Greetings follow climbers!
Summer is here and these sunny PNW days are pretty fantastic. We’ve wrapped up another glorious week of sunny and hot weather in the Cascades with above average seasonal temperatures across the region. The upcoming forecast shows a a cooling trend with more seasonally average temperatures on deck. Regardless, don’t forget to bring water and sunscreen on those long days outside!
Climbers on Tahoma and Kulshan have switched to climbing in single boots and using approach shoes on the lower mountain trails. As always, guides might recommend switching back to double boots if conditions change, so be sure to check in with your guide.
Koma Kulshan (Mount Baker) & North Cascades
Nothing much has changed in on Kulshan and in the North Cascades. Guides are still reporting that Koma Kulshan is in some of the best shape they have seen in years, and our teams on the Southside and Northside are summitting daily. Our recent North Ridge Baker trip enjoyed great conditions climbing firm neve snow and ice up the iconic North Ridge of Baker. We have one more North Ridge Baker team this season, and they are currently on the mountain. If you haven’t considered this route before, we highly recommend it. In other parts of the Cascades our teams are climbing on Shuksan, both on the Fisher Chimneys route and the Sulphide Glacier Route. Deep in the North Cascades wildfires have closed certain areas such as the Cascade River Road and Washington Pass. We recommend checking the North Cascade National Park website on up-to-date closures due to wildfires.
Tahoma (Mount Rainier)
We’re seeing similar conditions to last week on the approach to Camp Muir. The route is dry to Pebble Creek and we are recommending using trail shoes to hike to the Muir snowfield. Over the past week the Muir route has stayed the same, with the route still climbing out towards Camp Comfort. Once at Comfort the route is direct to the summit. Our teams have had success summitting when weather allows.
Our final Kautz climbed finished up with the whole team summitting! We look forward to returning to the Kautz in 2025. Over on the Northside of Rainier, the Emmons glacier is in good shape and we currently have a team leaving today to start an 8 day Emmons. Similar to the Muir route, we strongly recommend trail shoes to approach glacier basin.
Lastly, with the warmer temperatures guides at the gear check have been adjusting the required equipment list to match the current conditions. Please understand that the gear list is a tool for packing based on all weather conditions and upon arrival at the gear check, the guide might adjust based on the short-term forecast.
Thank you for following our blog, and happy climbing!
We provide a weekly conditions report. Stay tuned for next week’s update!
