Trilogy on Mt. Rainier

In anticipation of a for-realsies attempt on Mt. Rainier in a few weeks, here are some photos from 3 trips I’ve taken up there this year already. One could call them “training trips” but frankly the weather was nice and I had some spare time on my hands, so…RAINIER!

In late-March, my new-to-Seattle bestie Gabriella joined me and some fellow trouble makers skiing the Nisqually Chutes all the way down to the Nisqually Bridge. That’s roughly 7,000 uninterupted feet of skiing. Yes, it was awesome:

Kristen in the bright pants leading the charge

Made it to camp in about 5 hours – gorgeous day!

Cartwheels on Muir

See where the snowline ends at middle center? Yeah, that’s where we’re going. 7,000′ of uninterrupted turns!

Sexy figure eights

We made it! Nisqually Bridge!

In May, the week before starting the new job (which is awesome) my buddy James and I “attempted” to “summit” via the Fuhrer Finger route. We spent 7 hours getting to to camp near the Fuhrer Finger on Thursday (about 2 hours longer than it should have taken – the crevasses and seracs were much bigger than this time last year, so that caused much delay). We made camp just before dark.

We woke up to driving snow and wind and our summit bid was no more. We slept in then packed up camp. Around 10am we skied down in a fog out,NOT ideal conditions, but made it back safe and sound. It’s too bad we couldn’t see too, because the skiing was actually pretty great!

Approach on Nisqually Glacier

Crevasses to navigate

Crevasse tracks

James kicking steps

Be careful below these hanging seracs

Morning of the second day. You can see the bad visibility in the background. Sloppy Kiwi Coil in the foreground.

We stood on this ledge for 15 mins waiting for visibility to open up. Threw lots of snow down.

Where’s James?

I post a lot of happy pictures. Here is an unhappy picture. But…still kind of fun. My mood improved upon digging our cold Rainier Beer out of the snow at the car.

Then this past weekend in June, Erica and I ventured up to Muir for a beautiful, sunny ski day on the snowfield. The sun was shining (with a rainbow halo!), the snow was corny, and the company was excellent. In all, a fabulous day!