windy week here at Mt Rainier. Sunday morning (7/12) at 2 am our telemetry at the ranger hut recorded a wind gust of 92 mph. Current forecasts looking ahead have winds moderating with a small chance of precipitation Thursday before warm, high pressure moves into the region with the weekend. Despite the strong winds of the last few days, there were still teams that managed to summit.
As of Monday 7/13/26, the Disappointment Cleaver is still holding quite a bit of snow. Right out of camp Muir, there are several cracks beginning to emerge on the Cowlitz Glacier serving as reminder to stay diligent this time of year with hidden/subtle crevasses. Cathedral Gap is bare dirt on the Cowlitz side; however, it is mostly snow after turning the corner onto the Ingraham Glacier. This section of the route between Cathedral Gap and Ingraham Flats often has a lot of rockfall where the route is close to the cliff and teams should avoid stopping here.
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| The ladder crossing High crack above Ingraham Flats. This ladder marks the start of the traverse under the Ice Box and Bowling Alley. Teams should move purposefully through here until they are past all overhead hazards. |
Teams will encounter a flat ladder above Ingraham Flats where the route takes a right turn to traverse out to the bottom of the cleaver. The traverse from this ladder out to the cleaver has significant overhead hazards and teams should move quickly through here and limit their time exposed to overhead hazard. Teams are encouraged to inspect any location they stop for rest by looking up and assessing whether something could fall on you.
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| Penitentes on the Cleaver. |
The cleaver was about 50/50 snow and rock but with warm weather in the forecast it could be mostly rock soon. Above the cleaver the route ascends through steeper switch backs, avoiding the seracs of the upper Ingraham glacier, and over a large crevasse bridge up to a junction near ~12,800'. Here, the primary route makes a rightward traverse out the Emmons glacier shoulder to end run a large crevasse at 13k' guarding access to the upper mountain. From the Emmons shoulder there are a few more crevasses but mostly mellow terrain to the summit. For a steeper and less established option, it possible to climb up from the 12,800' junction and slightly left belaying over a steep, offset crevasse bridge. This direct, steeper variation ties back in with the primary route near 13,500'.
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| Looking up from the top of the cleaver. A group of 3 climbers can be seen negotiating the switchbacks near 12,700. The climber's right traverse begins shortly after those switchbacks. |
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| Looking back at the traverse from the Emmons Shoulder. The traverse is generally level with no more than ~50' of elevation loss/gain. |
The winds this past week have helped slow the snow melt, however warmer weather is the in the forecast. The route this time of year changes daily and one hot day may make today's beta irrelevant tomorrow. Be sure to check in at the Paradise Wilderness Information Center to get your climbing permit and the most current route conditions.
