This April, I made my seasonal drive from Salt Lake City to Ashford, WA for another summer of guiding in the Northwest. Although Salt Lake has some of the most accessible and exciting terrain for a large metropolitan area, I found myself daydreaming through much of my winter about this upcoming spring ski season on Rainier.
Over the past few seasons, Mount Rainier has become a place where I have pushed myself and seen what’s personally possible to achieve, specifically in a single push, top down ski style. The mountain is massive, heavily glaciated and features the perfect pitch for steep skiing. The west and north aspects of the mountain sees very little traffic and above all else, skiing top down without previous knowledge of conditions or terrain adds an additional element of excitement.
I have gone back and forth on whether I cared to share any of my ski activity on Rainier this spring as it felt deeply personal, but I thought it would be fun to collect some of my thoughts and experiences on this mountain to hopefully provide some entertainment and inspiration. To ski on this mountain you have to want it, it is hard work both physically and mentally and your motivation needs to stem from the right reasons. Rainier is highly complex and objectively dangerous. That being said, it is one of the greatest places to ski in the lower 48 and my activity is a very small blip on the radar compared to the large concentration of underground bone crushers that have paved the way for people like myself.
Regardless of their direct impact, people such as Dan Helmstedter, Andy Bond, Sky Sjue, Aaron Mainer and Peter Dale (among many, many others) have inspired me immensely. Their trip reports and visionary climbing and skiing styles, much of which was futuristic for the era, have laid the groundwork for a new generation of Mount Rainier skiers and climbers who stand on their large shoulders.
Fuhrer Thumb
My season began on April 24th after a long 12 hour drive from Salt Lake. With tired legs from the drive, Henry Coppollilo and I settled on skiing the Fuhrer Thumb as a long but logistically simple day with a return descent back to Paradise. It has become somewhat of an annual tradition to single push Mount Rainier on my first ski of the year and I was looking forward to being up there again.
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| Henry Coppolillo skinning up the Muir Snowfield |
We left the parking lot at 5:30 and were drinking coffee at Camp Muir by 7:45. We hung out, fueled up and listened to music as the sun rose over Muir Peak and began to paint the Ingraham Glacier. With reports of smooth travel on the Ingraham Direct we skinned across the Cowlitz, up through Cathedral Gap and to the base of the Ingraham Headwall. The climbing was direct and extremely enjoyable and we reached the summit at around 12:45pm.
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| Into the business of the Ingraham Direct |
We began our descent and approached the Fuhrer Thumb via the Wapowty Cleaver’s east shoulder, finding manageable terrain to the top of the line proper. The skiing was soft and cruiser inside the couloir itself and its mid 40 degree pitch was a lovely balance of steep but rippable terrain. We hugged the western flanks of the Wilson on our exit and were back in the parking lot just 10 hours after starting the day.
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| Henry skis the gut of the Fuhrer Thumb |
The Sickle, Tahoma Glacier
After a much needed rest, the following afternoon fellow guide Bailey Servais and I rallied up the snowfield late on the 25th of April and stayed the night up at Camp Muir. We awoke early on the 26th and enjoyed a lazy morning before leaving the ridge at around 7:50am. We skinned Henry and I’s familiar track back up through the Gap before continuing up the steep booter that splits the Ingraham Headwall, standing on top of Columbia Crest at around 11:45am. We had northside plans and continued over to Liberty Cap which we were able to skin up with minimal shenanigans. We stood on top of Liberty Cap by 1pm but quickly realized we were a bit late for our original objective.
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| Another cramponless ascent to the Ingraham Flats |
On my drive in, a few days prior, I was able to glass the Tahoma Glacier which seemed to be in great shape. With westerly winds stripping much of the spring snow off of the South Tahoma Cleaver and Sunset Amphitheater, it seemed as though the snow had been swirled and concentrated onto the Tahoma. With that knowledge in mind, we pivoted to the west side and planned to check out the Sickle which lies on the shoulder of the Tahoma Glacier.
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| Bailey Servais ripping the entrance to the Sickle Couloir |
Low angle skiing brought us the the entrance roll of the Sickle and we simul skied down the firm couloir as the serac lined walls rose and narrowed around us. This position was incredible and I muttered to myself that this was some of the more wild skiing I had ever done. To descend top down and to dance with the terrain as it unfolded below was magic. With a 9k freezing level, the snow was firm, smooth and fast. As we neared the inevitable bergschrund, we cut skiers right and exited via a serac lined mini couloir onto the shoulder of the Tahoma Glacier proper.
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| Our serac lined couloir exit on the Sickle |
With it being later in the day, we opted for a straight forward exit rather than vision questing down the lower Tahoma. The two previous years, I had skied the Sunset Amphitheater Couloir twice and knew the exit well. Although the terrain's condition was still unknown, I had a pretty good idea that this alternative exit would set us up for success while still serving up some quality exit skiing. We put on skins behind a large rock buttress and darted across the debris-filled shoulder of the South Mowich Glacier, past the Sunset Amphitheater Couloir, to a transition spot away from significant overhead hazard.
The exit included a 1500’ couloir off the Sunset Ridge shoulder and plenty of low angle glacier skiing on the South Tahoma Glacier. We were able to ski about 200’ from the South Puyallup Camp and enjoyed a lovely break below the iconic columnar andesite waterfalls before continuing out the West Side road.
Ptarmigan Ridge (Skiers Variation)
Just three days after our descent of the Sickle, Bailey and I found ourselves rallying back up the Muir Snowfield. This time in a full whiteout. Our bags were heavier this go around as they included a Firstlight Tent, Whisperlite Stove and a few days worth of food. Our plan was to spend the night at Muir, climb up and over to the Northwest side of the mountain, and spend the following two days skiing and climbing.
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| Snowfield Whiteout |
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| Skinning up Liberty Cap |
We had spent the previous morning driving a total of 4 hours around to the northside of Rainier to drop a car and shuttle bikes up the closed White River road. We biked about 7 miles up the road and stashed the bikes in the woods marking them with a GPS pin. Our plan was to walk about 5 miles past the Glacier Basin Trailhead, hop on the bikes, and cruise the remaining 7 miles back to the car which was parked at the winter road closure.
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| The topo of the 2011 Ptarmigan Ridge Ski Descent. We made 2.5 rappels on the broken glacier before it doglegs skiers left. |
Now, as we stood on top of Liberty Cap, we were committed to our lengthy, pre-rigged exit. The weather was stable and the winds were calm, we were amped. Our plan was to ski down the western ridge of Liberty Cap and traverse onto the hanging Liberty Cap Glacier. From there, we would follow Eric Wherly, Dan Helmstedter and Sky Sjue’s 2011 variation of Ptarmigan Ridge to its terminus on the Russell Glacier. Once there, we would spend the night, have another day of climbing and skiing on the Northwest side, and continue on to our planned White River exit.
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| Staring at Liberty Ridge from the Ptarmigan Ice Clif |
The snow was cold and soft as we began our descent down the upper Liberty Cap Glacier. Although the majority of the texture consisted of sastrugi and wind affected snow, we were able to find smooth, linkable panels of snow and we zigzagged down across the snow bridges. The slope angle kicked up and soon the Russell Glacier was split below the tips of my skis. Conditions were perfect, the position was incredible and the turns were about as steep and wild as they get on Mount Rainier. We continued to naturally link fall line terrain with the occasional traverse to connect the next panel of skiing.
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| Our first rappel down the hollow runnel |
After about 1500’ of skiing we reached our first major crevasse, stopping to survey the terrain. As we ventured into this steeper and more exposed area, I reminded myself of why I was doing this: I wanted these turns, I wanted this experience. This was something I had thought about for so long and now I was here. I continued hopping my way down as far as I could until I reached a small runnel of snow splitting a sagging snow bridge. It looked skiable, but we took the conservative approach, opting to place a deadman anchor and rappel with our skis on. The runnel turned out to be somewhat hollow and I was glad to have pulled the rope out. The rappel was almost exactly 30m and I continued down a bit further to a flatter spot out of Bailey’s way. She rappeled and we pulled the rope, continuing further down until the snow turned to blue ice.
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| Drilling a v-thread on rappel #2 |
After transitioning to spikes, we began down climbing to better ice and built an anchor. It seemed like our ropes would just barely reach beyond the ‘schrund and I was hopeful we’d be able to navigate this terrain with minimal rope work. I drilled a thread, tested it and began descending. As I rappelled closer to the end of the ropes I realized that 30m wasn’t going to reach.
I plugged another anchor and Bailey descended to me. We made one last short v-thread rappel over the severely overhanging bergschrund and put our skis back on. The slope angle began to decrease and we shared some awesome turns above the ominous 600 ft ice cliff. We were through the meat of the line. Now all that was left was to traverse over and out to the western ramp and down to camp for the night.
The soft, cold snow turned to an icy bed surface as we tentatively traversed over to a large rock wall. It was obvious that something had avalanched above where we now stood but we hadn’t experienced any signs of instability or serac fall up to this point. Another v-thread was bored through some prehistoric looking grey ice, glued into the flakey, volcanic rock. I began rappelling and Bailey and I joked together, overjoyed we were through the steepest bits of skiing.
As I neared the end of the rope, I felt a rumble and looked up. Everything seemed normal and I was unsure of where the noise originated from. Suddenly, Bailey and I shouted to each other as house sized blocks rolled in slow motion beside us and over the large cliff above where we had just been skiing 20 minutes earlier. The world turned white as I swung and tucked myself into the rock wall I was rappelling beside. Bailey had her head tucked inward and I watched as the brown streaked glaciers disappeared below me. The serac fall lasted about one minute and I shouted to Bailey when the snow began to settle. I swung back and I saw her standing at the anchor, her head still tucked inward. “You alright?” I asked. “Yeah, that was fucked.” She replied. We both shook in awe of what had just witnessed.
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| Seconds before the serac avalanche |
The snow continued to settle and it became eerily silent. I wasn’t sure what to do. Would there be more activity? I paused and gave the mountain a few more minutes to adjust to the direct sunlight that was now hitting its northwest flank. After a few minutes of inactivity, I took myself off rappel and Bailey descended to me. Neither of us spoke and our eyes did much of the talking. The gravity of coincidence began to take effect and I couldn’t help but think how lucky we were. The rock buttress we were tucked behind had protected us but we wouldn’t be fully safe until we skied the lower ramp and were on the Russell Glacier.
We continued traversing and found a flat spot to collect ourselves. The sun was now directly hitting us on the ledge and we opted to wait until it dropped lower in the sky before continuing. I felt cornered and could help but run through alternative solutions if we didn’t feel comfortable continuing through the terrain.
We sat and waited as we tried to make light of the messed up situation. We joked, ate food and donned all of our layers. After about 45 minutes with no additional activity we continued over to the western ramp. Skiing felt shaky at best. It was hard to not be rattled by something so massive and beyond our control, having nothing to do with our decision making or ski ability short of our almost being in the wrong place at the wrong time..
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| Last light on Ptarmigan Ridge |
The orange light streaked across our faces and we skied smooth, firm windboard down to a notch on the Mowich Glacier. A quick scree climb led us to the safety of a scenic bivy out of harm's way.
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| Our bivouac on the Upper Russell Glacier |
The following morning we slept in, ditching our plans for another day of climbing and skiing. We were ready to leave and were still very far from the cars. We skied, traversed and skinned across the Russell, Carbon, Winthrop and Inter Glaciers as we made our way back down to the Glacier Basin Parking Lot where the NPS was actively plowing the road. We donned trail shoes and continued another 5 miles down to the bikes. From there, a short hill climb and a euphoric, pedelless descent brought us back to the car about 40 hours after we started. We were thankful to be back from another outing on Washington’s highest peak and we sped our way over to Enumclaw where we devoured a QFC sandwich and Dairy Queen Blizzards. A delicious finale to another mind bending time on this magical mountain.
Sunset Ridge
After our close call, Bailey and I both took some time away from Rainier which included working a ski program on Mount Baker and enjoying some late spring sun in town. After noticing I was scheduled for some route work on Rainier, I rallied some friends to meet me at Muir for another day of skiing after my work stint concluded.
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| Traversing the Edmunds Headwall enroute to Sunset Ridge |
Early in the morning of May 6th, after staying another night up at Camp Muir, I was joined by four of my fellow guides. By this point, our climbing route had transitioned to the Disappointment Cleaver and after a lazy morning of music and coffee, we quickly climbed the route and traversed over to the north summit.
We reached the top of Liberty Cap at around 2pm and quickly went to work fixing a broken ski binding a member of the party had suffered. With a healthy quantity of bailing wire, a few zip ties, and a voile strap we were able to repair the binding and keep the loose u-spring in place. We skied off Liberty Cap at around 2:45 aiming to ski Sunset Ridge. With sustained western winds stripping the snow off of the upper mountain, we knew skiing the ridge proper likely wouldn’t go and we would have to traverse across the Edmunds Headwall to access the line.
We traversed onto the upper face via the skiers left ridge and soon we were in the gut enjoying soft, chalky turns. After some fall line skiing, we continued skiers left above a large ‘schrund, bypassing it on the skiers left side and continuing down to the notch that separates the Edmunds and South Edmunds Headwalls. We had to take our skis off to down climb about 10ft of volcanic scree before continuing on snow down and skiers left to a second notch on the shoulder of the South Edmunds Headwall. From here we booted up about 100ft and were finally standing on top of the line proper. The snow was soft and rippable. We all hooted and hollered as we party skied this fantastic line to its lower schrund and confluence with the South Mowich Glacier.
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In the gut of Sunset Ridge |
We transitioned and skinned a short way back over to the South Tahoma Glacier and headed out the West Side Road, reaching the lower gate at dusk and rallying into town for beer and burgers at the Elbe Tavern.
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| A lovely Sun Dog on the descent to the South Mowich Glacier |
Central Mowich Face
After working up on Baker for a few weekends mid-May in addition to some standard Rainier guiding, I knew my ski season was coming to a close. I felt conflicted and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to find a partner and/or the right conditions for another go. Thankfully, Calvin Jiricko, another guide, was around and ready to rally.
On May 27th, we started early in the Paradise parking lot and in about two and a quarter hours we were up at Camp Muir, once again drinking coffee and waiting for the sun to rise. We climbed the Disappointment Cleaver which took us about four hours and made the all familiar skin across to the top of Liberty Cap.
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| Central Mowich Face |
That previous weekend, I had heard that Sam Chaneles and Porter McMichael had skied the Edmunds Headwall from the top roll instead of traversing in. Based on this I figured conditions must have been holding. Sam had also mentioned in his blog post that the Central Mowich Face wasn’t in. Although seemingly credible, I had a certain level of trust that they hadn’t actually looked at the face and had just relied on satellite imagery instead.
The skiing off the top of Liberty Cap and over to the upper roll of the CMF was smooth and soft. Calvin and I linked turns before stopping above the roll. After some scouting and a bit of traversing, it looked like there was just enough snow to make the direct line go. We hopped our way down a thin ribbon of snow surrounded by patchy blue ice towards the fluted snow that separates the Edmunds and Central Mowich. I carefully rocked onto the roll and peered over, finding a perfectly planar slope. It went, quite casually too. We carefully side-slipped and hop turned down into the gut of the face before regrouping. From here the snow was soft and smooth. We linked endless turns all the way down to the toe of the face, smiling every bit of the way.
The bergschrund crossing at the bottom was surprising mellow and we cruised all the way down to the toe of the Mowich Glacier where we transitioned and skinned about 600’ back up and over to a col that spit us at the toe of the Sunset Ridge, putting us back onto familiar terrain.
Our walk out the West Side road was lovely and we returned to the cars at around 7pm, high fiving and knowing we had nabbed another incredible ski line in great conditions.
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Calvin Jiricko in front of the South Tahoma Cleaver and Sunset Amphitheater on our descent out of the West Side Road |
Liberty Ridge to Winthrop Shoulder
I was almost certain I was done skiing for the year. The tempo of work picked up, as did the temps around Rainier and conditions began to change rapidly. I knew that fewer ski lines were going to be in prime condition as we transitioned to June and it would be hard to justify long dirt approaches for mediocre skiing.
Just as I thought I was done. A lovely weather window with 10k freezing levels, time off, and a timely Facebook post convinced me to rally and keep my season going for just a bit longer. Some friends who had recently guided the Emmons had remarked at how good the Winthrop shoulder had looked from Camp Schurman. The Winthrop shoulder is a perfectly smooth, 6,000 foot ramp of 35 degree skiing that splits the Emmons and Winthrop Glaciers. Its slope angle is mellow, rippable, and just plain fun.
I had always wanted to try a solo, single push of Rainier but hesitated due to the complexity of the terrain. Solo glacier travel is a divisive topic and conditions need to be right. This round of skiing, I felt like it was the right time. I had been over on the Carbon Glacier earlier in the spring and knew the cold temps projected overnight would lock up any potentially thin snow bridges giving me the confidence to move through the terrain efficiently.
I had stumbled across a recent Facebook post from two climbers that had bailed on Liberty Ridge. They reported steady rock fall and bailed below Thumb Rock. From their photos, however, conditions looked superb.
Liberty Ridge’s 50 Classic Climb status seems to dissuade climbers from truly understanding the objective risk it possesses. The terrain features a lot of loose, crumbling rock that is glued together with snow and ice which has been increasingly exposed from the glacial recession and change the mountain has been experiencing in recent years. Once warmer temps reach the upper mountain, that snow, rock and ice becomes unglued and starts to fall. The steep, planar faces of Liberty Ridge act as the perfect runway for these fast moving objects.
To climb Liberty Ridge you need to be fast, efficient and willing to engage with these hazards. I knew I would need to keep moving and keep my head on a swivel if I wanted to avoid rocks, especially on the initial climb up to Thumb Rock. After Thumb, I hoped that the overhead activity would subside and I could take a big sigh of relief.
On June 5th, I left Ashford and rallied over to the Glacier Basin Trailhead. I started walking at 3am and reached St. Elmos Pass at 4:45. Conditions were fast and firm which allowed me to keep trail shoes on until just below Glacier Basin. From there I skinned up and over St. Elmos Pass, over to the toe of Curtis Ridge. I reached the crest at around 5:45am. Gliding onto the Carbon Glacier (which was in great shape), I continued up to the lower bergschrund of Liberty Ridge. After a long break, I crossed the schrund at around 7am and began climbing. Conditions were superb with a great overnight refreeze. The lower western ramp up to Thumb Rock was textured and very easy walking.
As the sun hit Thumb Rock, I began to experience consistent rockfall every couple of minutes. The rock sizes ranged from pebbles to baseball sized pieces that quickly gained momentum on the firm western slopes that were still in the shade. I climbed with a pair of Petzl Gullys in the cane position and I rarely looked down at my feet as I tracked and dodged every rock that released above. The activity forced my pace into overdrive as I reached Thumb Rock at around 7:45, thankful to be above the highest concentration of rockfall activity.
From there, I took a pleasant break in the sun and enjoyed a front row seat as falling ice on the Willis Wall ran all the way down to the Carbon Glacier below. Afterwards, the snow climbing continued and I began climbing on the ridge crest proper which included a few fun ice sticks and some loose rock.
I encountered snow all the way to the upper bergschrund of Liberty Ridge and I took my time as I zigzagged my way through the heavily crevassed terrain of the Liberty Cap glacier. After reaching the bergschrund, I found soft, unconsolidated snow and after a few unsuccessful attempts to pull the overhanging lip I was forced left onto a steep panel of ice that would grant me passage through the final crux of the route. After about 30 ft of 70 degree ice and a long rightward traverse above the overhanging schrund, I climbed through the last question mark of the route and back into the sun. My hands screamed from beneath my cold, wet gloves and I took some time to rewarm my hands and body.
The ‘schrund had taken about an hour to bypass and thirty minutes later, I found myself back on top of Liberty Cap at around 12pm, 9 hours since I began moving uphill. The weather was perfect and I enjoyed my time on top of Mount Rainier's raddest summit.
As I descended down to the Emmons Glacier, I savored each turn and the warming snow beneath my skis. Music blasted from my phone, tucked securely in my chest pocket. It was a perfect descent.
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| The Winthrop Shoulder dominates the lookers right side of the Emmons Glacier complex |
I drained the Winthrop shoulder all the way to St. Elmos Pass, quickly booted up and over onto the Inter Glacier and skied within 2mi of the trailhead. The descent went quickly and I ran into a few friends in the Glacier Basin parking lot who had just skied the Central Mowich Face. The sun glowed through the trees, and I felt insanely lucky for the incredible day I had just experienced. I stopped at the Wapiti General Store in Greenwater and enjoyed a strawberry smoothie as I raced back to Ashford and towards the next stint of guiding work on Mount Rainier.
Final Words
I’d like to give a huge thank you to everyone who has supported my spring ski season up here on Mount Rainier. Without the schedule flexibility and Camp Muir resources from RMI none of this skiing would have been possible. Another huge thanks to all of my ski partners this spring which included: Henry Coppollilo, Bailey Servais, George Hedreen, Sam Hoffman, Calvin Jiricko and Kiira Antenucci. And finally another thank you to all of the big dogs that have inspired all of us with your bold and visionary descents. People such as Andy Bond, Sky Sjue, Aaron Mainer, Peter Dale, Dan Helmstedter and many, many others. Your style and vision for the mountains is incredibly infectious and we all aim to humbly carry on the legacy you all have established here on Mount Rainier.
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