Climb – claire captures

Sloan Peak

August 4, 2019August 8, 2019

After Snowfield Peak Kelsey and I planned to do something the weekend of the August 3/4. We took our time picking a climb, other options were Mount Daniel or Gothic Basin. We eventually landed on Sloan Peak via the Corkscrew route which Kelsey had some friends who climbed it the weekend before us so we had good beta on the route. We were joined by her friend Dan and Kat (who I climbed Rainier with). The first decision for the group was a 1 or 2 day climb and whether to use the Bedal Creek or Cougar Creek approach. We chose to do the climb as a 1 day push and because of this we chose the Bedal Creek trailhead (which from all reports seemed like the shorter approach with less elevation gain and no river crossings).

mileage

elevation gain

5,100 ft

location

Mount Loop Highway

drive time from Seattle

2 h

useful gear

Glacier Gear

permits/passes

NW Forest Pass

Dan, Kelsey and I left Seattle at 4:30 Monday and met Kat along the Mountain Loop Highway. Even though the Bedal Creek trailhead is pinned on google maps the roads don’t really match when you are driving out there. Just after the Bedal Creek campground, heading south on the Moutain Loop Highway you turn left at FS-4096, which is marked by a small sign. Google has the road as 4081 which is wrong. A few miles up the bumpy and narrow road you come across the trailhead. I was glad we took my jeep because there were a few sections of the road that looked pretty washed out. The trailhead coordinates are 48°4’19” 121°22’35” and there was room for only 4 cars.

We got hiking around 7:20 am on the Bedal Creek trail, there was a few cleared out avalanche chutes which were very brushy but easy enough to stay on the trail. One of these sections had some stinging nettle which got Kat and I but the stings were dulled by the water covering most of the bushes. After 45 mins from the trailhead at about 3700ft we found the flags leading up the hill to the left. This was the climber’s trail leading to the ridge between Bedal and Sloan Peaks. The trail was steep and in some parts extremely brushy. The flagging was intermediate, whenever you say a flag the boot path was obvious but the further you got away from the flag the more the boot paths seemed to diverge until another flag was visible. The last push before breaking out of the treeline was the thickest of the bushwhacking and I was definitely glad to break through to a talus field.

Steep ascent
flagging marks the trail
Cleared out of the forest

From the talus field which was under the south side of Bedal Peak, the boot path (now more obvious) traverses to the saddle between Bedal and Sloan, We passed a tarn at 5400 ft which had some nice reflections of both Bedal and Sloan. After this tarn, we lost the trail and decided not to lose any elevation and head straight up the ridge towards Sloan. As we climbed we got great views out to Mt Pugh which I’d climbed 2 years ago and Glacier Peak. We didn’t realize but this wasn’t the ridge that people describe leading up to the glacier of Sloan, that’s northeast of the summit. When we did figure it out we decided to traverse across to the correct ridge over rock slabs. It did involve some scrambling to gain the ridge but the rock was solid. I don’t know if it was necessary to traverse because we probably could have continued up the ridge we were on.

Sloan Reflection
Glacier Peak
Bedal Peak
Kelsey Traversing with Bedal behind
Kelsey and Glacier peak (on the right ridge)

We refilled water from snowmelt and continued up to the base of the glacier where we roped up. We were about 3.5 hours from the car to the base of the glacier. I was given the opportunity to lead the team which was my first glacier lead. I was a little nervous because there were obviously open crevasses that I’d have to navigate us around but thankfully there was also a faint boot track of other climbers to follow. We came across other climbers for the first time on the glacier and they warned us that it was crevasse-y the way they went and maybe keeping lower would be better. I didn’t think I wanted to blaze a new trail, and knowing that they had passed that way we continued on the route we were following. It wasn’t long before we knew what they were talking about. There was a pretty steep snow bridge with crevasses opening up on either side. We were careful to move up and over it. The snow was a little softer than I would have liked making it easier to slip and right at the narrowest part of the bridge next to the crevasse opening it was icy so we took care in our footing to safely move across. After that, it was a short walk to the other side of the glacier to reach the spot to unrope.

Pretty rock crystals
Climbing Rock Slab
Heading up to the Glacier
Roping up
Crossing the Glacier
Approaching snow bridge
Me going over snow bridge

We stashed our glacier gear ready for the way down and headed up the very obvious boot trail to scramble to the summit. The trail follows a ledge around to the southern side of the summit before climbing up a rocky gully. The views on this part were amazing, the Monte Cristo peaks were in our face the entire time. The scramble was fun, mostly easy to follow a trail and the exposure wasn’t bad. The last few moves to get up to the summit block were class 3 but none of it felt sketchy. We topped out at 5.5 hours from the car.

Glacier Peak
Off the Glacier ready to scramble
Mountain loop hwy in the valley below
Boot path leads around to the rock gully
Rocky Gully
Kelsey climbing out of the gully
Steep scramble
Final Summit class 3

We enjoyed lunch on the summit as we took photos, wrote in the summit register and read a poem someone had stashed with the register. It was a little hazy (being a really hot day) but we could see Mount Baker in the North, Rainier to the South and faintly out to the Olympics. As always we had fun naming peaks and finding new ones to climb. We probably had 30 minutes on the summit before starting our descent.

Kat on the summit
Summit Register
Admiring views
Monte Cristo Peaks
Kelsey signs the register
Looking down on the glacier
Baker in the distance
Lunchtime
Tiny people
Girls shot
Bear Hug

We scramble back to the glacier (not) looking forward to crossing the snow bridge again. On the way down the snow bridge felt a little better because more climbers had crossed it creating good steps and it was in the shade making the snow a little harder.

Descending from the summit
Downclimbing
Back along the bootpath
Down climbing the snowbridge
Crevasse
Looking back on the way we came

We unroped on the glacier a little lower and followed the rock slabs down the northeast ridge and had to traverse across the rocks again to get back to the saddle of Bedal and Sloan. The day had well and truly heated up and the way through the open fields before descending into the forest again was really sweaty work. Once in the forest whenever we stopped we were descended upon by biting flies so we didn’t stop much. The trail was a welcome site until Kat and I found the stinging nettles again, It was so much worse than the morning it felt like my legs were on fire. We hilariously just ran through it screaming and swearing until we got through. I didn’t really even know which of all the plants was stinging nettle so I was wildly bashing at the plants with my trekking poles.

Bedal and Lupine
Traversing back towards bedal
Reflections in the Tarn
Sloan with some bush whacking
Aftermath of the stinging nettle

We arrived back at the car at just over 10 hours. It really was a great day out and we were surprised (based on all the trip reports we’d read) that we weren’t later. Sloan is definitely doable in a day and I think we were helped a lot by using the Bedal Creek approach (not sure why this doesn’t get more love).

GPS Track

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Snowfield Slam

July 20, 2019August 7, 2019

With a great weather forecast on the cards for the coming weekend, I headed back into the North Cascades to bag some peaks. I was joined by Ananth and his friend Kelsey for a Friday – Sunday trip. The priority for the trip was Snowfield Peak and the Neve Glacier and with the extra time attempt some of the other peaks in the Colonial Basin.

mileage

~ 25

elevation gain

10,000 ft

location

North Cascades National Park

drive time from Seattle

useful gear

Glacier Travel Gear

permits/passes

Camping Permit

We left Seattle around 6 am to give us plenty of time to get to the Marblemount Rangers Station for our camping permits. I was surprised how busy the station was for a Friday morning when we arrived around 8:30. It seemed like most parties were getting permits for Eldorado and Sahale some of the more popular climbs in the area. For camp permits in the Colonial basin, we were the only ones. We were warned by the ranger about the condition of the approach trail, to expect a very steep and brushy boot path above Pyramid Lake.

The trailhead for Pyramid Lake is a pull out on the side of Hwy 20 and has no amenities. We crossed the highway to get to the trail to begin. It took us about an hour of hiking to get to Pyramid Lake at 11 am. I was impressed with how light I’d managed to pack my bag until I discovered at Pyramid Lake I’d forgotten to fill my CamelBak. I filtered some water at the lake before we set off on the climber’s trail. This trail climbs straight up the East Ridge of Pyramid Peak. At times it’s so steep you have to pull yourself up on roots and rocks, definitely not an easy task with a big pack on. It is also extremely overgrown in places and requires careful attention you are still on the trail while bush-bashing through the overgrowth. It had been raining that morning so the bush-bashing left the front person soaked. I was thankful the weather was a little overcast so at least we weren’t overheating on the climb up. Unfortunately, on the climb up I lost my lens cap and a filter somewhere in all the bush-bashing.

Pyramid Lake
Pond on the way up the ridge

We cleared most of the thick forest at 5000ft where we stopped for a bite to eat at 2:30. I didn’t realize how tired and hungry I was until we stopped. We started getting views down to Diablo Lake and over to Pyramid and Colonial Peak (the basin of which we were planning on camping). The trail after this point traverses under pyramid peak following some snowfields and above a waterfall to get to the newly formed lake at the bottom of the Colonial Glacier. The traverse under pyramid had obvious rockfall risk so we donned helmets and got out our ice axes for the snow traverse. At one point we had to cross a snow bridge over a waterfall which was still in good enough shape that it wasn’t too sketchy.

Colonial in Reflections
Views towards Colonial Basin
Traversing under Pyramid Peak
Kelsey on a snow bridge
Pond on the way up the ridge

The lake at the bottom of the Colonial Glacier was a welcome site which we reached around 4:30. We scrambled up the rocky ridge to find the campsites next to a small tarn. The wind on the ridge was pretty strong and we chose sites with windwalls already built up to set up our tents. The wind made it a little challenging but we managed and then spent the next hour sheltering for the wind in the tents. I was pretty cold in my 3 season small backpacking tent which felt like the wind was coming straight through even with the wind wall. I went and joined Ananth and Kelsey in their 4 season tent to warm up a little. While I was gone from my tent. I’d left the door open a little and a mouse got in and ate through my food bag! It only had a corner of one of my oat bars but from then on we were more vigilant with our food. Ananth and I filtered water down near the Colonial Lake because this was running and seemed like a better water source then the stagnant tarn at our campsite. By the time we got back to camp, the wind had dropped significantly and we were all able to make dinner and enjoy the views a bit. We made for bed at sunset (around 9 pm) and I warmed water for a Nalgene knowing that this was going to be our coldest night and I only bought my summer sleeping bag.

Scramble up rock ridge to find camp
Colonial Lake Outlet
Views from camp
Colonial Basin Pano
My tent
Camp
Neve Peak behind my tent
Sunset Day 1

We got up early, ready for a big day of peak bagging and left camp with first light at 5:30 am. There was a boot path that took us to the end of the rock ridge and to the start of the Colonial Glacier. From the day before there didn’t seem to be any big crevasses present on the glacier, we roped up regardless knowing that we’d need to be roped up for the Neve glacier. As we climbed towards the Colonial-Neve Col we were rewarded with beautiful views of the Colonial Basin and surrounding peaks. The wind from yesterday had completely gone and there were no clouds in the sky. It was still pretty cold and the snow was solid as we made our way across it.

Colonial Basin

After an hour from camp, we got to the Colonial-Neve Col. I was feeling a little sore after climbing the steep slope and probably a little dehydrated from the day before so I quickly filtered some water and prepared a Nuun tablet to help. We got our first views of the Neve Glacier (the biggest non-volcanic glacier in Washington ) and Snowfield Peak which seemed to sit high above it. The glacier seemed in great condition, some crevasses were opening in the middle but looked easily avoidable. We lost about 300ft descending from the Col into the Snowfield basin and onto the Neve Glacier and had to scramble over some rocks (in crampons – eww) to avoid a collapsing snow bridge. The trip across the glacier took us a little longer than expected, we were all dragging our feet a little and we didn’t unrope and start scrambling towards the Snowfield summit until 9 am.

Neve Glacier and Snowfield Peak
Snowfield Peak Approach
Kelsey Climbing the west ridge
Rock Scramble to the summit

We unroped on the West Ridge, moved our rope in a safe spot away from rockfall and headed up an obvious boot path to the summit pyramid. All the beta we had read talked about heading towards an obvious ‘notch’ in the rock. You travel up the notch then before heading over it you traverse to the left to gain a ridge that leads to the summit. There was some exposure in the scramble but the conditions were great, the rock in good shape and the route mostly obvious so we made easy work of the scramble. We reached the summit around 9:50 and stayed there for about 30 mins. The views were incredible, we had 360-degree views of all the North Cascade Peaks and enjoyed pointing them out and getting lots of photos.

The notch
Rock traverse
Kelsey Climbs towards Snowfield summit
Summit Views
Ananth and Kelsey on the Summit
Summit shot

Our trip back across the Neve glacier was quicker but the sun was heating up and we made sure to move quickly to not get fried by the UV reflecting off it. By the time we climbed back to the Colonial-Neve Col it was 12:30 and my feet were aching due to the heat and having to kick steps to get traction in soft snow. We ate and rested at the col for about 30 minutes, I had to take ibuprofen for the pain in my feet which thankfully seemed to help. We saw other people (our first for the trip) crossing the Neve glacier since we didn’t pass them they must have approached from a different trail. Our next goal was to head across to the 3 peaks of Paul Bunyan’s Stump, Pinnacle Peak and Pyramid Peak which sit on the West side of the Colonial Basin.

Colonial Neve Col
Descending Neve Glacier
Boot Path from Snowfield Summit
Colonial, Neve Col
Colonial Basin

The traverse across to the shoulder of Paul Bunyan’s Stump was very steep and Ananth had a hard job of kicking steps for Kelsey and I. We unroped on the north shoulder of Paul Bunyan’s Stump which on this face of it was surprisingly vegetated. The route up Paul Bunyan’s stump starts north of the peak, passes under the east face, ascends the south face and ends on the west face. The final part has a lot of exposure and with all the loose rock it didn’t leave me with the best feeling as we climbed it. When we finally reached the summit I was a little sketched about and didn’t really want to move too much. The views were definitely dramatic from the top. My favourite of which was the view of the Neve Glacier outlet. The descent back down to where we’d left our packs was obviously worse than the ascent but was better in that we knew what to expect. It took us an hour to get down to our pack and it was 4 when we arrived.

Paul Bunyans Stump
Mount Baker in the distance
Ananth doesn’t mind exposure
Kelsey and I on Paul Bunyans Stump
Climbing Down
Diablo Lake below
Kelsey on the final climb
Kelsey Climbs Paul Bunyan’s Stump
Paul Bunyan’s Stump
Paul Bunyan’s Stump

The next goal was over to Pyramid Peak, which we knew was a simple walk-up. We decided to stay high and traverse under Paul Bunyan’s stump in the Colonial Basin. We got to a very steep snow traverse which combined with some melted out snow moats did not leave me with confidence. Kelsey and I were pretty spent (it was 4:30) and it didn’t hurt my ego to forgo the other two peaks so we turned around here to head back to camp. Ananth, on the other hand, pushed on to do the other 2 summits.

Kelsey and I filled up on water on the way back to camp where we arrived around 6ish, to finally rest our feet for a bit. Ananth arrived back at camp exhausted by 7:30 happy that he got both of the other peaks. By the sounds of it, I was glad to miss out on Pinnacle Peak because it sounded like a very sketchy scramble. We were all exhausted after a long day, Kelsey and Ananth were in bed before the sun. I stayed up to take a few photos before retiring to my tent.

We got up early on our third day with a mind to climb Colonial Peak. Ananth was still exhausted from the day before and the rest of us wanted to get home at a reasonable hour so we ditched the attempt on Colonial and decided to just pack up camp and head back to the car. We were joined by a pair of goats at camp which kept us entertained as we packed up.

Mountain Goat
Camp Visitor

None of us was looking forward to the approach trail on the way down but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I’d heard about many people getting injured on the way out being tired and taking a fall. Each of us slipped on at least one occasion on the steep descent but thankfully with no injuries. It was a hot day when we reached the cars at 1 pm and made a well-earned stop for ice cream at cascade farms on the way home.

Colonial Peak and Waterfall
Colonial Peak in tarn reflections
Picket Range
Diablo Lake
Steep Descent

GPS Track

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Ruth Icy Traverse

July 14, 2019July 28, 2019

I was asked to join a group of Mountaineers on a private trip for the Ruth Icy Traverse. Mount Ruth and it’s neigbour Icy Peak are in the Mount Baker area of the North Cascades, accessed by the Hannegan Pass Trailhead. Views from the traverse and the ridge campsite are meant to be spectacular with close views of Mount Shuksan and it’s glaciers.

mileage

~ 14

elevation gain

4,000 ft

location

North Cascades National Park

drive time from Seattle

useful gear

Glacier Travel Gear,

Rock protection for Icy

permits/passes

NW Forest Pass,

Camping Permit

We wanted to get an early start for day 1 from the trailhead so we planned to camp out at the Hannegan Pass trailhead the night before. This worked pretty well, there are a few campsites for this use. The road has been washed out right before the old parking lot so you have to walk past that to get to the bathrooms. We picked up our permit from the Backcountry Office in Glacier and by 9:30 am we were hiking towards Hannegan Pass.

The trail to Hannegan pass was currently being worked on by WTA so was in fantastic shape, lots of water along the way and switchbacks at the end leading to the pass. The last of these switchbacks are through a clearing which provides perfect views up to Mount Ruth. Unfortunately, the day was getting cloudier as we went with clouds forming over the summit of Ruth as we approached. We had lunch at Hannegan Pass before leaving the nice maintained trail and joining the climber’s boot path leading up to Mount Ruth. The boot path shoots up the ridge from the pass using a view eroded, steep, rocky/root exposed, slippery trail. We were all glad it wasn’t raining to go up it and thankful it didn’t last too long.

Hannegan Pass Trail
Ruth on the Approach
Steep path up Ruth Arm
Climbing Steep Bootpath
Steep Boot Path

Thankful to have the worse of the boot path out of the way we traverse around a small knoll on the ridge and continues aiming for the summit of Ruth. Now well above the tree line, the wind was cooling as we climbed. The clouds continued to roll in and when we got to the start of the glacier at 6200′ we decided to wait for a bit to see if the weather would clear before preceding. Speaking to climbers on the way down they turned around shy of the summit, likening the white out to ‘being inside a pingpong ball’. We later nicknamed the spot we waited ‘The Rocks of Indecision’ because the weather blew in and out and we didn’t know if the clouds were coming or going. We ended up being joined by 2 other parties and this prompted us to continue in our efforts.

Resting up Ruth Arm
Ruth Arm
Nearing Ruth Glacier

The glacier climb itself was fine, there were no large crevasses so we were able to climb straight up to the summit. As we did the clouds even cleared up a little and we all got pretty hot making our way to the summit. I was surprised at how quickly we got there. We spent some time at the summit taking photos, signing the register and waiting for the cloud to clear enough to see the way we had to go to descend to camp.

Climbing Up
Some Clear Views
Summit
Taking photos of Shuksan
Copper Ridge Views from the summit
Shuksan Peekaboo

The camp we were aiming for was on the ridge towards Icy where we could camp on rock and get views of the ridge scramble we’d have to do the next day to get to Icy. Just before we reached camp a thick cloud rolled in which made the last few hundred meters a little tricky. We all managed to find camp spots on rocks and avoid sleeping on the snow. As we were melting snow for water and getting our dinner we did get a few views over at Shuksan and towards Icy. Unfortunately, we never got the panorama that was promised by this location. As soon as the sun set we were in bed with our alarms set for an early start.

Heading towards the Notch for Camp
Evan and Michelle’s Camp
Dinner Time Views

4:15 am came too soon but with the alarm also came rain. None of us was too keen to head out in those conditions so we decided to snooze for another hour. Another hour came and we were still extremely socked in so we decided to sleep until 7:30. The weather didn’t seem to be improving and we were losing time so we decided to call off the traverse to Icy and just pack up camp and head back. Given the visibility, we went back over the summit of Ruth as we weren’t sure we could navigate traversing across the glacier.

Camp view Day 2
Ruth summit day 2
Summit Ruth Day 2
Downclimbing Glacier

We had no trouble following our path from the day before to get back to the ‘Rocks of Indecision’ where we could unrope. As we got lower on the mountain we got below the clouds and could see further than the day before! We all pushed through the descent wanting to get back to the cars. The steep boot path was tricky on the descent with the recent rain but we took it slow enough and all made it down without any serious slips. Just our luck once we’d reached Hannegan Pass the summit of Ruth was clear. The trail back to the car felt like forever and by the end, my feet were pretty sore. We reached the cars at 4pm.

Unroping at the ‘Rocks of Indecision’
Heading below the clouds
Looking back at Ruth
Looking down at the Ruth Creek Basin
Descending the steep trail
Heading towards Hannegan Pass
Mount Ruth on the way out

GPS Track

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Mount Rainier

June 15, 2019August 10, 2021

Way back in 2015 when I visited Seattle for the first time I visited Mount Rainier National Park for the first time. Boyd and I stayed in Ashford and visited Paradise and hiked the Skyline Trail. I was in awe of Mount Rainier, at 14,411 ft (4392 m) it was such a huge mountain that seems to tower over Seattle and can be seen from miles away. In 2015 I never once thought I’d climb all the way to its summit exactly 4 years later.

mileage

~ 17

elevation gain

9,000 ft

location

Mount Rainier National Park

drive time from Seattle

2.5h

useful gear

Glacier travel equipment

permits/passes

Camp and Climbing permit

You do need a permit to climb Mount Rainier and pay a climbing fee, you also need a permit for its backcountry camp spots. I organized permits to climb the mountain via the DC (Disappointment Cleaver) Route with campsites at Camp Muir. I got The DC route is the most common climbed route up the mountain, it’s maintained by guide services meaning they mark the route with wands and put up protection for certain hazards. I knew DC was going to be my best chance to get a summit in so I got permits for 3 nights a Muir, hoping to be able to pick a weather window in that time. When the weekend of my permits rolled around we had a great weather window for a Friday night at Muir and summiting Saturday.

I was joined by my friend Ananth and Kat for the climb, Ananth had climbed this route last year and Kat like me was attempting for her first time. We set out from Seattle at 6 am to have enough time for the drive to Paradise and pick up the permits from the Wilderness Information Center and were hiking up to Camp Muir by 10:15. Paradise was shrouded by cloud with very poor visibility so the first 2 miles required a bit more navigating to get to the base of the Muir Snowfield. Pretty much when we got to the bottom of the snowfield we broke through the cloud and had great views up to the summit. With the sun out, we started feeling the heat and worrying about sunburn with the UV being reflected off the snow. The elevation gain up to Muir is around 4600 ft and this took us about 4 hours. Camp Muir is at 10,080 ft so on the way up we started to feel the elevation a little with shortness of breath. There are 9 permanent buildings at Camp Muir includes bathrooms and buildings used by the guided services. It felt like a little community with everyone excited about the upcoming challenge.

We set up our tents on the Cowlitz Glacier and started to prepare for the upcoming climb and melt snow for water. The melting of snow took us so long due to the altitude and we only had one stove for the 3 of us. If I was to do this again I’d definitely make sure we had more. We tried our best to stay out of the sun but it was really difficult with all of us getting sunburnt. The plan for the climb was to start at 11:30 pm to try to get in front of the large guided groups and give us plenty of time to summit. We went to bed at 6 to try and get some sleep in. Unfortunately, with all the people at Muir, there was a really loud talking guy that kept most of us awake. I also had drunk so much water I had to get up at 9 pm to use the bathroom (giving me time to take some photos of the sunset). After the sun went down I was able to get a couple of hours of sleep and was pretty disorientated when the alarm went off at 11 pm. Kat accidentally set her alarm for 11 am so we had to wake her up. We were a little slow getting ready and tying into the rope we didn’t start climbing until midnight.

From Camp Muir to the summit the climbing route varies as crevasses open and snow bridges form throughout the year. The guides put up wands (sticks with little flags on it) which you can follow on the way up. We started climbing directly out of Camp Muir in a rising traverse across the Cowlitz Glacier before climbing to the top of Cathedral Gap (10,800 ft). Getting to Cathedral Gap required crossing large areas of rocks which required us to short rope (shortening the rope between climbers and making sure it doesn’t drag on the ground) in order to avoid knocking rocks down on other climbers. At the top of Cathedral Gap the route turns to the west and gains the Ingraham Glacier at 11,200 ft where we saw other parties starting from the Ingraham Flats Camp. The altitude made the going a little slow but we did set a good pace and stopped for our first quick rest at Ingrahm Flats. I had some stomach pain which was making the going a little tough but I was hoping to push through. The route then traversed the Ingraham Glacier to the climber’s right to go up Disappointment Cleaver. Along this traverse, there are two hazards. The first is a section known as the ‘Icebox’ which has Icefall danger from large seracs on the Ingraham Glacier above and the second is the ‘Bowling Alley’ which is immediately after the ‘Icebox’ and consists of rockfall danger from the rocky cliffs above. We short-roped once we got past the icebox to move quickly through the rocky area and up The Cleaver.

Going up The Cleaver was an easy rock scramble made more difficult being roped to Kat and Ananth and having crampons on. We were able to follow the wands in this section and not get off route onto any more difficult terrain. We were relieved to get off the rocks and onto the snow after about 500ft of elevation. The snow was pretty steep but in the dark, you can’t really get a sense of the exposure. The Cleaver is the crux of the route and I was happy we didn’t have much difficulty climbing up it. We took another break at the top (12,300 ft) and I was relieved that my stomach was feeling a little better so I could eat.

The final 2000 ft of elevation is all on glaciers, we lengthened our rope again and followed the switchbacks leading up to the crater rim. Here the wind picked up and I had to put on all my layers to keep warm. The crevasses weren’t very big on the upper glacier and the switchbacks were easy to navigate. The biggest challenge for us was the altitude, we had to continually rest on the way up and trying to keep warm as we rested. The forecast was for 5-15 mph winds but after looking it up after we were getting 10-20. The sun rose around 5 am and we were grateful for the visibility awarding us fantastic views down the Paradise and South to Mount St Helens, Mount Hood, and Mount Adams. Ananth was feeling the altitude the worst and we had to give him plenty of time to rest. Kat and I both worried about his condition enough to ask him if he wanted to turn around. He was able to push through and we made the crater just after 6 am. The crater of Mount Rainier is a large flat icefield and is 14,150 ft. We unroped here and Kat and I pushed on across the icefield to sign the register and get to the true summit which is an ice mound called Columbia Crest. Crossing the crater we were reminded we were on a volcano by the presence of steaming rocks on the northern rim. The register was sheltered by the wind which felt really nice to be in the sun and out of the wind. The Columbia Crest was super windy so after getting our summit photos we didn’t hang around.

We descended reasonably quickly stopping twice before we got back to The Cleaver for short layering and sunscreen breaks. As we got lower on the mountain and out of the worst of the wind it started to warm up. The views were amazing on the way down, we got to see all the Crevasses on the Ingraham Glacier that were hidden in the dark. We were conscious to move quickly when we got down to the Bowling Alley because the chance of rockfall is increased with the heat of the day, and we were aware there were groups above us descending that could also knock down rocks on us. On the way back across the Ingraham Glacier, we witnessed a huge rockfall on a cliff above the Cowlitz Glacier which was a stark reminder of the risks we were facing. Traveling on the snow in the sun was hot work so I was glad when we got back to camp to de-layer as much as I could (really wish I packed shorts).

We decided to not idle too much at Camp Muir, knowing that we still had a long trip back to Seattle I didn’t want to sit around and get sleepy. After packing up camp the trip down the snowfield was a hard slog. The snow was very soft given the heat which made walking down it slippery and annoying. We were all extremely happy to make it back to the car by mid-afternoon to end what had been an extremely long day on our feet! The drive back to Seattle was tough being so tired, sunburnt and sleep-deprived but we were all still on a high from the incredible experience.

Route Info: DC Route
GPX Track: