Fall - Rock-tober

There isn't a whole lot to say about specific climbing conditions on Mt Rainier these days. It's mid fall, it's beautiful, it's quiet. For climbers, the issue revolves around dry glaciers and lots of exposed bare rock (volcanic rock that is). A few of the steeper routes (Mowich/Ptarmigan) may come back into shape, but those are a gamble. Most of the fresh snow is now 4 months past and the new stuff doesn't seem to really accumulate till November (sometimes later).

All that said, if you'd like the mountain mostly to yourself, some of the finest days to climb are happening right now. That's because the weather has been quite good overall (it's predicted to remain so for another week) and the DC remains climable.

The reponses to the Muir Snowfield question are stilll coming in. As of yet, no one has desented from the general observation: the snow and ice on the Muir Snowfield seem to be visibly shrinking! To those who wrote, thank you. To those who didn't... :)

Muir Snowfield and the Disappointment Cleaver Route

Check out this 2x6 style of crevasse crossing. The image was snapped over the weekend (thankfully the board didn't)... The lumber has since been pulled, so now climbers must find another way around the crevasse. Here's more on the DC...

I received a few comments about the ice mass on the Muir Snowfield. Avid Rainier skier Ron Jarvis had this to say,

"When I started playing on Rainier in 1991 there were no dismounts required while skiing from Muir to Pebble in late summer/fall and as I recall that seemed to be the case right up until the last 2 or 3 years (dementia notwithstanding :-) ).

I would also add that similar conditions (volume/snow-ice depth) also seem to be the case on the contiguous neighbor to the east, the Paradise Glacier."

The Muir Snowfield

Camp Muir was quiet this weekend, but a few teams made the summit via the Disappointment Cleaver. We'll post our report soon. In the meantime, I've updated the conditions on the Muir Snowfield.

And about that Muir Snowfield... I had a good conversation with a senior RMI guide about the level of the snowpack on the snowfield. We both felt that there was a noticeable drop in how it measured against the rocks. That is, the surface of the snow seems to have lowered, thus exposing more bare ground. It appears to my untrained scientific eyes that the ice mass underneath is melting and diminishing, leaving less ice-volume throughout the snowfield. The surface appearance seems normal for this time of year with ice, some fresh snow, and a few crevasses, but the overall snow level seems to have decreased. In essence, we noticed more exposed mounds of sand, pumice and volcanic rock. I'd be curious to hear if anyone who hikes the snowfield a lot is left with a similar impression.