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I know this is a little late, but I wanted to share some stoke for the upcoming season.

These are some pics from when a friend and I climbed Mt Rainier and boarded down. It was an intense trip, with a little more commitment than I was used to. I broke through a snowbridge up to my thigh on the climb up to the summit. It was a little un-nerving to look down at my leg slidding into the blue nothingness...

Also, as you can see, the summit was covered in a thick bank of clounds which made the summit a little mellow dramatic. The first 1,000 feet down through the clouds, ice, and cravesses was also made my knees a little wobbly. Yet, all is well that ends well, and we had a great trip.

Enjoy.


Day 1


skining up, day two




Camp at 10,000 ft


Climb up on summit day




Summit


Ride down

Wow that looks like quite an epic ride down. Thanks for the stokage!

Nice dudes!

Thanks for sharing! That looks like an impressive and memorable trip.

I like the way you went from this...



to this.

Summit

Yea, it was quite the change.

The trailhead is around 3,900 feet, and the top of Rainier is somewhere around 14,200...

We were hoping that on the summit day we would be able to get on top and see the other mountains in the range. Unfortunantly a lenticular cloud was haging over the summit and pounded us with about 40 mile an hour winds. Every few minutes a strong gust would blow through and all we could do was drive our ice axes into the snow and hold on till the gust passed.

We were lucky to find a area out of the wind at about 14,000 feet, after we summited, and were able to rest up for a half hour before we rode down. It was the first time we rode with ice axes out... as to performe a self arrest. I am not entirely sold on riding with an axe. I am not sure that I would be able to arrest properly with it. On the other hand, it was sure nice to push yourself up when you are resting and scoping out how to avoid crevases...

Sweet TR HammBone! I was up there the following week (DC Route, I can't decide if your photos look like the same route or not... But that looks like it could be Camp Muir where you guys hvae your tent set up...) I was sucking wind and feeling ass-ey that last 3k feet, so mad props on carrying your gear up to the summit.

Anyway, the guys I climbed with weren't BC ski/riders, so I didn't take my board, but seeing all the people with skis on really made me wish I had. I think an early summer trip out to the Cascades is on order for '07!

No, we went up the Emmons Winthrop route.

The camp you see is from the Emmons Flats camp area. It is at about the same elevation as Camp Muir, but on the north side of the mountain.

Nice work Hammbone,
I did the same trip a few weeks before you did. I didn't have anything as interesting as falling through a snow bridge happen, but I've never paid more attention to where I was going than on Rainier.

Good job!

Now the question I've gotten a bunch of times, what's the next big peak?