Summer continues to reign over the Pacific Northwest this week with blue bird skies and warm temperatures. The steady flow of warm weather has made for ideal climbing conditions as we reach the middle of the climbing season. Our teams continue to summit peaks throughout the Cascades, our 3 Day Muir team summited this morning (7/14) and reported beautiful weather.
Mount Rainier
Tahoma (Mt. Rainier) continues to bask in the warm summer sun, solidifying route conditions over the last week. Trails heading out of the Paradise parking lot remain snow covered. While the snow is melting at a steady rate, the park notes there will still be snow at most Paradise trailheads through Mid-July. Climbers will continue to use mountain boots out of the parking lot until the snow level recedes higher onto the mountain. Teams are using the summer trail to access the Muir snowfield, 100% of the trail to Camp Muir is still snow covered. Above Camp Muir, climbers have switched to the Disappointment Cleaver (DC) route. The DC has a well-established track. Teams report summiting in 4-5 hours via the DC route from High Camp.
The Emmons route has also seen improving conditions with the stable warm weather. The trail to Glacier Basin is slowly melting, it is snow free until the last half mile. From Glacier Basin to the Interglacier is seeing great conditions- snow covered with a beautiful climbing track. The trend continues to the upper mountain, seeing straightforward conditions with team summiting regularly. From Camp Sherman, teams are averaging 7 hours to the summit.
Looking towards the Kautz- crossing the Lower Nisqually is very straightforward with minor crevasses at this time. As teams make their way up to the Castle, the route is completely covered on the Lower Wilson Glacier. Teams report firm nieve snow climbing in the Kautz Ice Chute. Current conditions on the Kautz are some of the best we have seen in several years. Above the Ice Chute the route is direct to the Columbia Crest.
North Cascades
Mt. Baker- Komo Kulshan (Mt. Baker) has seen high traffic over the last couple of weeks as summertime kicks into full swing. Teams are summiting daily via the Coleman Deming (CD), Easton, and Squak glaciers. On our 3 Day Baker programs, access to Sandy Camp is snow free until the Railroad grade around 4,500 ft. Above Sandy Camp is still fully snow covered. The Schreiber’s Meadow trailhead to access the Easton Glacier has finally melted out, cars are now parking at the trailhead. On the North side of the mountain, FS Road 39 is still closed due to the washout at mile 3.8. Trails are dry to Hogsback camp just below 6,000 ft on the North side.
North Cascades- Exciting news- the road to Artist Point has been cleared! Thanks to the WA Department of Transportation, the parking lot is now open. Teams continue to explore the North Cascades, with successful Shuksan summits via both the Sulfide Glacier and Fisher Chimneys. Guides are reporting the summit pyramid of Shuksan to be a mix of snow and rock with excellent alpine climbing conditions.
General Cascades
While our Rainier and Baker climbs have been the spotlight of our season thus far, we have launched our Glacier and Olympus climbs over the past weeks. Although there are still large amounts of snow in the North Cascades, teams highlight the beautiful conditions prevailing the Pacific Northwest with many successful summits. Summer has arrived, we’re kicking into high climbing gear now!
