Mt. Rainier via Disappointment Cleaver

Dawn at 13,000' on Mt. Rainier:


This climb was simply incredible.

Skip the words, look at the pictures.

We set off from Paradise late Wednesday afternoon in very low visibility, hiking through fields of alpine wildflowers at their peak. As we ascended, the flowers gave way to snowfields and glacial moraine. The cloud layer in which we'd begun the climb turned out not to be very thick; above it, the sky was completely clear. Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and a handful of other high peaks were all that poked through the cloud layer. We made camp on at about 8000' on the Muir Snowfield, and had to hurry to dig platforms in the snow and set up our tents before darkness set in.

The weather on the second day was almost perfect for climbing. My only complaint was that it was a bit too warm, making the snow slushy and more difficult to travel over. We climbed past Camp Muir (the usual high camp for climbing the Disappointment Cleaver route), up a steep scree and snow covered slope through Cathedral Gap, then on to the Ingraham Flats camp area at 11,000'. Ingraham Flats is a flat, mostly crevasse free area of the Ingraham Glacier, and it's surrounded by cliffs, icefalls, and the steep side of Disappointment Cleaver. As we set up our camp, we saw (and more frequently, heard) ice and rock crash down from above. The camp site was safe from these hazards, but I was concerned about the rocks falling across the route up the Cleaver we would be following in the morning.

In this case, morning meant 12:30am. The point of such an early start is to minimize the danger of rockfall by traveling before the sun gets high in the sky and melts the ice holding the mountain together. Lingering in rockfall and icefall prone areas midday in July is asking for trouble. I wasn't grumbling much about our early start because I was climbing under the darkest, starriest sky I'd seen in a very long while. The moon had set, there were no clouds, I was two miles above sea level and far from city lights. Thought starlight was the only illumination, there was enough light reflected off glaciers that I could easily make out the summit of Mt. Rainier.

Our three rope teams with three people each crossed the Ingraham Glacier to the base of the Disappointment Cleaver, a steep ridge of rock that separates the Ingraham from the Emmons Glacier. It's the most difficult and dangerous part of the route, though still mild by mountaineering standards. We switchbacked up steep rock and snow by headlamp to the spine of the cleaver, where the wind started blowing hard. Two rope teams from another group turned around and descended past us, deterred by the winds. When we reached the top of the cleaver our group discussed whether or not we should turn back. I was pleased when after some deliberation our climb leader decided that it would be safe to continue. It was clear an hour later into the climb that we'd made the right decision. While it was still a couple hours before sunrise, the sun bled enough light over the horizon that headlamps were unncessary. We traversed a maze of crevasses and snow bridges colored rose by predawn light. With the darkness gone and the hardest part of the climb behind us, it seemed certain that we'd reach the summit.

By the time the altimeter said we were at 13,500' the sun had risen and the wind was blowing hard enough that I had to brace myself with my ice axe against the stronger gusts. Several times I thought that the next crest was the summit; it was frustrating to get over it and see that there was yet another slope to climb. But finally, we reached the crest that was indeed the edge of the summit crater. It was still early enough in the day that we could afford to spend 45 minutes at the summit. I decided to hike across the quarter mile wide crater to sign the summit register and climb a few hundred feet further to Columbia Crest, the point on the rim of the crater that at 14,410' is the true summit of Mt. Rainier. Along the way I crossed areas of bare rock and saw the steam vents that keep these places snow free. In the future, I'd like to visit the summit again with enough time to explore the steam tunnels that run underneath the crater.

The descent from the top of Mt. Rainier all the way back down to Paradise took about eight hours including the time required to pack up high camp. After over sixteen hours of climbing, I was wrecked. Today, I'm enjoying the first day of a weekend of guilt-free gluttony, lounging around, and feeling accomplished. I declined an invitation from the climb leader to join a Mt. Shuksan climb he's doing tomorrow (because he's insane and I'm not.)