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Kurt and me following Chris above the bergschrund, with the Carbon Glacier many thousands of feet below. From here we had one last pitch of technical climbing, which looked like it would be a short, easy ice bulge. I grabbed a few ice-screws and started leading, but I should have remembered that “ice is always steeper than it looks” – the angle turned out to be 60-65 degrees, and it was over a full rope-length of climbing before I reached easier-angled snow below the summit.
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Chris setting out the following morning. Chris is an avid ski-mountaineer and did an excellent job of kicking steps for us. With the benefit of hindsight it would have been better to have started a couple of hours earlier, but we’d arrived at Thumb Rock quite late the previous evening and we wanted to have a decent night’s rest before the 4,000’ climb to the summit.
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Above the “Black Pyramid” much of the snow cover gave way to bare glacial ice, so we took out the rope and started placing ice-screws. Here’s Martin leading the way.
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Google Earth image of Mt. Rainier. The approach to the Liberty Ridge starts at the White River trailhead (4,300’), off to the left of this image. We hiked up the Glacier Basin trail to St. Elmo’s Pass (7,400’), dropped down and crossed the Winthrop Glacier to the lower Curtis Ridge, where we made our first night’s camp at about 7,000’. From there we headed to the Carbon Glacier and up to the start of the Liberty Ridge. There’s an exposed bivouac site half-way up the ridge at Thumb Rock (10,300’), where we spent the second night. The climb ends at Liberty Cap (14,112’), from where we descended the Emmons Glacier to spend a night at Camp Schurman (9,500’). On the fourth day we descended the Inter Glacier and hiked out via the Glacier Basin trail.
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Martin approaching the “Black Pyramid” on the upper ridge, with the Carbon Glacier far below.
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A final view of Mt. Rainier as seen from our flight from Seattle back to Denver.
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Martin and Kurt on the snowfield at Glacier Basin.
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Kurt and Chris at our first night’s camp, a pleasant spot on the broad lower shoulder of the Curtis Ridge.
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Martin and Kurt negotiating crevasses on the Winthrop Glacier.
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Unfortunately much of the snow cover had melted from the lower ridge, and underneath the snow the ridge consists of horribly loose volcanic rubble. This nasty-looking slope is what we had to climb up and across in order to gain the ridge crest. We stood here for a few minutes contemplating the debris that had evidently fallen from above, then unroped and crossed one by one, moving as quickly as we could. I was halfway across when Chris shouted out and I looked up to see beach-ball sized rocks tumbling down towards me. I jumped out of the way as fast as I could, but not quite fast enough to avoid some glancing blows. Fortunately the only damage was a couple of minor bruises and a broken wrist-watch strap.
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Martin climbing up snow slopes on the upper ridge.
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One of the rules of climbing the Liberty Ridge is that literally everything has to be carried up and over the summit. The park rangers provide one with “blue bags” for this purpose. Fortunately there’s a disposal bin at Camp Schurman where one can lighten one’s pack.
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Chris and some other climbers descending the Inter Glacier below Camp Schurman. This is perfect bum-slide terrain and descent is quite rapid.
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Back at the parking lot at White River. I’d gotten quite sunburnt on our long summit day and was now turning a bright lobster red.
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Martin leading the way on the Carbon Glacier. It can be a challenge to find a route around the crevasses, but fortunately another group had been up there a few days earlier and we were able to follow the remnants of their footprints.
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Kurt and Chris toiling up the slopes above Glacier Basin on the way to St. Elmo’s Pass. It was overcast for much of the day, but there wasn’t any snow or rain.
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Another view of our tent at Thumb Rock.
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To the left of the Liberty Ridge is the Willis Wall, which is periodically swept by collapsing seracs. Fortunately the Liberty Ridge is out of the way of such danger.
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Martin back at tree-line at Glacier Basin. Liberty Cap is just visible in the upper center.
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Kurt and Chris at the edge of the Curtis Ridge, about to descend to the Carbon Glacier. The Liberty Ridge is the obvious line in the center of this photo. Thumb Rock is situated half-way up, where the bare rock of the lower ridge gives way to snow and ice (if you look carefully you can see the shadow cast by Thumb Rock).
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This overhanging bergschrund was the final obstacle between us and the summit. Getting past here involved a traverse beneath seracs to reach the ice ramp glistening in the sun in the center of the photo, then a final pitch up the ice in the upper-right. You can see the footprints of climbers that had been here ahead of us.
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At St. Elmo’s Pass the clouds parted for a few minutes to give us a glimpse of the summit.
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Looking back at the mountain from the Glacier Basin trail.
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Martin, Kurt and Chris at Emmons Flats. The rangers’ shelter at Camp Schurman is just visible on the right-hand side of the photo.
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Kurt and Chris at the White River parking lot.
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Kurt and Chris at Thumb Rock. Luckily someone else had dug out a tent platform in the snow, because there wasn’t much level ground here.
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Kurt approaching the “Black Pyramid”, with the Curtis Ridge behind him.
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The sky cleared during the night and we rose the next morning to be greeted by our first view of the Liberty Ridge.
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Chris negotiating a snow-bridge on the Carbon Glacier.
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Martin leading up to the start of the traverse beneath the seracs.
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Chris and me in our tent at Emmons Flats the following morning. I’m looking very cheerful despite having slept only a few hours – the wind had picked up speed and the tent had flapped noisily all night long.
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Martin placing an ice-screw as he traverses beneath the seracs.
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Chris taking a break at one of the few level spots that we encountered.
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Chris and Kurt starting on the descent, with Mt. St. Helen’s on the horizon. Kurt was very tired and it was close to midnight before we reached the tent sites at Emmons Flats above Camp Schurman. (It was so late that other climbers were starting to wake up and prepare for the next day’s climb up the Emmons Glacier.) Fortunately the Emmons Glacier descent is much easier than the Liberty Ridge and there was a good track for us to follow.
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Martin and Chris at the summit of Liberty Cap. About a mile away in the background is Rainier’s main summit, Columbia Crest (14,410’). Under good conditions it’s just an easy walk to get there, but it was now quite late and a fierce wind was blowing, so we decided to bypass the main summit and descend to Camp Schurman.
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Chris and Kurt at the summit of Liberty Cap (14,112’) after 13 hours of climbing. Kurt had become quite dehydrated and was now moving quite slowly.