Peakbagger.com
Peak Lists	Climbers	Ranges	Geography	Help	Search	Log In

Ascent of Mount Rainier on 2009-06-12

Climber: Marlin Thorman

Others in Party:

Rob Durham
Amanda Durham
Jerrod Gabel

Date:

Friday, June 12, 2009

Ascent Type:

Successful Summit Attained

Motorized Transport to Trailhead:

Car

Peak:

Mount Rainier

Location:

USA-Washington

Elevation:

14411 ft / 4392 m

Ascent Trip Report

Mount Rainier Base Camp at Camp Muir
It is 7pm and I just got into my sleeping bag. I am tenting with Jerrod Gable. We got snowed on today. It hailed and spit an inch of corn snow on the end of our climb and also while we were setting up. Then during supper it snowed nice big flakes for about 10 minutes. Other than that it was sunny and warm most of the day. The mountain is beautiful, although the snow was pretty soft on our ascent today. Many people summated today and said conditions and weather were very good.

Mount Rainier Base Camp at Camp Muir
1pm – Just got back to camp Muir. It was a fantastic morning! We summated about 9:30am after 5 ½ hours of climbing. The weather was perfect all morning but now it is snowing. So funny how fast these storms come and go. The hike up was good. Everyone seemed to be doing well and we made good time. The snow was crunchy and the moon and stars were awesome. We decided to go up the Ingraham Direct because it is shorter and was supposedly still in good condition. There were numerous crevasse but all were either avoided or stepped over except one with a ladder crossing. We passed several rope teams that had left hours before us but I still felt like we were moving at a reasonable pace. Spent an hour at the summit before heading down. Jerrod’s knees were really bothering him so we took it very slow in places. The clouds started to build on the way down but it got really hot. It must be in the 60s or 70s in the sun or at least it seems. We made it back to camp in 3 hours only to find that something got into our food. We think it was a fox because we saw one early when we were leaving. Well everyone is resting now. We will spend the night and go down tomorrow.

Paradise Inn Parking Lot
Wow, as I write this I am sitting in the parking lot looking up to Mount Rainier. It is bathed in morning sunshine with a little bit of cloud cover hanging around the summit. I spent several hours yesterday afternoon boiling water to drink and cook with. Then I relaxed in the tent and was asleep by 7pm. Slept about 12 hours and then packed up camp this morning. When we got up it was cold and windy. Rob’s thermometer was reading 21 with wind chill. After breakfast we left camp at 8am. We got down in just over 90 minutes, a whole lot faster than going up!

Summary Total Data

Elevation Gain:

8991 ft / 2740 m

Elevation Loss:

8991 ft / 2740 m

Distance:

15.5 mi / 24.9 km

Grade/Class:

Grade III, Class 2

Quality:

10 (on a subjective 1-10 scale)

Route Conditions: