Mt Rainer, advice please

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Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Nov 18, 2017 - 09:52pm PT
In the end it’s just walking

Yeah, pretty much, but sometimes ya gotta step up yer game.
Sierra Ledge Rat

Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
Nov 19, 2017 - 12:14am PT
Another advantage of doing one of the regular routes (like Disappointment) is that it will easy to find the well-worn trail back down from the summit. Rainier has got such broad, rounded summit that finding your way back down can be a real challenge in poor visibility. Be sure to carry a compass!
Patrick Sawyer

climber
Originally California, now Ireland
Topic Author's Reply - Nov 20, 2017 - 01:07pm PT
Okay if I go with a guide service it seems straight forward. But the only time I have been guided was in Palisade School of Mountaineering when I was a teen (and I swung leads with John Fischer and Chris Fredericks on Mt Sill, my instructors.)

Everything else has been by a wing and a prayer, hah hah. Of course not, I want to live so I have always tried my best to be careful.

I like the Kautz Glacier suggestion and Liberty Ridge is a classic but is it really a sandbag, as one poster suggested?

And Jim, your suggestion of Mt Stuart, North Ridge caught my attention. and somebody suggested Mt Adams as an alternative. And one of my best friends from school has a B&B near Mt Hood.

I just want to climb. But given time and money, it has to be nearish Seattle or so. I do not have a lot of dosh and keeping Aggie and Betty in kennels and cattery respectively here in Ireland also has to be planned.

I just want to climb, the small outcrops down by the beach by the house…
fear

Ice climber
hartford, ct
Nov 20, 2017 - 01:34pm PT
LR is a classic and it kills a lot of people. Part of it is you'll have heavy loads on steep terrain, at altitude that is entirely unforgiving of a slip.

I wouldn't recommend LR unless you're in seriously good shape and can wait for a perfect weather window....

I've tried LR twice and been shutdown by weather. Waist-deep fresh snow all the way to Thumb Rock sucked once and the upper Carbon routefinding was pretty tricky both times.

Emmons is probably the least technical and you'll have a veritable trench to follow. Not exciting but probably the safest if you're a team of at least 3 and your crevasse skills are good. Even the DC "dog" route has been hairy a few times I've done it with some very steep 'steps' above the cleaver where it can wander sharply to the left later in the season. But there's a trench...

Just do it... have fun... don't die.
jfs

Trad climber
Upper Leftish
Nov 20, 2017 - 02:18pm PT
Liberty Ridge is big by any comparison to your previous climbs listed in your OP. It’s committing. Up and over is likely your best option if things go sideways. It can have significant objective hazard. Views of incoming weather are often blocked by the mountain itself. Multiple very experienced parties have epiced or worse. Pacific Northwest weather on Rainier can be as bad as I’ve seen anywhere on the planet.

And wandering around at 13,500 in a cloudcap, hoping to bump into a route wand, is a big bummer. :-)

Like any significant glaciated mountain, conditions are everything. Sometimes Rainier is “easy” ... and sometimes it is very, very hard. Regardless of the route.

There’s a reason I usually recommend some familiarization with the mountain before taking a lob at its bigger routes. It’s smart climbing.

Good luck whatever you pick.
StefanS

Trad climber
Leavenworth WA
Nov 20, 2017 - 02:49pm PT
Hey Patrick
If you want to summit a guide service would be the choice, especially if you are on a tight schedule. It tough to find people that want to suffer like that and be on your schedule.

Getting to Camp Muir is a good one day trip and a fun ski back down.

A couple items I would recommend, googles and adjustable ski poles.

Check out Cascadeclimbers site.



Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Nov 20, 2017 - 06:18pm PT
Liberty Ridge is a classic but is it really a sandbag?

Meh. Nice descent route - on a broken ankle, at night, in a storm, in winter.
What? It’s not about spraying?
fear

Ice climber
hartford, ct
Nov 20, 2017 - 08:27pm PT
Well, LR has been skied a few times. Some even lived. So it can't be too bad. :)
golsen

Social climber
kennewick, wa
Nov 21, 2017 - 11:30am PT
July 21, 2016 from Camp Schurman.
The blowing snow should give some indication that this was more like winter than July

Emmons Glacier July 21, 2016

Emmons Glacier July 21, 2016

Lots of people at camp on the Emmons, very few up high and the skiing was awesome.
kunlun_shan

Mountain climber
SF, CA
Nov 21, 2017 - 12:04pm PT
^^ What route did you do?
Patrick Sawyer

climber
Originally California, now Ireland
Topic Author's Reply - Nov 21, 2017 - 12:33pm PT
What? It’s not about spraying?

I am not spraying Reilly. I have asked for people's advice and pointed out what my experience and capabilities are so some can judge what may be the best advice to give me re: Rainier.

I never had the "luxury" of two internationally well-know economists at my dinner table, nor have I traveled around the globe, nor have I descended Liberty Ridge in the winter with a broken ankle, that must have been epic.

Thank you those who have taken my thread/posts seriously and I welcome your suggestions and feedback.
Patrick Sawyer

climber
Originally California, now Ireland
Topic Author's Reply - Nov 21, 2017 - 12:46pm PT
It is not about peak bagging. I have always looked at Rainier when visiting family in the PNW and thought it is a beautiful mountain. It is about climbing. If my life was about peak bagging, I would have done a lot more.

It just is, if I am going to save up to make the trip to the family reunion and be in the vicinity of the Cascades, a beautiful range, I would just like to make the most of it. With my circumstances I wonder if I will get many chances in the foreseeable future.

So I try and ask a decent question and get some great feedback, and then some jokers as well. Isn't that life?

Cheers, Patrick
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Nov 21, 2017 - 01:01pm PT
I am not spraying Reilly

Did I say you were? But I was! :-)
Of course, affected humility could be viewed as a type of spraying. ;-)
No matter, it's all good on the internet!

AND THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH PEAK BAGGING!
Now, on the other hand, sand bagging is another thing.
Patrick Sawyer

climber
Originally California, now Ireland
Topic Author's Reply - Nov 21, 2017 - 01:15pm PT
affected humility
??? Is that like cognitive dissonance? I'll have to look that one up. I like you Reilly. Maybe we can rope up together someday.

If I do not go with a guided service (which may be the smartest, going with guides, considering time and not knowing the terrain), I like the idea of the Kautz route, I think I can do that.

I have about seven months to get into shape, save money, and wonder what my next step will be. And it sure as hell won't be the Hillary Step, I have never even been to Nepal, and if I am going to ever go, Ama Dablam, Pumori or Taweche are beautiful mountains, forget Everest, never had much interest (hey, that could rhyme, Everest, interest, hmmm, perhaps some doggerel there).

Cheers folks
Patrick Sawyer

climber
Originally California, now Ireland
Topic Author's Reply - Nov 21, 2017 - 02:33pm PT
Thanks John but use the $50 for better projects, I am getting along in life, barely, actually most people I know are chasing their tails financially, both in Ireland and the US.

Let me digress from this thread, please. Then any feedback on this post, well, I digressed so can any of you, but I still want to climb something in the Cascades if I am going to be there.

I do not know many people in the 1% or whatever it is. I interviewed some (I launched Irish Communications magazine in November 1998, my March 1999 cover was Denis O'Brien, I interviewed him at length, wish I had his money, I think he is one of the 1%, and Richard Branson, and yes he is a nice guy, or at least he was to me).

I never want to be in the 1%, just let me pay the bills, keep a roof over my head, and be a decent chap. I have never, ever, hurt anybody and hope I never will. Keep my girls Aggie, dog, and Betty, cat, healthy, and hope I see Jennie someday in the nursing home, that is all I ask.

But family, John, I have not seen many relatives for years. You are so correct John, family is everything, climbing is just a pastime, a first world play toy.

My late sister Mary, her son Kevin has been on some sort of six-month furlough from the Marines Reserves, he has been spending it with his girlfriend he met last May here in Wexford when he was visiting me. He has been living with her and her family in Campile since late September, he has to report back in February, so he says. I hope he is not f*cking up, he says he has it sorted with the Corps.

I met up with him today and got him to join the library using my address. He says he has looked into UCC for finishing his last year psychology degree (he was with The Citadel for his first three years), then he met her, I guess it is love). He was schedule for OCS at Quantico.

He never knew his father, just me, and my late brother Mac and Kathleen (who took him in when Mary died) and their two sons, Benjamin (my godson, two tours with the Marines in Afghanistan, under fire, now in his third year at UC Davis engineering) and Sebastian (something like fourth recon or that in the Marines, trains with SEALs, I do not understand any of that).

Point is John, family is sacred, or should be, there are hiccups. Climbing is just… a love, a passion, a way of life perhaps (i.e. Fred Beckey for example).

I love climbing, since 13, 1969, but it is not the be all and end all.

YIKES YIKES YIKES

I was formulating and writing this post as I cooked dinner and decided to go to the cascadesclimber site, my computer warned me that the site was infected with a virus. WHOA.

I lost my iMac several weeks ago (age? not a virus), been working from my MacBook, I cannot afford to lose that.

Anybody know anything about that?


EDIT

When I went to cascadesclimbers.com the page just came up VIRUS FOUND.

I have been on the internet, actually Arpanet at university in California since 1983, I still do not understand a lot of it, I am no luddite or technophobe, nor am I a techie. When a site says Virus found, how legit is that? I know there are a lot of Taco Standers who know far more than I do about technology.
the goat

climber
north central WA
Nov 21, 2017 - 02:37pm PT
Patrick,
I've done DC(2 and 4-5 attempts), LR and the Kautz up to 12.5 and I would recommend any of them in their own right, it really depends on how you're feeling and who you're with. I like the Kautz for a number of reasons 1)Camp Hazard is a great bivy and makes for a short summit day 2) the views are spectacular and the weather won't surprise you. 3)the route is typically uncrowded and other than the icefall/serac area above CH, there is little or no objective danger.

Rainier can be a piece of cake or a physical bitch depending on the weather. In July, I've had shirtsleeves at 4:00AM at 12500' and full on winter gear at noon on the Muir snowfield. Conclusion? Be prepared.

Regarding Washington Pass, it rocks and Liberty Bell or the Spires are definitely worth doing. If you're lacking a partner and seek a guide, North Cascade Mountain Guides are excellent. Or you can check in at Goats Beard Mountain Supplies for a partner and beta for anything in the Mazama/Washington Pass area.
If you make it to Mazama give me a call, I'm usually at that cute little store drinking coffee.

Rick
Patrick Sawyer

climber
Originally California, now Ireland
Topic Author's Reply - Nov 21, 2017 - 03:32pm PT
Whoa, Way Runout, have I missed something?

John M

climber
Nov 21, 2017 - 03:51pm PT
Patrick, I don't know what is going on with cascade climbers site, but I am on a mac and went to it and it took me to a page that was trying to force me to update my flash player. I had to force quit safari to get out of it. Looks to me like they have been hijacked.
Sierra Ledge Rat

Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
Nov 22, 2017 - 05:25am PT
I almost died twice on one trip on Rainier. We traversed the peak in July with only bivy gear, Success Cleaver > DC.

First time, we got caught in a lightning storm on the summit, never would have been able to predict that freak storm. BTW, trying to find the way down to DC in a whiteout was not easy.

Second time on that trip, we got to the bottom of DC at the end of the day and decided not to cross the glacier so late in the day (this was after that avalanche there that killed so many). We tried to bivy at the base of DC but it was so cold and windy that we couldn't light the stove and I got delirious from hypothermia. And this was late July.

It's a big scary mountain.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Nov 22, 2017 - 09:08am PT
I scored some serious booty from two Euros who got avalanched out of the Finger. The Park Service never cleaned up their high camp so I did - nice tent, sleeping bags, stove, etc.
Yer welcome.
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