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Kris Haskins Staff Webpage |
Mt. Rainier - Liberty Ridge |
| July 4-6, 2010 |
A little bit over a year ago, Jim and I had planned on climbing Liberty Ridge on Rainier but conditions had looked a little bit dicey so we decided to go do the sandy glacier headwall instead (which it turns out didn't go so well :? ). This year conditions looked dramatically better and the forecast left plenty of room for optimism as far as the weather during the difficult climbing was concerned. Jim and I planned on a Friday-Sunday attempt, and settled on leaving Seattle at 6AM.
Jim was at my house promptly at 6AM and we were off towards white river. We made good time listening to wait wait, and soon enough we were at the ranger station where a board informed us that there had only been 3 successful summits of Liberty Ridge this year. We filled out all the necessary paper work and we were off to the climbers parking lot. We packed up out gear and were out towards the trail around 8:45 or so. We passed a WTA work crew and thanked them for their efforts (the new parts of the trail they are working on look nice). A rather large portion of the trail to glacier basin still had snow on it and we made quick time to the basin where we stopped to have something to eat and chat with a few people who were headed up for the Emmons. While there, I spotted this guy:
A view up glacier Basin:
After the brief stop, we contoured around the basin until we came to the spot we though would be St. Elmo's pass and Jim began to kick steps up the slope. After a while I took over and the fog really started to roll in and visibility went downhill quickly. I took over kicking steps until we reached a rock outcropping where Jim navigated to the top and pulled out the map:
We were indeed at the correct place and found a path down the other side to the Winthrop glacier. We plunged our way down to where the ridge leveled off and spied a good place to rope up. Thinking we were still on Moraine, we didn't bother to put the rope on until we could make it to a good looking island of rock we could see. Once I got there, I noticed a nice crevasse and we realized we probably should have roped up sooner. At the outcrop, we put on our harnesses and Jim began to lead us out on the Winthrop. Fortunately, there was a nice boot track to follow. We assumed it had come from the two parties we had done the ridge the weekend before. Following their tracks provided smooth sailing and we soon came to the start of Curtis Ridge.
Jim leading our way across the Winthrop:
We decided to keep going for a while once we hit the ridge (since it is pretty broad) and crossed some more snow and rock until we came to a portion of the ridge where we spied a good site to set up camp. We quickly set up (Thanks Brian) our borrowed tent and were able to relax for a while since it was only about 4 in the afternoon.
Camp site #1:
After lounging around for a while the clouds lifted and we were rewarded with some great views of the Willis Wall
Willis Wall
At this point, we were about ready to go to bed since we were waking up at 4, so we finished the rest of the chores (brewing up, and boiling some water) and had our hot food then hit the hay.
The next morning we awoke at 4 and were rolling out of camp by about 5. We had hoped the snow would refreeze a bit, and in some places it did, but around the rocks we had some difficult travel with serious postholeing. Fortunately, that section didn't last too long and we made it to the edge of Curtis ridge in good time. We spotted a way down the rocks and onto the Carbon glacier that involved crossing a rather large gap over a snow bridge. When we got to it, the bridge was solid and we were soon making good time across the carbon and shedding layers as it started to warm up to a rather pleasant temp.
Sunrise over Curtis Ridge
Carbon Glacier with LR and Willis in the background
Jim on the Carbon
Jim led up a steeper section of the Carbon with some rather interesting sections of crossing crevasses on rather small bridges. After that, we stopped to put on some sunscreen (and after a few shenanigans with the sunscreen trying to run away I was leading out across the rest of the carbon.
Me on the Carbon (Jim in my glasses)
We headed up until we got to the left side of the ridge and found a nice snow bridge across a shrund and climbed a steep snow slope up to the start of the ridge.
Jim on Liberty Ridge
Once on the ridge, we made out way along the ridge on it's right side which generally involved negotiating rock bands and climbing on steep snow. We swapped turns kicking steps but Jim managed to get the hardest portion that involved a little bit of climbing on rock and some harder snow/ice where we decided to start using two tools.
Jim on Liberty Ridge
After that rather exciting section, we encountered a long stretch of steep snow leading directly up to thumb rock. We kicked endless steps up the steep snow with burning quads and cavs and eventually reached our destination around 9:20 or so, a little less than 4.5 hours after we started. We were happy to have made such great time and quickly set up camp so we could lounge around until our departure that night for the top. There were two platforms already chopped out, and we chose the upper one which we eventually realize was a mistake. Later in the day, I was outside the tent when some rockfall came with the largest rock (about a grapefruit) narrowly missing the tent and a smaller (a bit less than a baseball) hitting the tent. We rapidly moved to the lower platform with at least had a sort of wall that would help prevent another such occurrence. Later on in the day, we heard another party come up and it turned out to be Veronika and her two partners. We chatted with them for a bit and talked about the next day then decided to try and get some sleep before our 12AM wakeup time.
Widening the tent platform
We woke up at 12, and the wind was whipping a bit but we decided to get up anyway. As it turned out, the temp outside was actually pretty mild so we struck camp and Jim was leading out up and left around the large rock around 1AM. We continued to head up and left for a while in the darkness on steep snow until we came to an area where we saw a ridge on our right. We took a quick look and decided we needed to keep going left so I took over and began kicking buckets in the softer but still steep snow up to a plausible looking way to get onto the face below the black pyramid. After making it to the other side, we took a look and decided to try going up a bit higher to access the face since the way at that point looked a bit thin. we skirted down and around a bit of rock and up through an icy bit until we came to another point in the ridge that offered a good way onto the face. We found a spot to stop and have a bite to eat, and then I was back on my way leading across the face to the snow ramp that would take us to the shrund and liberty cap. The upper portion had some rather wind loaded snow which was a bit scary, but we quickly made it past and decided to rope up for the glaciated terrain ahead.
Jim following under the black pyramid
Lookin up towards the ice step and Liberty Cap
Jim lead out and we found a spot where we thought we might be able to cross the shrund and Jim lead out. Upon getting to the bridge, it cracked and fell and Jim rapidly jumped back. He tried one more way at that point but it didn't seem solid either so I suggested we head left to an area I had spotted before which would require us to go up and traverse on some ice for a ways before gaining an upper snow field. Jim got to the base and put in a screw before bringing me over. At this point, the weather had started to turn and the bluebird skies were thick with fog and the wind really started to pick up. Jim tried to lead out, but was unable to hang on to place a screw in the high winds so he came back and I gave it a go. With the leashless tools, I was better able to place pro so I went to the top of where we had to traverse and belayed Jim up. At this point things were getting a little bit dire with the conditions and Jim was starting to get cold. I asked if he wanted to lead, but he didn't so I lead out the next pitch almost to the end before coming back to Jim after he said he was getting too cold. Faced with the prospect of downclimbing the first pitch (which is what the other group did as they were going to dig in) we decided to keep going and Jim re-lead out the pitch that I had come back from after I told him I though we were almost there. After following that, I headed straight up some ice to the hanging snowfield an brought Jim up. Jim lead out through the snow and said he found some old boottrack which was quite encouraging. Jim made it up the slope and set up a belay underneath some ice and brought me up. From there, we trended up and left swinging leads until we reached some easier snow fields above the ice on the way to liberty cap.
Once we reached the top of the cap, we contoured around to the saddle and looked for a place to Bivy. High winds made it evident that we were going to have to descend, and after a few hours of painful slogging down the emmons in Frigteningly high winds we arrieded at the flats and set up our tent exhausted after a 22 hour push.
In the morning, we broke down camp and stopped by the climbing ranger's hut to let them know that we had made it down from the ridge. What followed was a bit of a slog to the top of the interglacier where we enjoyed a rather long glissade back to glacier basin. From the basin, we cruised the trail back to the car, checked in with the ranger at the bottom, and headed back to Seattle.
This was a great trip with a wonderful partner. There were some serious concerns during the climb when the weather rolled in, but I think we both did a great job of staying focused and completeing the climb. I unfortunately ended up with a bit of frostbite on my toes, but other than that the climb went pretty well. This was certainly the most challenging and rewarding climb I have ever done.