Mount Rainier via Liberty Ridge Part 1

The whole idea of this trip started back in February when myself and three others tossed around the idea of climbing Mount Rainier from the Muir Cabin and the extremely popular Disappointment Cleaver route. It's a wide open trail, very popular, often wanded and mostly a difficult hike through snow and over glacier. For lots of reasons that plan fell through. However, I still had an itch to do some true alpine climbing so I tossed the idea of Rainier to my friend Jon, who has successfully climbed Rainier once via the more difficult Kautz Ice Chute, and attempted a second time on still more difficult Liberty Ridge. He had been forced to back off of the approach for Liberty Ridge in 2012 due to unstable snow conditions and high avalanche risk. When I passed the trip idea to him, he was adamant about attempting Liberty Ridge again.

Liberty Ridge is a Grade IV-V alpine climb. It's long; the starting elevation is less then 5,000 feet and you have a full day and a half of approach before you ever even start climbing the ridge itself. It's exposed; 5,000+ feet run out means falling simply isn't an option. It's technical; in addition to crossing 5 glaciers before all is said and done, there are several pitches of front point technical ice climbing. It's committing; once on the ridge it is way more dangerous to go down. We would have to carry all of our gear over the summit and down a different route, instead of taking a light summit pack and coming back to a camp. It's also a classic of North American alpine climbs. I knew this would be a difficult and intimidating trip for me. I told Jon I'm in if he thought it was technically within my abilities, the rest would just be mental.

The trip was booked.

Flying in I got my first views of the mountain and the actual route we would climb, I think my response was something like "Holy Crap!"

 

(Liberty Ridge is the ridge line right-center facing directly towards you)

 

Upon arrival in Washington we got caught up with the current mountain conditions. Our original plan was to go super light and fast, and try to be off the mountain in two days to limit our chances of being caught in rotten weather. Reports from the ridge were describing deep heavy snow, there was also a large group a day ahead of us that we would have to meet at Thumb Rock. With those conditions in mind we decided to stretch it to a traditional three day climb.

We found a nice campsite just outside the park and got a good nights sleep before the packing began. We had gear for two or three contingency climbs also in case the conditions or weather wasn't favorable. Organizing gear took some time.

 

It was a nice camp site though.

First stop was the Ranger Station to give them our itinerary and pick up our blue bags (pack out your waist).

We arrived at the trailhead parking lot and did some last minute packing. Packed weight at this point, carrying nearly everything, was around 40 lbs. Fortunately I knew this was the heaviest it would be since I would be wearing almost everything in my pack for summit day.

Jon looks ready

 

I think I look ready

The first several miles were just gentle incline trails as we headed towards Glacier Basin. We would catch occasional glimpses of what was to come.

 

Rainier is the clouded over peak on the right

 Boot adjustment

After about four miles of hiking on trail and eventually snow, we arrived at Glacier Basin.

Our next target was St. Elmo's pass straight up the middle of the basin.

From here up the snow was deep, wet, and heavy. Progress slowed down to a sludge and pushing through knee deep snow in places was exhausting. Proper pacing was definitely important.

The climb to St. Elmo's Pass

 

Leaving the trees behind 

 

 After skirting under the Inter Glacier, we gained St. Elmo's Pass and stopped for lunch while we negotiated the best route forward. We would be dropping onto the Winthrop Glacier and traversing across to Curtis Ridge to bivy for the evening. The large party that was a full day ahead of us left some decent tracks across the Winthrop that would help in negotiating the snow covered crevasses.

 

 

Winthrop Glacier from St. Elmo's Pass with Curtis Ridge in the distance.





 

Looking back down Glacier Basin

 

 After roping up, we plunged our way down onto the Winthrop and started the cautious traverse.

 

The Winthrop Glacier was in good shape. Most of the snow bridges were still strong and we had little trouble navigating the crevasses.

 

 

 

After sludging across the Winthrop we finally gained Curtis Ridge and skirted around to the far west side to find a bivy site for the night.



 

 

From our bivy site on Curtis Ridge we could finally get a good view of both the Carbon Glacier and Liberty Ridge. The deep snow would actually be to our benefit on the Carbon. It's a super active and  highly crevassed gnarly glacier that runs 900 feet deep in places. It can take the better part of a day just navigating the crevasses safely. Fortunately the lower sections looked well snowed over and we still had tracks in places to guide us through the upper Carbon. Avoiding the hidden crevasses would be the name of the game. Scouting the upper sections of Liberty Ridge we were able to see several hundred feet of ice up near the black pyramid at around 13,000 feet.

 

 

Even from this vantage point we could hear and see the dynamic nature of the mountain. The Carbon Glacier was continually creaking and cracking as it shifted or big seracs would cave off. Both the Willis Wall and Liberty Wall would throw rock or small avalanches off of it regularly. It was impressive, humbling, and intimidating at the same time.

 

Liberty Ridge is the line right up the middle with the Carbon Glacier below and Liberty Cap/Liberty Glacier at the top. To the left and right of the ridge are the extremely active Willis an Liberty Walls respectively. With as much avalanche and rock fall activity it's insane to think people have actually climbed those walls. The ridge line is about the most protected place you can be. You can also see the reflection off the ice face just to the left of diamond rock formation in the center (black pyramid) below the Liberty Glacier.



 

We had quite the impressive sunset that night.

 

The next morning we were still holding good with perfect weather. If anything it was going to be a little warm! We could see the party that was at Thumb Rock last night working their way across the ice face up by the black pyramid. They had absolutely perfect summit weather.

 

 

We packed up then found our way down the crumbly, crappy, volcanic ash and rock to access the Carbon Glacier and rope up.

 



 

The Carbon was just awesome. Ice fall, and gaping deep crevasses. We managed our way through most of it. We both punched through a couple times but were able to catch ourselves and work around the weak snow bridges.

 

 

 

The upper sections of the Carbon Glacier are really when the approach ended and the climbing began. We started navigating the glacier while climbing steep snow.

 

I think it was right around this point when a serac the size of an apartment building fell off Liberty Wall and crashed down onto the Carbon. I couldn't react or even think fast enough to get a camera out. It just makes you feel so tiny. We just stood there in awe and tried not to pee ourselves.

 This one was DEEP!



 

We finally reached the base of Liberty Ridge and started our climb. We were working around more cruddy rock in places. A solid hold or foot placement was non-existent on this stuff.

 

You can see our second bivy site, Thumb Rock, sticking out above the ridgline. Still several hundred feet above us. 

Looking back on the Carbon

 



 

Last push to Thumb Rock. We are starting to get that exposure!

We reached Thumb Rock around 2pm, just over 10,000 feet. Plenty of time for us to melt water for tomorrow, get some food, hydrate and prepare for the push for the summit. We lounged and watched the rocks and avalanches come off Liberty and Willis Wall before hitting the sleeping bags around 7pm. The mountain would make noise through the night, some sounds closer then others.