June 3-5, Rainier, Kautz Glacier and Fuhrer Thumb
6/15/11
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2807
8
Rainier was obviously very busy this weekend, rightly so. Luckily most of the traffic was on the Muir/DC side. Conditions were near perfect, but the full corn cycle still hasn't really started. Lots of isothermal slush below 10,000. We had a group of six and we camped at about 9,200 feet Friday and Saturday night.
Thumb: Is in great condition right now, very filled in and a really fun ski descent. We ascended the Finger in the morning and skied down the thumb about 11am so it was still pretty firm but it minimized the risk of all the small rocks that come flying down past you. Even while ascending the finger at 8 there was a pretty constant buzz of golf ball sized rocks buzzing past a few dinner plate sized rocks as well. We started a bit too late in the morning...oops.
Kautz: Also very filled in making it a very direct route. Once ascending to camp hazard we descended where there is usually a fixed line (mostly buried) allowing us to avoid the sketchy traverse underneath the hanging Kautz Glacier. The Kautz chute is pretty mellow and fun right now and due to the new snow from the prior week it was a great bootpack. We were not able to skin at all from our campsite to the summit. We entered the Kautz about 2:30pm and the snow turned into great soft corn skiing.
We were able to ski down to the Nisqually bridge with only a little bit of some improvising, treesliding and bushwacking.
Go enjoy these routes and remember your ski crampons they made a lot of the ascent about 10x better.
More eye candy can be seen over at the blog: http://blog.garrettgrove.com/2011/06/mount-rainier-quick-update/
Thumb: Is in great condition right now, very filled in and a really fun ski descent. We ascended the Finger in the morning and skied down the thumb about 11am so it was still pretty firm but it minimized the risk of all the small rocks that come flying down past you. Even while ascending the finger at 8 there was a pretty constant buzz of golf ball sized rocks buzzing past a few dinner plate sized rocks as well. We started a bit too late in the morning...oops.
Kautz: Also very filled in making it a very direct route. Once ascending to camp hazard we descended where there is usually a fixed line (mostly buried) allowing us to avoid the sketchy traverse underneath the hanging Kautz Glacier. The Kautz chute is pretty mellow and fun right now and due to the new snow from the prior week it was a great bootpack. We were not able to skin at all from our campsite to the summit. We entered the Kautz about 2:30pm and the snow turned into great soft corn skiing.
We were able to ski down to the Nisqually bridge with only a little bit of some improvising, treesliding and bushwacking.
Go enjoy these routes and remember your ski crampons they made a lot of the ascent about 10x better.
More eye candy can be seen over at the blog: http://blog.garrettgrove.com/2011/06/mount-rainier-quick-update/
Nice work. The silhouetted climber at sunrise shot came out real well.
Very interesting to see Hill on TLT5 Mountains instead of TLT5 Performances with his Stokes!
The last pic in the blog is the definition of pure class.
author=Andrew Carey link=topic=21075.msg90126#msg90126 date=1307485930]
Very interesting to see Hill on TLT5 Mountains instead of TLT5 Performances with his Stokes!
He is on a pair of next years Carbon Titans...he regretted not having his TLT5 Performances for this trip though.
author=chmnyboy link=topic=21075.msg90129#msg90129 date=1307486530]
The last pic in the blog is the definition of pure class.
Yup. That's Drew Tabke for you, pure class.
I think I'd like to do more of this in the future.
this trip report is full of WIN.
author=chmnyboy link=topic=21075.msg90129#msg90129 date=1307486530]
The last pic in the blog is the definition of pure class.
Hard to beat a therm-a-rest and a bottle of whiskey.
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