Greetings, I'm new to this site so I'll start off by introducing myself. My name is Joel and I'm a beginner/novice climber. I've received training in setting up hoist systems, rappelling, belaying, using ascenders and SOME climbing. My experience on glaciers is limited to several trips up to Camp Muir and Ingraham Flats on Mt. Rainier. I've climbed some of the peaks in the Olympics, which included some nice exposure to snowfields. I also grew up in Alaska and am familiar with gauging avalanche conditions, though by no means an expert.

Some buddies from work and I are looking to summit Mt. Rainier sometime during the first two weeks of September. I noticed that RMI still guides climbs on the DC route during this time, which is a good sign. However, I've been tracking the conditions this summer, and it seems like the route has become very exposed. I have full confidence in the groups' good judgment and abilities (we all have similar training and varying experience backgrounds). Our group leader is a very experienced climber and is also an instructor, so no worries there. My main concern is for this season, are we attempting a summit too late? I realize weather is always a factor, especially in September, but how deteriorated can we expect the DC route to be? If anyone has recently been up there, or has climbed Rainier in September in the past I'd like to hear your input!

Looking forward to lurking around the forums and taking in advice from the more experienced members, thanks!

I can see nobody has been up that route recently. Does anyone have any info on caching gear at the Camp Muir climbing shelter? Is this usually done, and has anyone experienced or heard of theft occurring up there?

And lastly, what are your personal thresholds for wind conditions and summiting? Looks like there will be some spectacular weather windows the first week of September, but I'm curious what the experienced climbers have to say about wind conditions. Thanks again!

Climbing conditions in September can be very good. We just experienced strong storms with a lot of precipitation which will have deposited fresh snow up high making for less icy conditions. Wind can be bad any time of the year, what you need to look out for is approaching storms. It is the pre-frontal winds that are really bad. In September those will generally be out of the SW. Wait for a stable period of weather which is fairly common in September.

The route itself will be more circuitous, but the guide services do a good job maintaining it to keep the clients moving through including using wands, ladders across crevasses, fixed ropes, fixed pickets above exposed areas, etc. The worst part of the DC in September is the Cleaver itself which is a melted out boulder field which is just tedious and slow. The route up the cleaver should be wanded, but can sometimes be confusing in the dark.

I don't know what the NPS policy of gear caching at Camp Muir is, but I wouldn't expect to have your stuff to get stolen unless you leave it more more than a few days, especially if you leave a note. Most folks visiting Muir are climbers and don't want to carry more stuff down than they have to. But I also don't see any reason to cache gear either. It is a short walk to Muir, I've done it in as little as 90 minutes from Paradise. The only people I know who have cached gear at Muir have done so in anticipation of a speed ascent.

I'm planning on heading up myself in the next week or so, as soon as we get a decent weather forecast. Right now that is the most important thing, waiting for a spell of good weather.

I don't know if you have been checking the MR climbing blog, but if you haven't you should be. The latest update is from August 28th: http://mountrainierconditions.blogspot.com/

ExcitableBoy,

Thanks for the advice! Looks like everything will be hinging on weather. If all goes as planned at work, myself and several coworkers are planning to be at Muir on the 5th. I'm hoping we'll all have the same mindset of waiting out any weather if necessary. Hope to see you up there!

***UPDATE***

To anyone still looking to climb the DC route this summer, it is being reported as impassible. We signed into the climbing ranger station Saturday morning only to discover that a new update on the route revealed that guide services had pulled their ladders and were searching for a new route up DC. We allowed the Park Rangers to convince us to try going over to Camp Sherman and to try the Emmons Glacier route. While hiking through Glacier Basin we were notified by another Park Ranger that apparently no one has been up that route in 3 weeks (which didn't make any sense). Due to time constraints and change of plans we made it just below Camp Sherman and camped on the Inner Glacier. The following morning we hiked up to Camp Sherman and then hiked back to the White River Campground.

Inner Glacier was very icey and slick from it's base to about 800' up making for a slow start on the glacier. Above the first section there was some snow which made for faster travel. Overrall the glacier seemed pretty exposed, but I've never been on it before so I have no previous experiences to compare it to. Hope this helps anyone who may still be trying to go up this summer, good luck!