Paul and Sonja drove out to Rainier from Salt Lake, Jane flew to Seattle from TN, and Richard picked up Jane on his way from Bellingham. We all met at the Sunshine campground inside the park on the evening of April 21, 2005.
Due to the large snowfall in April 2005 (7+ feet at Paradise in April), all approaches would be done on sloppy, loose snow; this meant snowshoes or skis, and extra time for any slog up to a route. The snowfall also means avalanche and ice conditions could be very dangerous anywhere on the mountain. With a most recent forecast (NWS on April 22) of possibly poor weather, we opted for a south-side route, which would allow us to use the Camp Muir public shelter if necessary; routes on the north and west sides (e.g. Liberty Ridge, Sunset Amphitheater) would require tent camping and building bivies.
Although the original goal was to repeat a 2001 ascent of Liberty Ridge and descend Disappointment Cleaver to Paradise, we had decided on a different route due to the April snowfall. The routes in contention on the morning of the 22nd were Gibralter Ledges (south side, short section of interesting climbing at 11.5-12k') and Sunset Amphitheater (west side, interesting climbing of arbitrary difficulty at 12-13.5k'). Due to the forecast bad weather and long approach for the west side routes, we decided for Gib Ledges and a stay at Camp Muir.
After registering at Longmire, we drove to Paradise to sort gear and slog to Camp Muir. As the team assembled from across the country, we did not have a chance to sort gear and load our packs before arriving at Mt. Rainier. This is not a particularly clever idea, but not crippling either.
After sorting gear, deciding that we did not need all the gear that had been brought (which was expected), and discovering that we had some mis-communication about food for the mountain, we loaded the packs and got ready to trudge up to Camp Muir. It was at this point we realized how heavy the packs would be; they were much heavier than desireable.
Ideally, the packs should be no more than 25 lbs while climbing (rope deployed, wearing crampons, carrying axe(s)). Hence, during the easy walk to Muir, the packs should be less than 35 lbs (crampons, rope, etc. in the packs). This was not the case, as our packs were closer to 40-50 lbs while ascending to Camp Muir. No particular item caused the excess weight, but rather, the pack weight reflects the haphazard method of sorting in the parking lot. The two teams (Sonja and Paul, Jane and Richard) ended up with extra gear (4 extra ice screws, an extra rope, etc.) and less-than-perfect sharing of loads. With more time to perfect the sorting and packing, we could have certainly lightened the packs considerably. This would also require choosing the route before reaching Mt. Rainier, so the minimum of gear could be taken to the mountain.
The boot track was well marked, and the early approach was quite easy under a beautiful blue sky. A large cloud obscured most of the mountain above 11k', but the lower mountain and surroundings had good weather with a light breeze. The snow was relatively firm, as it was only 10:30 AM when we left the parking lot at Paradise. The first significant obstacle on the approach is the final hill to Panorama Point.
This hill is quite steep (35+ degrees), and was covered with various tracks up and down. Most boot tracks went straight up the center of the hill, like a set of large stairs. As we were in snowshoes and skis, we opted for a switchback approach, breaking trail through the consolidated (but soft) snow. Due to the snowshoes, we didn't sink far, so breaking trail was little more effort than following established tracks. Nevertheless, this hill proved to be the first stretch of ``technical'' snowshoeing for the day.
After the Panorama Point hill, the trail trended up and right, following a steep hillside just to the east of a rocky ridgeline. There were many snowshoe tracks coming down the hill, but no obvious single track up the steep snow ledges (steep hill, short ledge, steep hill, ...). Keeping close to the rocky spine, we climbed most of the ledge system by angling up across the steep hill, and then trending back towards the ridge and wands along the flat ledge. This section, covering about 800' vertical, ended at another point with two large rock cairns. It turns out that this ledge system was just right (when ascending) of the standard summer route, which climbs directly up the rocky ridge we avoided on snow.
Above the rocky towers, the approach route traversed far right (east) to snow slopes winding along the top of a wide ridge (name?). This section also included some steep snow ledges, and also a set of three rocky areas with no snow. These short sections could be easily crossed on snowshoes, but required Sonja to remove her skis to avoid gouging the bottoms. All three rock areas were short, and generally uphill, with braided streams of snowmelt running down them.
At the bottom of the first rock area, Richard and Jane cached some extra gear (a spare fuel bottle, 4 extra screws, and 2 ice tools), and then followed along. Richard, by this point, was having trouble with his legs; cramps just above the knee, most likely due to the steep terrain, tricky snowshoeing along the steep hills, and heavy pack. Caching some extra gear helped, but the cramps would slow Richard the rest of the day.
After crossing the rock areas, and following the broad ridge for 800-1000' vertical, the approach track returned left (west), towards the Nisqually Glacier to traverse onto the Muir snowfield proper. Above this point, we stayed entirely on the Muir snowfield, eventually traversing east again to climb the eastern edge of the snowfield to Camp Muir. After much slogging up snow slopes, alternating switchbacks with straight-up walking, we reached Moon Rocks, and prepared for the final push to Camp Muir.
We arrived at Camp Muir at approximately 6:30 pm, and began setting up tents for the night in a light breeze and heavy cloud cover. After cooking dinner in the public shelter, we decided that we would not try for the summit in the morning, but instead rest for an attempt early on the 24th. This would also let us further sort gear in preparation for the summit attempt. We retired to the tents and shelter for some sleep; Richard slept in the shelter in case his cramps kept him up during the night.
Throughout the day, the weather remained poor, with wind gusts of 50 mph and higher at Camp Muir, heavy clouds, and lots of blowing snow. The wind constantly blew to the west, heavily loading the west-facing slopes and heavily packing the east-facing ones. Most of the day was spent in the public shelter, making food and tea, shoveling snow from the door, building snow walls around the flapping tents, and practicing techniques and gear; we built Z pulleys from the bunk ladders using three different techniques, and debated the merits of each.
As the wind was much stronger than the previous evening, several hours were spent reinforcing the tent tie-downs, resulting in tents held down with snow pickets, ice screws (solid ice at Camp Muir in places!), ice tools, and buried shovels. In addition, we built a snow wall to cut down the wind battering the empty tents. Both the Bibler I-Tent and Integral Designs tent withstood the winds with little danger of collapse, although the ID tent did partially collapse at one point for an unknown reason. After building the snow wall, and reinforcing the tie-down system for the tents (and vestibules), the tents took the wind battering without concern.
The resident Ranger indicated that there could be improving weather on the 24th, with a possibility of a summit window early in the day. After another dinner of freeze-dried food and melted snow, we retired to the shelter (Sonja, Richard) and tents (Jane, Paul), fully rested for the possible attempt on the 24th.
After a leisurely breakfast and repacking for light travel, we set out from the shelter up Cowlitz Cleaver for the Beehive. Rather than haul our full, heavy backpacks up for the day, we opted for a light, alpine style with just gear (pickets, screws, tools, etc.), water, snacks, beacons, shovel, and clothing.
Directly above Camp Muir, we gained the east edge of the Cowlitz Cleaver, and began following it up towards the Beehive. This requires a climb of about 1000' vertical, on verying slopes up to 35+ degrees, with some rock, snow, and a few patches of flat ice. Fun, and not too dangerous. We did discover a large, persistent crevasse in the snow/ice just along the east edge of the Cowlitz Cleaver. This crevasse started about 200' above Camp Muir (first sighting, could be lower!) and continued for at least 300' of vertical. The crevasse was almost completely covered by a new wind-packed cover of varying thickness (6-12"), making it difficult to spot while walking.
We first found the crevasse when Jane broke through, leaving a hole 3' deep and wide. Further up, Jane found the crevasse again, punching through a thin (6") wind-packed cover, and had to make some tricky moves to get out of the steadily widening hole; still no injuries, and an excellent chance to practice crampon and tool use. Fortunately, no one fell into the deepest location we found, where the crevasse was easily 15' deep, and 3+' wide under the 12" wind-packed crust.
The ascent up Cowlitz Cleaver provided a perfect opportunity for Richard (a professional guide) to teach the rest of us about avalanche risk assessment, snow conditions, and travel in steep mountain terrain. In particular, Richard and Paul required Jane and Sonja to lead most of the ascent, to give them experience choosing lines, and reading the snow.
Just below the Beehive, we encountered a very steep section of ridge, with roughly 2' of new snow covering mixed ice and rock. To increase safety (falling or slipping could result in 200'+ of freefall), we belayed Sonja up and around the little pinnacle, to where she could see the remainder of the ridge to the Beehive. As the time was nearly noon, only Paul followed, belayed by Sonja from above, and Richard from below. Paul then built an anchor (getting to use much of the gear he brought) to belay Sonja down around the pinnacle (for variety), and then followed down the other side. Originally, we planned to then pull the rope back around the pinnacle, but friction proved to much. Richard eventually had to reverse Sonja and Paul's route, climbing up one side and down the other (on belay!) to retrieve the rope.
With a bit of ice and mixed climbing done, along with the late time (we wanted to return to Paradise in the afternoon), we packed up the rope and headed back down. While standing at the belay, we saw a nice avalanche come down off the Nisqually headwall next to Gibralter Rock. This convinced us all, in combination with numerous new debris fields, of the wisdom of staying below 12k' and off all steep slopes for the day!
On the way back down Cowlitz Cleaver, Jane's crampons began balling badly, greatly slowing her descent. Sonja was feeling poorly, most likely due to altitude sickness, and so she and Paul went ahead back down to a small point along the cleaver. From there, Paul waited for Richard and Jane while Sonja descended back to Camp Muir alone, but wearing an avalanche beacon. Paul, Richard, and Jane then followed back down to Camp Muir, arriving around 2 pm.
After a brief lunch and coffee break (to burn almost all the remaining fuel), Paul, Richard, and Jane packed the remaining gear (nearly all of it), and headed down from Camp Muir, leaving around 3:30 pm (as Sonja was arriving at the parking lot). Due to the extra gear, we all had extremely heavy packs, which made the walk down from Camp Muir less pleasant, despite good weather (partly cloudy, cool, and light breeze).
Partway down the Muir Snowfield, Richard and Jane began looking for the cache, left two days before on the approach. This proved very slow, as the two days of wind, warm temperatures, and precipitation had radically altered the landscape. Combined with a large number of new tracks, the changed landscape forced the search to cover most of the Muir Snowfield above the twin rock towers, without success. While much of the searching was done without the very heavy packs, the wandering still took time, and this slowed our progress to a crawl. Paul also helped search, although without much luck, as he didn't know quite what to look for in the rocks!
After 2.5 hours of searching, we gave up, and continued down the existing tracks towards Panorama Point. Richard and Jane decided, upon reaching the twin rock towers, to come back the next day and search the east ridge, which definitely held the cache. Unfortunately, we did not realize which ridge had to have the cache until well below it, and nearly out of daylight.
After reaching Panorama Point via some glissades down steep slopes, we got a nice bobsled run down the steep hill below Panorama. This glissade took us almost entirely down the steep hill, and represents the highlight of the descent. By the time we reached the bottom of the hill, it was after 7 pm, and a thick fog covered the lower elevations.
We then followed the well-travelled tracks back towards Paradise, trudging through the white cement masquerading as snow, only once consulting the map to determine which track to take. This took longer than expected, as visibility was only 30 yards, and the GPS unit available was less easy-to-use than expected (should practice before leaving the car). We arrived at the parking lot at 8:30 pm, extremely tired. A greatly-relieved Sonja met us at the trailhead with the car, and we packed our gear, eager for dinner and a shower.
The next morning, Richard and Jane headed back to the mountain to checkout with the NPS and hunt down the lost cache. Paul and Sonja drove back to Salt Lake. Another fine adventure concluded, with no significant injuries, and much fun.
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