Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:36 pmVitaliy M wrote:davebobk47 wrote:Vitaliy M wrote:EastKing wrote:This weekend is NOT the weekend to climb Rainier due to the avy danger!! If you do, I will be praying extra hard for your success and good judgement. We already had an accident on that mountain last weekend. Hopefully it will be better by July!
Praying helped..my couple of friends and I broke a "dry" spell and summited today (1st people to summit from camp muir in 10 days according to the ranger). We explored the route Ingraham Direct (glacier route) on Saturday in the morning, and went up to 12K to check out snow conditions..Than talked to a guide who suggested it, if we can be fast...Since we are fast we left early and topped it bit past sunrise. We didn't see any avy danger on the route till we were finishing comming down, since snow was getting soft and unstable...we had a great time
You sure it was Saturday? All three guide services plus the rangers told everyone not to go. We were the first to make it to the Flats since the last avy and there were no tracks in front of us. We watched the sunrise from the Flats then turned back. A few groups behind us but I don't think any of them went up.
We went up to flats at around 7:30 and we were going off from the slopes above at 930 or 10. If you were there at around 9:30 ou would not miss us. I am sure it was saturday lol. We were a team of 3 unguided people.
Guided groups usually take 7-8 hours to summit from Muir as I heard which is a lot of time in danger zone and a late come back. No guide service wants to take any chance of having an accident (no good for business) when they could charge full price for a hike to the flats. Also, there was no one to actally go above the flats and check how stable the snow was.
Redneck-yes I will make a trip report and post some pictures (sooner than the report lol) I am at work now..so a bit later
ah, we were back to Muir by 730. I have a pic of two groups crossing the Cowlitz around that time, perhaps you are in the pic. Our lead guide was part of the rescue the week before and said conditions that day looked exactly the same as the previous week so I'd say you got really lucky.