Rainier NP - DC to Eammons 8/19/2007
Trip: Rainier NP - DC to Emmons
Date: 8/19/2007
Trip Report:Myself and 6 others made an attempt this weekend in what turned out to be probably some of the worst weather of the summer. We made it to Camp muir just as snow started to fall on saturday just as the weather forecast said it would and pretty much didnt let up for the rest of the weekend. We made an attempt at climbing at 11pm sat night, followed the tracks of 3 RMI groups due to the whiteout conditions, and turned back 2 hours later when they did before we dropped down below disappointment cleaver. Routefinding with all the new snow would have been a little too exciting for us. In the morning we found that approximately 2-3 inches of new snow had fallen with drifts of up to 1.5 feet deep
According to the rangers at Paradise, the route apparently now follows the RMI trail for only a short ways before dropping below their superhighway to avoid crevasses. Then you hike up through Ingram flats and drop below DC, cross about half of the Emmons Glacier and head up from there, traversing around and through lots of crevasses. They said allot an extra hour to the one-way summit time due to all the traversing.
The one benefit to this "extreme backpacking trip" was that we spend half of sunday playing with crevasse rescue systems for the newbies to see. All in all, a miserable climbing trip, but a successful backpacking trip.
Gear Notes:mucho pickets
Approach Notes:there is a good trail to Camp Muir and the glissade trail is getting better for the way down.
