I had just climbed Rainier via the Kautz the previous weekend when Matt emailed me asking about conditions, saying he wanted to do the Tahoma Glacier route. The Tahoma! Hmmmmmm. I'd heard about it. Off the beaten track due to the long approach, and the previous weekend had left me with a desire to see Rainier's other faces. I asked if I could join and we made plans to use the four day weekend for the climb. Two days for the approach, one for the climb, and an extra day to play with if we didn't have good weather summit day and wanted to wait and try the next. The weather forecast was not looking stellar, but we hoped to get above the clouds at the higher altitudes were it was important.
The approach is a long one due to the west side road being washed out. Matt, John and I spent the first day hiking up to Tokaloo Spire. We were in thick soup the whole day and finally emerged above the clouds at the spire where we camped. We had some faint aspirations of making it all the way to base camp in one day and taking advantage of better weather for a summit attempt on day two, but this was clearly unrealistic.
A really cool looking basalt(?) formation on the hike in.
We awoke the next morning with everything covered in frost but clear
skies and calm winds. Clouds still lurked below us. Would they
rise? We packed up and started climbing along Puyallop Cleaver.
From camp the first morning.
Light from the rising sun hitting Glacier Island.
Tracks in the snow at around 7500'. They were five toed and
the animal was probably about the size of a small dog - a fisher or martin
perhaps. I couldn't image that it would find very much to eat up
here.
Puyallop Cleaver shortly after we crossed over to it's north side.
Sunset Ampitheater looms high in the distance.
St. Andrews Rock in the center, Sunset Ampitheater upper left, Tahoma
Glacier upper right. Our camp on night two was on the flattish section
at the end of the ridge just below the right side of St. Andrews Rock.
Note the steep snow above it and the vertical drop below.
It was a fine day.