Guide House Opening 2010

This weekend the Guide House will be open for climbing registration. If you come up on Saturday or Sunday to climb on the south side of the mountain, please register in person at the Guide House in Paradise. We'll be open 6:00 AM till 3:00 PM both days. If you're coming up outside of that time frame the self-registration box will still be in place in Paradise at the Old Station.

The Guide House will be open everyday starting May 29th. Check out the permits, registration, regulation link to the right for more info. Also, if you're planning to climb an east- or north-side route, look to that route's condition page for current access issues.

Climbing ranger staff has still been busy in pre-season trainings. Last Monday Mark Moore from the Northwest Avalanche Center, NWAC, came up to the park to talk meteorology with us. He gave a great presentation mostly regarding the weather around Mount Rainier. The NWAC website is a great resource for all climbers thinking about climbing a route on Mount Rainier. Please make use of all the excellent online weather resources available. Check out the weather link to the right for some starters. The image to the right is from the UW's MM5 model for this Friday at 17:00.

Spring Training

Arlington Ashby attends to a mock patient

The climbing ranger team has been busy this spring with a number of trainings. We kicked it off with a highly productive week of rope rescue instruction led by Leo Loyd of Rigging for Rescue. The following week we focused on EMS ( emergency medical services ) skills, with one day of instruction from Remote Medical International followed by a day of training with Pearce County Fire EMS. Returning lead climbing ranger Glenn Kessler who gave us a day of rescue training geared towards professional avalanche rescue. Tucked into this busy schedule was a highly enlightening half day presentation by Mike Moore of the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center on mountain weather. We are all looking forward to getting out of the classroom and climbing on the upper mountain with the first available weather window. Training is great but climbing is better.

DG

Climbing Reservations, Facts and Tips

Reservations for climbing and wilderness permits opened on March 15th. By April 1st, we had a stack of over 1000 forms to process. We're not complaining, and keep them coming, but know that we are processing these ASAP and it is likely that your confirmation letter is or will be in the mail shortly. If we are unable to make your reservation due to camps being full, you will receive a letter giving the reason and you will not be charged for climbing passes or the reservation fee. Some common problems that will slow processing of your request are: not attaching the supplemental form if you have already purchased climbing passes, leaving out dates or camps, illegible credit card numbers, or omitting your credit card's three-digit security code, now required on the new version of the form (if you have an old form, please enter the three-digit code after your card number).
If the dates of your trip can be flexible you will be more likely to get your requested camps. Also if you can be flexible with the requested campsites, it allows us to modify your itinerary to accommodate your trip. While desirable for requests made for trips during midweek, these two options help considerably on the weekends.

For forms and more Info go to:

http://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/wilderness-reservation-information.htm