Greeting fellow climbers,
The past week’s weather has been very classic Pacific Northwest spring with clear skies one day and dumping rain the next. We had teams scattered across Washington, climbing on Mt Baker, Leavenworth, Washington Pass, North Bend, and Mt Rainier. The mixed weather has provided excellent training in a range of conditions for our climbers. Tuesday’s storm produced more precip than anticipated, especially in the Southern Cascades. The Paradise snotel picked up 1.25” of water while the Mt Baker snotel reported 0.75” of water. Guides are reporting over 16” of new snow above 10K on Mt Rainier and 10” of new snow above 8K on Mt Baker. Check in with us for updated metrics, or check out the precipitation amounts yourself on the Northwest Avalanche Centers website. The forecast for this holiday weekend is a continued mix bag of sunny skies and spring time storms. Welcome to Washington!
Koma Kulshan (Mount Baker) & North Cascades
Kulshan conditions have remained consistent since we last checked in. Teams have been climbing on both the northside and southside of the mountain in the past week. The trailheads have been slow to melt and teams are continuing to wear double boots from the parking lot. With last week’s fair weather, teams reached the summit of Koma Kulshan (Mt Baker) and other Cascade peaks. In the heart of the North Cascades, the Cascade River Road to access Boston Basin is still closed due to snowlevel. The National Park reports that the road have seasonal damage and will need to be assessed and repaired before opening completely. It is currently open to the Eldorado gate trailhead. In Washington Pass, there is still several feet of snow at the trailhead and in the mountains. Climbers will need to use mountain boots to access these peaks.
Tahoma (Mount Rainier)
With yesterday’s storm, field reports show over 16” of new snow on the mountain. Our Kautz and Muir teams did not make summit attempts due to the increase in avalanche danger. Earlier in the week we had teams on the Muir route made it high. They reached above 13k’ on the upper mountain before turning due to weather. The road to White River will be opening this weekend, just in time for our first Emmons trip of the season to launch! On all three routes climbers can expect to wear double mountain boots from the parking lot.
Have a great Memorial Day weekend, and we’ll be back next week!
Happy Climbing!
