Sherpadad= Scott from Turns all year
Andy= Turns all year
Rory= a Teleskiing Kiwi
Dan= Crstlextrm from TGR
And Myself Kyle Miller

When choosing a tour I would say that one of the biggest factors in choosing a location is based upon the weather. The forecast for the weekend looked promising with the freezing level topping out at 14,000 feet and sunny skies until some unstable air came in on Monday. With the conditions perfect Rainier was the obvious choice with a ascent and Decent of the Emmons glacier. It turns out Sherpadad for turns all year had the same idea so we decided to join forces for the Attempt.

Our path to the summit with the Interglacier on the left

After randomly meeting another member of our party at REI we decided it would be a good idea to Carpool. When we arrived at the ranger station we all met each other for the first time, got our permits then got on the trail. Andy, Dan and I made it to Glacier basin in about an hour where we filled up our water and prepared for the Interglacier.

The Gateway to continuous snow Glacier Basin

The crowds starting to head up the Interglacier

I decided to take a solid board and boot pack compared to skinning which turned out to be the right decision as the snow was horrible for skinning. I got a head start up the interglacier expecting both Andy and Dan to catch up to me in no time, but that wasn’t the case as I waited at the ramp to the Emmons for more then an hour.

Our first view of the Objective

Andy making it up to the Saddle

Dan skinning up with Cresent mountain in the background

We arrived at Camp Sherman (base camp for the NE side of rainier) around 2 p.m and focused on staying Hydrated to battle altitude sickness. Our plan was to leave around 5 A.M. in two parties one a 3 man team and the other a two man team.

Rainier’s Shadow and the Setting sun Lighting up Tahoma.

Looking Northwest at the Puget Sound and the Olympics

It was rather warm up at Camp Sherman so the 4 a.m. wake up went smooth.

Getting ready as the sun starts to crest the Horizon

It seemed that Rory was feeling Ill so instead it was going to be 4 of us instead of 5.
So the teams were Dan and Sherpadad and Andy and I. Andy and I left a little bit after 5a.m. to the rising sun while Dan and Sherpadad decided on leaving around 6 a.m.

Sunrise alpenglow on the Emmons

Sunrise over the cascades

Andy Climbing the Emmons with the early morning alpenglow

We made sure to take our time and not run up the mountain in fear of getting altitude sickness.

Messing with the crampons

Crossing a nasty Icefall area

Slowly Gaining altitude

Andy with steamboat prow and the Interglacier below

We arrived at the Summit around 11:30 and waited for the snow to soften for a few hours.

Andy on the Summit ridge with Sunrise in the Background

The summit Ridge is all melted out

The Standard summit shot

The ranger at Sherman told us the perfect time for decent was around 1:30 as it would be perfect corn from Summit to Sherman.

Strapping in and getting ready to descend.

Andy’s sequence first

Then my sequence

The run was great corn from top to bottom but the terrain was somewhat sketchy as there was too many crevasses to really open up.

After a 45 minute run we rested at Camp Sherman awaiting Dan and Sherpadads arrival.
The weather was perfect all day with no real wind and not a cloud in the sky until around 5:30. Our plans were to stay another night at Sherman and get an early morning run down the interglacier. Within an hour the blue sky had changed to Storm clouds with the occasional lightning in the distance. What was original a drizzle became a huge downpour that we were not prepared for. We had decided to leave the rain fly for the tent behind and our sleeping bags and my coat were down so we battled to keep them dry for over an hour. Realizing the storm was only getting stronger we decided to pack up and get to the White River camp ground as fast as possible.

All of our gear was drenched as we tossed everything in our bags trying to make a quick escape. We left Sherman around 8:15 racing the last bit of light all the way to the bottom.
After a quick run down the Emmons we hiked up to the Interglacier. While on top of the Interglacier I looked towards Tahoma which was engulfed in clouds. The run down Interglacier turned out to be amazing with Cold sinkable mash potatoes and lightning flashes in the horizon.

Looking north from the Interglacier

Looking East

Dan riding down the Interglacier

As we rode into the glacier basin it was obvious we were in the middle of a full on Thunder storm. The white river basin was being nailed by lightning every few seconds as we were running down the trail. It was by far the most intense Thunder storm I had ever seen. The rain had caused the white river to swell almost to the point of blocking our progress. We kept a steady pace navigating with the light from the lightning and the last bit of daylight making it to the car just before 10:00. The storm was intense but we all agreed that we made the right decision getting out of there.

On another note I am attempting to Summit all 5 of the Volcanos in Washington this season and now I have only 1 left. Glacier Peak