Mowich Lake and Sunrise Open

As of June 28, 2018 the roads to Mowich Lake and Sunrise are open. This means that all winter road closures for the 2017/2018 winter are over.

The road to Mowich Lake is gravel with rough sections and potholes. Please use caution and drive slow when making your way up to Mowich Lake. RVs and trailers are not recommended.

The road to Sunrise is paved but it is long and winding. RVs and trailers longer than 25 feet are not recommended past the White River Campground intersection.

For up-to-date information please refer to the Mount Rainier National Park Road Conditions page.

Inter Glacier – June 28, 2018

Little Tahoma and Mount Rainier from the Glacier Basin Trail.

Mid-season conditions have arrived on the Inter Glacier.

The trail to Glacier Basin is mostly snow-free to Glacier Basin. Beware of thin, punchy snow near some creeks and sloping areas in the last half mile before the basin. The climber’s route is continuous snow up to Camp Curtis from atop the yellow moraine.

Glissade track crossing a crevasse on the Inter Glacier

The crevasses above 8000’ on the Inter Glacier have begun to open and present hazard for parties going uphill and downhill. In particular, the existing glissade track crosses three sagging, open crevasses between 8500’ and 8900’. If you choose to glissade, ensure that you can see the entire runout of the track and descend slowly to give yourself time to exit the track when it approaches a crevasse. Keep your teammates in sight throughout the descent and be prepared to rescue them, in case one of them ends up in a crevasse. Regrouping frequently is a common tactic to reduce overall risk to your team.

Glissade track crossing a crevasse on the Inter Glacier

The snow surface on the glacier itself is rather lumpy and is past its skiing prime for the season.

Lower Inter Glacier area. June 28, 2018

DC Route Update from 6/26

A couple of the climbing rangers were able to climb the DC on the morning of 6/26. It was a beautiful day and the route was in great condition. The route remains straight forward, hanging left at the top of the cleaver, over to camp comfort above Gib Rock and switch backing up to the summit crater from there. We clocked 3.1 miles from Muir to the Crater Rim.  There are still no ladders on the route, but you do cross a number of snow bridges and a large plug near 13,800.  Remember to always assess these, especially on the way down when things have softened up. There are 20+ pickets on the route the guide companies leave for use as "running protection" on their climbs. You can use them, but please do not relocate them, assess them before using, and don't take them.

The lower half of the DC with the traverse melted out

More and more rock is melting out on the DC; we traveled on it for about a third the length of the cleaver and then switch-backed up snow the rest of the way up the cleaver.  Though traveling on the snow which lingers on the side of the cleaver makes for easy footing, staying near the spine of the cleaver reduces the chance of getting hit by rockfall. 

We did experience some sugary snow conditions that made the footing on the steeper switchbacks tricky. There are pickets here that you can use for running belays to protect your descent. Remember to take care on the descents and to save energy for them. The summit is only halfway.

Sugary snow conditions on a steep switch-back around 12,700. We used the pickets as a running belay.

The plug acting as a bridge around 13,800

Think Big Picture, Not Just The Next Step.

Whether you're heading up or down the mountain, don't get locked in on looking just at your feet, keep your head on a swivel. Be aware of any overhead hazards (ice fall, rock fall), changing weather, what's coming up on the route (bottle neck or crevasse crossings), how surface conditions are changing (is the snow getting firm and slick or slushy and punchy), and how your teammates are doing.  Plan your breaks so that you will be moving quickly through exposed terrain and resting in safe areas.  Look for evidence of previous rock and ice fall to know if you're in a zone that has these hazards. 

Team of climbers sitting below big seracs.

Sometimes we have gear malfunctions in the worse places. Recognize if you linger too long fixing it in a bad spot, you might suddenly have a bigger problem on your hands. Do a quick repair that is good enough to get you to a better spot safely where you can sit and fix it properly.

Having difficulty with crampons in slushy conditions below the cleaver?  Try banging the side of your boots with the handle of your ice axe.  Sometimes it takes a swing every step to keep the snow from balling up.  And sometimes, even on glaciers, it's safer to travel without crampons if snow is clumping on your crampons and your feet are slipping out from beneath you and there's no ice remaining on the descent. These are some of the decisions you have to make and risks you have to manage when you are climbing.

And this concludes our safety message.  Have fun out there!

Emmons-Winthrop Update

June 26th, 2018

After a spring storm last week, the Emmons is seeing regular ascents via a new route. Over the prior weeks climbers were ascending the Emmons via the corridor with a traverse (climber's right) through the lower alpine meadow to the Winthrop shoulder. With the recent snow reset a new route has been established up the climber's left hand side of the Emmons Glacier.

Leading to the top of the corridor the route continues straight up, zig zagging up and over several crevasses. After climbing pass the large 12,500' crevasse the route traverses back to the climber's right and picks up the old route around 13,000'. Climbers are still end-running the upper burgshrund with a long traverse along the north face of the summit crater before punching it straight up to the top.

Overall the route is in good climbing condition, but will begin to see some changes as the daytime temperatures increase and freezing levels rise. The upper mountain snowpack (above 12,500') is still variable with firm scoured surface conditions and isolated pockets of shallow wind drifted soft slabs.  Snow conditions below 12,500' are generally on a corn-cycle with firm icy snow in the early morning and softer, slushier snow by midday. Be careful and suspicious of crossings, there is evidence and reports of climbers punching in new holes near crevasse crossings during the descents.

Emmons Climbing Route as of 6/26/2018

View of climbers ascending the route

Climbers descending from the summit along the burgshrund traverse. 

Ptarmigan Ridge

June 26th, 2018

Ptarmigan Ridge is still seeing late season ascents. Most years this route is climbed before the end of June. Once the summer time sets in and freezing levels rise, this route goes out of shape fairly quick. Experiencing rockfall and rotten unsupportable snow on the lower slopes up to 11,500’ is not uncommon and will demand a high level of skill and risk acceptance. 

Below is a trip report provided by Tod and Peter. This climbing team ascended the ridge using the rock step variation on June 21-24.

Summary of our trip:  Started at White River and camped on Curtis Ridge the first night on our traverse over to Ptarmigan.  Camped at Ptarmigan high camp the second night.  Overall the approach was fine, doable in a day if necessary.   On summit day, we crossed the bergsrund at 5:00AM (a little late in retrospect)  and summited at 4:30PM.  We camped at Schurman on the way out.  Had great weather with freezing levels around 10,000 feet keeping the face quiet.  Conditions were lean which led to us pitching it out more than anticipated.  The hourglass was ugly and we belayed rather than simul-ing out of concern for rockfall.  Lot’s of grit coming down due to wind, but nothing major. We were able to find decent sheltered belays, but most rock gear is suspect because of the fractured nature of the rock.  The ice pitch (see picture below) on the right-hand traverse was great and can be seen from the approach, it's highlight of the climb.  It's about 200 feet of 55 degree blue ice. The rock step exit was one ridge past that.  We missed it and traversed out under the Mowich face.

Some things I’d recommend to other climbers attempting it soon or in similar (mid season conditions):

A rock rack was essential:  we took a .4 BD Camelot, 3 small to medium HB offsets and 2 Lowe Tricams (Brown and pink).  We used most of it multiple times and would take some even smaller nuts if we were to do it again.

Hourglass:  It looks really bad from high camp, but is manageable.  Stay right of the 10 foot high exposed rock band that cuts across the face. The rock band has ice on it, but it’s detached and and won’t take screws.  Couldn’t find gear elsewhere unless you had pins.  In a week or two the right route may be complete junk, but it’s still probably better than trying the rock band.

We appreciate all the great photos and trip reports coming in from climbers on the mountain over the last couple of weeks.  Thanks for all the support!