Rainier Recap May 2026

Original trip report: https://engineeredforadventure.com/rainier-recap-may-2026/

Background

There's four chapters in the riveting novel of climbing Mt. Rainier. Hear me out. . .

Chapter One: The Muir Snowfield.

Like many first chapters, you aren't sure if you want to keep reading. But you do. You power through, convincing yourself to give the book a chance. The chapter ends with a nice poop at Muir; if you're lucky, some coffee and conversation with the guides up there too.

Chapter Two: The Ingraham Flats

The second chapter brings you in further, it's a little more interesting. The sun has risen at this point (hopefully) and you've got a beautiful view of the Cowlitz and lower Ingraham. You've maybe switched to crampons, breaking up the slog of the Muir Snowfield. You're in the book, getting a little more momentum.

Chapter Three: The ID Inferno

The third chapter is spicy, the inferno, the gates of hell. You've reached the flats, you've (maybe) dodged some rocks already and you're starting up the Ingraham Direct (ID). The seracs loom above, it's probably hot as hell by now, and the mortar shells coming off Gib Rock are nearby. You push through the third chapter in a sitting, turning the pages in sequence as the heat of the day and rocks (and maybe ice) keep you going. The chapter ends reaching Camp Comfort, where you get a reprieve and hopefully a light breeze.

Chapter Four: No-Mans Land to the Top

Like some books, at least for me, you don't end up finishing chapter four. Sometimes you but your bookmark in, it sits on your nightstand for a while, then you return it to the library or to your bookshelf. Sometimes, you just ski Gib Chute and the book ends. But if you do want to finish the book, you gotta grind it out. The fourth chapter, to the top, is a long one, even if it's not by vertical gain. It's a slow chapter, it takes your mental conviction to just finish the damn book. You know how it ends, you don't really feel the neeeeed to read every word, you want to just skim. But you can't.

And that, in a nutshell, is climbing Mount Rainier via the ID. A NYT bestseller.

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This past week, I stationed myself at the base of Mount Rainier for a few days with a mindset of 'just see how I feel'. I took Monday-Weds off work, made plans for Sunday with good friends, and planned to just live day-to-day in my car. If I felt good and was psyched, go skiing. If not, go home.

Trip Report

Sunday May 3 - Tahoma Sickle Couloir

It was my buddy Stephen's birthday the week prior and I wanted to get out with him in the mountains. Stephen's moving to Leavenworth (tears...) so I was really psyched to goof around in the hills with him before our lives diverge a little bit. We loosely were psyched on the Tahoma Glacier, Stephen's psych having built from an Infinity Loop around the hill with Gian Dalle a few years back.

Nick was psyched too, our group grew to three. Then Thomas texted, psyched. Hmm...how many people are in this plan? As often happens when weekends and good weather aligns, there were many homies in the mix. Thomas/Lane/Nate formed a group of 3, Stephen/Nick/myself forming the other group of 3. We were all going for the Tahoma, but agreed to operate independently. SNS (Stephen/Nick/Sam) were more psyched on the Sickle Couloir, TLN (Thomas/Lane/Nate) more psyched on the Tahoma Headwall.

Chapter One of the climb went smoothly, until Stephen and I felt nature calling our names. The second half of the chapter turned into a bit of a race to the toilet, sorry Nick! We reached Muir, put the book down, and enjoyed the morning sunrise.

Chapter Two was enjoyable, we remarked at how it constantly amazes us that the upper reaches of Mount Rainier are just a few hours from home. Wild. Chapter Three was an absolute inferno though; I had to dump snow into my hat, as if I was on a summer trail run. It was so damn hot. I wasn't feeling the altitude but the heat was oppressive. We bantered on the radio with TLN, Lane playing Creed over the radio for us.

Chapter Four wasn't so bad, we powered through and reached the top in due time. You don't have to be especially early to ski off the westside, which is nice. We met up with TLN and saw Eric Gilbertson atop surveying the summit ridge of Rainier; Thomas got a little too close to the equipment and got a scolding! But in all seriousness, thank you Eric for all that you do for the mountain community.

Now that all 6 of us were atop the hill, we chatted and discussed how to ski appropriately down a highly crevassed glacier line without interfering with each other. TLN were still going to scope the Tahoma Headwall, while SNS were sticking with the Sickle. We were all on the same radio channel and clarified how to call for each other clearly. Off we pushed. . .

SNS skied towards the broad wind scoop between Columbia Crest and Liberty Cap, which funnels you towards the Sickle Couloir. The Sickle Couloir starts southwest facing but turns due west, a weakness in the Tahoma icefall. We heard on the radio TLN checking out the Tahoma Headwall, but in short time back they tracked towards us. They found icy conditions atop the headwall and opted to come over to the Sickle. We waited a bit, around 1:30 PM at this point, and de-layered. We knew that once in the Sickle, there was little-to-no stopping. There's a lot of hangfire, a lot.

We chatted, now as a group of 6, TSLNSN. We agreed to ski in pairs, everyone needed a 'glacier buddy'. Thomas and Lane went first, then Nick, then myself, then Nate, then Stephen.

The couloir itself is never too steep, but it's beautiful. Humongous seracs line the skier's left-hand wall, a serac cliff lies below on skier's right (that you can't quite see). It was in quite good shape, not too marred by serac fall (yet).

Once out of the couloir, though, there's little reprieve to the overhead hazard. I stopped to keep eyes on Nate and Stephen but I knew that it still wasn't a 'safe spot'. Once they reached me, we continued down skier's left over some crevasse rolls to Nick, Stephen, and Thomas. Here we all buddied up for the remainder of the Tahoma. The Tahoma is a complex glacier, but this early in the year it was pretty simple to navigate through the center line of it. We skied relatively fall-line all the way through, pushing over some cracks but never having to do too much complex navigation. It was great corn to about 8500', where it turned more into potatoes, but that's volcano skiing for you!

I was psyched to do the Westside Road exit again with the boys; Porter and I really enjoyed it last year. We skied all the way to Emerald Ridge, where we stopped for a break to soak in the view.

We walked most of the Puyallup Trail out, not finding enough snow to make skiing worth it. It was a bummer that Westside Road was gated all the way at the park road, but the walk went smoothly enough. Lane had brought his speaker and Thomas served as DJ with some eclectic and interesting tunes. It was especially comical when we bushwhacked to cut off a road switchback, a group of 6 goobers with a clip-on speaker bushwhacking on Westside Road. Ahhh, if only we had 6 e-bikes.

Monday May 4 - Wilson Headwall

I wasn't sure if I was going to ski Monday or not, but I told myself if I got done early enough with the Sickle day and I was still psyched I'd rally. My roommate Drew was going to be on the mountain and offered for me to join, no pressure.

Well, we finished around 6P and I was still psyched. It felt like a 'go'. I've been trying to not just mindlessly follow ski ambitions but listen to what feels right. This time, just staying at Paradise and leaning into the spring rhythm of Rainier felt right. Eat, sleep, Rainier, repeat.

Drew had rallied a friend Hannah from RMI and we had ambitions to ski the Nisqually Icefall. Drew had seen an angle of it on his day up to Gib Chute the week prior that looked to connect well. We talked timeline, agreed on moving by 5A and dropping by 11A.

We were around 30 mins late out of the gate and weren't interested in rushing the day to make that back up. We talked at Muir and agreed to forego the Icefall, leaving it for another year. It'd gotten skied by some RMI guides the day before and went 'clean' but sounded to be in better shape some years. We pivoted our plan to skiing the Wilson Headwall, which would give us a little more time and still be super rad! The Icefall gets such early sun, it's basically an east-facing line, whereas the Wilson Headwall is more due south and we could still drop in by noon-thirty to one and be alright.

Drew refuses to summit on personal trips up Rainier, call it a dogma. So around 13.6'k we bookmarked Chapter Four and moved horizontally around the mountain. Once we had view of Wapowety Cleaver we transitioned to skis and made a relatively simple traverse across the upper Nisqually.

We reached the top of the line, a nice perch atop a 'shield' that begins to dump you into the line. Looking from the parking lot, the Wilson Headwall seems quite complex. Rolling off Wapowety, you ski a shield, trending skier's right to a sneaky couloir that takes you down just adjacent to the Kautz Ice Cliff. From there, you make a big traverse out skier's left, then it's trending skier's right all the way down to the schrund'. There's some traversing but much more fall-line skiing than it may seem.

We were a little late to the party, dropping the line ~1-130PM, but not too late, just fashionably late. Drew, our splitboarder for the day, was glad for it to be a little on the softer side to give him more purchase.

The ski went smoothly; the heel gap on one of my skis must have backed out at some point because in the couloir my heel popped out of my ski briefly. I made the tele-turn, smashed the heel back down, then skied out and found a good spot after the traverse out skier's left to ~quickly~ get my tools out to adjust the gap. Once Hannah had skied to me, the faff was over and I was ready to go again.

We sent Drew down first, then Hannah, then me, agreeing that from our perch out skier's left before traversing under the ice cliff it was no stopping until the bottom. T to B. If you ski the Wilson Headwall, you have to take a moment (a brief one at that) to look back up when you are in the business. There's a lot above you.

We found a good schrund' crossing out skier's left towards the Fuhrer Thumb that still touched; otherwise it would have been a big schrund' hop.

Once out of the line, we fist bumped. Nice job team! Things were just about to get interesting, though.

Being a little later in the day, we were right in the window to intercept all the skiers skiing the Fuhrer Finger. We traversed over to the luge track that has now formed from the FF and arced big turns, racing for the parking lot and cold bubblies. The lower Nisqually can be simple, or it can be complex if you make it.

I stopped on a flat roller, waiting for Drew and Hannah. I watched as a single skier began to traverse out onto a roll-over to my skier's left. They looked over at me, giving me a look of am I going the right way? I gave him the cutting throat sign, of no, don't go that way, but onward they proceeded. I wish I had been more vocal, as they were inching towards a convex roll which had a wet slab crown still with hangfire.

Within moments, the entire roll ripped and he began to get caught in a wet slide. Muscle memory kicked in: beacon into search, on the radio SLIDE!, eyes on. I told Drew I had eyes on, saw the skier in the run-out and was moving quickly towards him. Drew told me the hangfire was clean and I was good to enter the deposition zone (this was mostly true, although there definitely was still some hangfire).

The skier was not fully buried, but welded into the wet debris up to their waist or so. Their arm was stuck and their backpack pretty welded in as well. They had an airway, were coughing, and seemed conscious.

I went into WFR mode, ABCs, what's your name?, do you know where you are?, what time is it?, what were you doing? In my primary assessment I didn't find any major injuries, thankfully no huge deformities or bleeding. Hannah came in and did a good secondary assessment, then Drew as the Firefighter/EMT doing a more thorough tertiary assessment. I began looking for their skis and poles; we saw one of the skis halfway up the slope but were unable to locate the others.

They were soaked and we were around 7600' on the lower Nisqually/Wilson. It was around 230P at this point. Drew called NPS, alerting them of the situation. While he did that, we all began to do the mental math of how to get this person out.

Walking out was going to be slow and we were still on a glacier. I didn't like that. Hmmmm...let's try this. I took my skis and had them click into one of my skis, I clicked into the other. We leaned against each other and used a small practice slope to see how 'tandem' skiing would go. Not great, but movement...and we at least had flotation.

After a few minutes of tandem skiing someone brought the lone ski recovered from the slide; thankfully, the patient's BSL was close enough to mine that I could adjust one of my skis to actually click them in. Alright, you're going to ski and I'm going to follow you. I felt comfortable skiing on one ski, as they went out on one of mine. It was mostly a traverse anyways, you're mostly just leaning on your downhill ski. Mono-skiing in the mank wasn't too bad, and quickly enough we were down at the final climb up to Paradise.

I had them boot up to where we regained the hiking tracks to the parking lot. We both clicked back in and within an hour of the incident we were back in the parking lot. We all were glad things played out alright, all things considered.

Hannah, Drew, and I debriefed the day over some bubblies at the car and soaked in both the awesome skiing and unpacked the incident. Wow, a lot happened in the last few hours.

We drove down to Ashford, Drew and I stopped at the Highlander Restaurant for a burger and beer. Drew showed me the 'summer camp' of Ashford, from divey restaurants to the RMI guide houses to the hangs around town. It felt like a fake world, removed from the buzz and worries of reality.

Back up to Paradise we drove, psyched to rinse (without the shower) and repeat it all again. Porter was driving up and we'd have another face in the crew.

Tuesday May 5 - Gib Chute

Drew is convinced that Gib Chute is the best line on the mountain. The real reason: you don't have to read Chapter Four. The book ends just when you want it to.

Porter was going up to the summit with his brother's partner, neither Drew nor I were all that psyched to do that, we knew how the book ends. Drew and I agreed on 'walking by 5', a comical statement that seemed so simple yet we again failed to achieve. Oh well, at least we got our shit in.

Drew and I bantered our way through Chapters One and Two. This time, Chapter Three wasn't so hellish. And like that, the book was over! A quick read, a real page turner. We played Kevin Alexander's Skate Creek Road over the radio for Porter, a local classic song.

I've always wanted to ski Gib Chute but hadn't made it happen. I was psyched to finally get on it. We dropped around 11:15 AM and it was lovely corn. I can see the appeal of the line: fall-line, plumb, and without the mindless 13k' slog.

Drew took us down through the Nisqually, which was interesting but pretty potato-y. We were back at the cars quickly enough, smiling ear-to-ear at a pure Type 1 fun day. Summer camp mode was in full effect. Back to the cars, down to Ashford, milkshakes and pizza in Elbe, then the lake for a dip. Wow, I get it, I told Drew, I understand the vortex of this place.

The real kicker of the day was learning of a new scientific concept to keep out flies. Drew and I went into the grocery in Ashford, where I was confused at a clear ziploc bag with water stapled to the doorway. So, what's with the water bag?, I asked the cashier. It keeps the flies away, it's science. Ummmm. . .

Drew and I returned to our bunks in the overnight lot, whipping up a culinary masterpiece of mashed potatoes with gnocchi and an overload of Costco pesto. Summer camp. . .

Wednesday May 6 - Wilson Headwall

Each day, a new face. Lane rolled in Tues night, we had made plans to ski Wednesday. This was going to be my final day at summer camp, needing to return to the real world on Thursday. We initially had ambitions of the westside again, but after talking it over and looking at some strong westerly winds on the forecast, we pivoted to the Wilson Headwall. It was in good shape, I was psyched.

We woke to a cloud and zipped up to Paradise, this time actually 'walking by 5'. Sorry Drew. Lane and I chatted our way through Chapters One and Two. This time, Chapter Three was not an inferno but rather a wind tunnel, as the strong westerlies were coming up and over the summit and down the ID. We welcomed the change in temperature.

Chapter Four wasn't so bad; it looked windier than it was, with any cold dry snow that was on the mountain getting moved over to Yakima.

We reached the summit around 30 minutes earlier than expected but it was not a place to hang out, as we could barely stand up straight. We agreed to ski down towards Wapowety and wait there.

We reached the top of Wapowety around noon and gave it another 5-10 minutes. We skied down the shield feature, which was a little firmer but not too bad, then found softer and softer snow as we approached the sneak couloir. Our timing was better than two days prior.

Our descent went quite smoothly, Lane and I T-to-B down through the meat and out the bottom, this time without a rescue thankfully. We ran into friends of mine Cam/Noah/et al. at the bottom of the Nisqually. We were back at the car within 8 hours of starting, laughing at how smoothly it all had gone.

Well, summer camp had to come to an end eventually I guess, but Lane and I finished it off with a burger at the Highlander again. We chatted with Drew about his day on the Thumb, Drew gave Lane his binoculars so Lane could go birding, and back to the real world I went. Summer camp sure is nice.