This Year's Rainier Retreat! Sigh... Liberty Ridge Attempt

Behold... our former objective for 2013:
Spoiler Alert: Objective for 2014!

Liberty Ridge - June 2013. Exposed ice for several pitches above the Black Pyramid would have been quite the highlight. *D

Opinionated Fact: Liberty Ridge is by far the most coveted route on Rainier. It lies on the north face of the mountain, splitting two shear walls of rock and ice and provides the "safest passage" up the nordwand. On either side of the ridge, Willis Wall on the left (east) and Liberty Wall on the right (west), rock and ice tumble toward its base, giant masses of glacier cleave off and avalanches wipe clean the terrain below throughout the entire day on the regular. Liberty Ridge, although much less risky than its neighboring routes, still poses its own challenges to any party willing to test their alpine mettle.

Coming off some successes in February during our ice climbing foray in Ouray, it was natural that I pitch the idea of this route around to the comrades. Our collective four interests piqued and we each  committed our next several months to training hard for this objective. Fast forward to the first week in June. Us out-of-towners arrive late into SEA-TAc one night, with our buddy Dave on the ready to intercept us and head for the mountain. We crash at the finest digs Enumclaw has to offer and rest up for the few hours we have until day breaks.

First bad sign of the trip: Jay getting charged $800 extra dollars for his breakfast and coffee! *M

After a rousing success of breakfast we took to our luggage and began re-assembling
our packs, divvying up group gear, and trading hypothesis as to what went down in the
neighboring motel room the night prior.

Who knew the parking lot of the motel would have its own objective dangers?
I'm talking about rockfall! While packing my bag, a riding lawn mower about
20m away launched a decent sized projectile that pegged me right in the ribs!
Not a good sign, number 2. (Left: *J, Right: *M)

Come 10 o'clock, we were loaded up and ready to head in to the park. Vibes were high, stoke was strong, until...
Not a good sign, Number 3 -- Getting pulled over by park 5-0 (he wasn't even a real cop), for no front license plate on display. "Hurry up, maaannnn, you're pushing back our start time!"

Finally we arrived at the White River ranger station, close to noon. *M

The crew. Jay, myself, Dave, & Mark. *M

 One might notice, Mark and I have different packing strategies. He always wins, hehe. *M

We finish our last minute prepping. I stash some craft beer (Twenty-First Amendment "Brew Free or Die!" IPA to be exact) in the snow nearby and we head off down the glacier basin trail to find the Inter glacier.

The approach was rather uneventful for the most part, with just the memories of sucking wind and some newly discovered altitude. Please let it go by quick, pleeeease... Oh yes, and Jay learned of the consequences of chugging soda before starting our approach. He was hurting for most of it.

Time for a breather... Though I'm not the one hurting in this picture.
Dave forgot he left the stove on back at the hous--- err, he left his
water sitting in the snow at our previous rest stop. He sprinted the
whole way down and most of the way back up to us. Hardcore. *M

Home, sweet home away from home, perched atop St. Elmo's pass. (Right: *J)

We settled in for the night and took to the kitchenly duties. *J

Overlooking the Winthrop glacier at sunset. *M

Day Two: St. Elmo's Pass, Across Winthrop Glacier, to Lower Curtis Ridge

Last minute prep-work to get ready for our easy day of traversing over
to Curtis Ridge. Let it be known for the record that putting in contacts
while sitting atop an exposed ridge during the windy morning hours
is a crap-shoot. I lost one contact as it blew right from my finger
tips as I was transporting it to my eye hole. *M

Jay finishing up his pack, with Russel Cliff in the background. *M

Once again, the approach across the Winthrop glacier was mainly uneventful. Mark took point, followed by Jay, then Dave, and myself at rear. We only had one slightly sketchy crevasse crossing as Dave punched a leg through the snow bridge. We made excellent time, with the thought of being able to continue over Curtis to the Carbon glacier, where we would make our way up to Thumb Rock. We were doing everything we could to make up for the delays the day prior. Most people traverse over to Curtis Ridge on day one -- but we had two extra days of leeway just in case.

 Crossing some waves of ice, where the glacier buckles into the rocky ridge. *M

Liberty ridge starts to come in to view, the further we creep along Curtis ridge.*M

The gnarly broken-up higher sections of the Winthrop Glacier.

Poop break, somewhere on Curtis. *J

Looking out across the Carbon Glacier.

Jay assessing his recently-groomed cuticles at the most epic of locations.

The crew. With high hopes still intact. *M

Willis Wall and Liberty Ridge from atop Lower Curtis Ridge.

Looks great to me! One continuous turf of hardened snow all the way to the toe of Liberty Ridge!

Broken up Carbon.

One of the joys of rolling in to camp early was we had an ENTIRE day to sit and do nothing but bake in the inescapable UV rays. We took turns sleeping in the tent, until it got too hot after 20 minutes of sweltering heat. It was hot enough to put you to sleep, but some unconscious trigger would sound the heat-stroke alarm and instantly wake you up. Bad times. So we got to thinking. Many options failed, but soon emerged a brand-new technology that would soon sweep the ridge! The Inflatable Badger Shade™...

Our only respite from the sun was to inflate out air mattresses and tie them to our backs using climbing slings & runners.

Pretty soon, the entire crew took to the idea (Mark was a hard sell :-D).
Imagine the most brutal of sun exposure.
Times that by two, or maybe a million if we want to be exact.

 It was a bloody hot day on Curtis Ridge. The sun got the best of some. *D

 More sun misery. Jay must be super bendy from all that yoga he does. *M

Dave and I fought the sun continuously, trying to obtain any semblance of cool shelter from its radiation. *M

I finally resorted to digging a shallow grave in the snow to hide in.
It was a little wet, but I finally felt a chill for the first time that day.

No Liberty Ridge trip is complete without the token First Light tent shot!

The route above Thumb Rock in higher detail. Credit to Dave *D for taking these close-ups!

When some clouds finally moved in, we all gathered and took turns scoping out the route in higher detail. The ranger had already warned us of waist-deep snow on the slope up to Thumb Rock. From Jay's scope we determined most parties were skirting the ridge on the left-hand (east) side from Thumb Rock upward. There were a few rock bands to negotiate from there, and then several several pitches of exposed alpine ice that formed the ramp up the left side of the Black Pyramid. I was beyond stoked at the opportunity for some multi-pitch ice climbing thousands of feet above the glacier below.

It was right around that time when fate struck hard. One of our teammates suddenly felt the overwhelming sense of panic and doubt. I'm sure there were many factors at play here, but when it comes down to it, it just wasn't his time to be on this particular route. Too much risk. We decided as a group to retreat together. And in a matter of 30 minutes, our outlook for the coming weekend had completely reversed. It was decided, much to my frustration, that we would head back in the morning.

 Jay and I hadn't even begun to quench our appetites for some alpine fun.
After dinner, he and I roped up and dropped down onto the Carbon glacier
to find some nice crevasses to climb in before the sun set. Worth it. *M

Jay building one of our deadman anchors for some crevasse climbing laps.

The innards of a crevasse, this one particularly muddy.

Sunset, taken by Mark on the ridge. *M

Sunset, taken myself, with Jay on the Carbon glacier below.

Ain't that a beauty. It was all right there, laid out for us!

Jay and I each took a few laps on a very snowy crevasse wall, belaying off a couple of buried pickets above. When we each were tired, we packed up and continued up the glacier a ways to get a better view of the crevasse maze that we would have to come back to at a later date. Looking back, I wish we would have split up with half of us continuing up the route, and the other half meeting us on the descent route on the Emmons. It all came as such a surprise that it felt like there wasn't any time to work alternate plans out. Who knows what lie ahead if we were to continue. It's hard to say.

Day Three: Retreat Back to White River Campground

We woke up at sunrise to an intense wind storm and Thumb Rock shrouded in clouds.
It was a rough night trying to sleep through the weather system moving through, with the
tent shaking and straining back and forth in both directions.

From our vantage point, we could see the curved caps of lenticular clouds forming over each of the orographic terrain features in the foreground of the mountain. That spelled out high winds moving through the region.

Another leading edge of a lenticular, forming to the west as the winds blew eastward over the mountain.

Liberty Ridge with a spot of weather moving in, early morning. *D

It was windy enough to capture some cheesy helmet-on-a-rope shots.

We made quick work back to St. Elmo's pass, where the stashed the ropes and continued on further. There was a little bit of precip on the way down, but by the time we reached White River, most of the weather had blown over and settled out of the region. It was frustrating passing the scores of people heading up the route with unbridled optimism for their coming days and shot at their prospective goals. It'll have to be another time. I think I've lost count, now... I believe the current tally stands at 1 for 6 on Rainier. At least I live to attempt another day. At least there was beer stashed back at the truck to look forward to.

We are outta here. *M

Some last parting scenery on the way out.

 We retreated in the most proper manner... Craft brews and pizza in Issaquah! *M

No trip to Seattle (Bellevue) is complete without a stop at Marmot Mountain Works.
We stopped in to get the low-down on climbing areas. *M

>> Part 2 - Climbing our Remainder of Time in Washington

Photo Credits:
Mostly my photos except for those denoted by an asterisk.
*J  = Jay 
*D = Dave
*M = Mark