Rainier - 5/27

On Sunday, while I was driving up towards UBC with my parents, Emily texted me about a Rainier window for tuesday. I made sure I wouldn’t have any finals for the day and confirmed it monday morning. After the college tour, I spent the whole ride back hydrating, taking advil, and using a water bottle to roll my leg. I stopped by home for 45 minutes to wax my skis and re-pack, and then I was off down to white river where I arrived at 8. The climbing ranger condition report was concerning, and Emily rightfully pushed for pivoting to little Tahoma, but being stubborn, we decided to keep our original plan.     

An 11:45 wakeup had us moving by midnight where we hit snow around 2 hours later at the switchback before the camp. Still under a cloud, we skinned the unfrozen snow and quickly hit the interglacier after a short carry. The interglacier was a great steepness and by 4:30, we were most of the way up. We hit the top right as the sun rose at 5:00 and were delighted to see another party setting a track up the Emmons . After some shenanigans on the ridge, we were skinning from camp schurman at 5:30.

About 1500’ above schurman, we switched to booting. There were few cracks, and those that we did have to cross were small. Following tracks re-assured us that we wouldn’t be stepping on any thinly-covered bridges from recent snow. At 12,000’, we traversed right over to another arm where we climbed until 13500’. Here we watched the first party descend back down through a snow-bridge on belay but we opted to traverse to the saddle. Here Emily bonked so with little crevasse danger, I took the lead and we slogged up the last 600 feet of sastrugi. At the top at noon, we dropped our stuff and ran around trying to find the real summit. To be honest, with so much prominence, the summit views were quite boring. Cascade pass is more beautiful. But at the same time, it is the top of Rainier, a summit I look at on my way to school everyday, so I was glad to be on top. 

We started riding down at 12:15 and the 700’ of Sastrugi to the saddle didn’t help my headache. We booted a little bit again before traversing over. As soon as the traverse was over, at around 13500’, the snow got much better. We ran into a party of skiers behind us who turned around at the schrund since they ran out of time. From here the skiing was much better, a nice chalky surface that supported each turn. It was good skiing above exposure down the climbing route, without much crevasse shenanigans. At one point we went too far skiers right, but a track showed us our way back. By 12,000’ the snow turned to nice corn for the rest of the now mellower descent to camp schurman.

emily riding down

At Camp schurman I used the nice toilet and then we continued down. The boot back up to the interglacier was miserable but soon we were on an amazing 4000’ descent to the bottom at 1:45. We skied it with one stop, passing guided parties at the bottom. By 7000’ the snow turned to mush, but we were still glad to be skiing rather than walking. 2 hours later and we were back at the cars in a 16 hour day. It was a time I’m proud of and at 11,300’ by far the most vert I’ve done in a day. At this point, being able to do much more vert doesn’t matter too much. I’d like to be able to do 14,000’ in a day but once it gets longer than that, it’s more about speed and carrying heavy loads than max-vert.

Tooth Bryant Hemlock - 5/11

 Did mothers day things in the morning. At 11, while at the fremont vintage market(with the mother), asked Asher if he wanted to go climb some stuff. By 12, we were packed and leaving my house. Was walking by 1 and got to the base of the tooth where a party of 12 mounties had just descended. Made quick work of the tooth followed by some sketchy shenanigans to get over to Hemlock/tooth col. Easy walking up Hemlock and Bryant. Summited Bryant at 7:00. Some high speed glissading got us back to the car around 8, right at sunset.

Gothic and Del Campo 5/17

 Took a solo stroll up Gothic and Del Campo in the rain on Saturday since I had nothing better to do. Scrambling was entertaining, summit register of Del Campo was a fun read. If anybody is going up, Gothic summit register could use a new zip-lock and notebook. Sun peeked out in the morning but by the time I was descending Del Campo, rain was coming down. Forgot to buy snacks on the way in and didn't really eat breakfast so did the whole thing on 350 calories which I'm sure my body loved. 6h45 c2c. Nice morning and got some overpriced lunch in granite falls. Oh and I think I had mold growing in my boots because I forgot to dry em out after last weekends mother's day gift of getting home at 11pm on a school-night. 

Klawatti and Austera 5/25-5/26

Went out to Cascade River Road over the weekend. The goal was to bag Klawatti, Austera, Primus, and Tricouni, then return back to the Eldorado Trailhead. With a late sunset, we got a relaxed 6am start and made decent work up through the Boulder Field. By mid-morning, we were skinning up the Eldorado Glacier, watching people post-hole through the slush. Soon we were below Eldorado and I talked to Climber Kyle & crew for a little bit. When I went up Eldorado last year it was in a near whiteout, so looking over at Moraine lake and Forbidden was stunning. Lots of parties were out as you’d expect from such a beautiful weekend. 

Once we started the traverse over to Klawatti, we were alone. The sidehilling was tiring, especially on a splitboard, but the surrounding terrain made up for it. We put on trailrunners and scrambled up the South ridge of Klawatti. It was fun scrambling and we were at the top around 2, albeit now with wet feet. We descended back down and made a nice traverse over to Austera. With the hot sun, we skinned in the shade below a big rock. Our skin track probably looked a bit stupid to other parties once the sun moved.

Anyways, some shenanigans eventually brought us to the Austera summit. On the rappel through the gully, I had an awakening when a carabiner unclipped itself. Luckily we had two opposite and opposed, but it definitely shook me up for a second. We set up a nice bivy on the ridge below Austera and watched an avalanche pour over the cliffs on the McAllistar Glacier

On Sunday, we started the morning by skiing the Klawatti Glacier to get over to Primus and Tricouni. At the bottom of the ridge, the snow was already mush at 6am, over crevasses and cliffs. Knowing that this was our only exit option and that we’d be coming back out in the middle of the afternoon, we took a pause to think through our options. Wanting to make our parents proud, we decided to put skins on and head back out. Another ski party also followed suit.

The climb up the Klawatti Glacier was definitely nerving. The glacier was very smooth, but big whoomphs reminded us of the cracks we were walking over. I think it was just the recent snow settling under our weight, but it still wasn’t fun feeling the snow around me dropping an inch or two. The way out was just a lot more traversing. I thought about going up to ski the northeast face on Eldorado, but Cole just wanted to get out. I wasn’t feeling super stoked about it anyways, so off to the Eldorado glacier we went. A few thousand feet of slush got us to the boulder field where it was a toasty hike back to the car.