Mt. Rainier, Liberty Ridge 6-2-07

Jim and Dave saw this mother black bear and her two cubs cross the White River and head off into the woods!



Mama bear and cub crossing river.

Other cub crossing river.




Skiers going over and around crevasses, on the Emmons Glacier, near Camp Schurman.


Glacier Basin.




House sized seracs on the Winthrop Glacier.




Doug, the Willis Wall, Liberty Ridge and Ptarmigan Ridge as seen from Curtis Ridge.

Liberty Ridge.

The Carbon Glacier and North side of Rainier.

A tilted serac on the Carbon Glacier.

Alpenglow on Liberty Ridge.

Sunset the first night.

Mark at our bivy site on the Carbon Glacier.

Mark starting up Liberty Ridge.

Sunrise on Liberty Ridge.

Mark watching the sunrise.

Mark climbing above Thumb Rock.

Mark high on Liberty Ridge with Willis Wall in background.

Doug below the Black Pyramid.

Mark beside the Black Pyraimid.

Nearing the icy section at the top of Liberty Ridge.

Crevasse at 14,000'.

A decade of snowfall layers exposed in the Liberty Cap Glacier.

Doug crossing the bergschrund.

Mark leading up the steep icy section at the top of Liberty Ridge.

Climbing into a cloud!

Doug following up the steep ice.

Mark on Liberty Cap.

Doug on Liberty Cap.

Doug heading toward the Emmons Glacier.

Doug dropping into a hidden crevasse right by Camp Schurman.

Doug and Mark down at Camp Schurman, with Jim and Dave, for our second night on the mountain.

Sunrise at Camp Schurman.

Mark, Dave, Jim (and Doug) at Glacier Basin heading out. Meanwhile a storm is brewing high up on the mountain. We had to shorten this climb by one day to beat the storm. It was another awesome climb, with good friends, enjoying God's beautiful creation!

Colchuck Peak 4-29-07

Colchuck Peak, in the Stuart Range, was to be our first real climb of 2007. We camped near the trailhead the night before and then got a 4:00am start on the climb. The road to the trailhead was closed due to a mudslide that needed to be cleaned up. We pushed and rode bikes for 4 miles up the dry gravel road.




Mark crossing the bridge over Mountaineer Creek.



Doug, Mike and Dave enjoying the view.

Dragontail Peak is on the left, Colchuck Peak is on the right and the Colchuck Glacier is in-between. Our route would start directly below the summit as seen from this angle. Colchuck Lake was still frozen. We were able to save a lot of time by going straight across the lake.

Our route was the North Buttress Couloir (NBC). It is the snowy strip going up the left side of this photo. This is the NE side of the peak.

Heading up the lower part of the NBC. The snow was in great shape on this side of the peak. We could easily kick in steps and they were solid.

Dave, the moraine and the end of the lake.

We made it up to the notch and crossed over to the NW side of Colchuck. The snow on this side was loose dry powder.

Mark with Colchuck Lake in background.

Mark, Doug and Dave on top of Colchuck Peak with Mt. Stuart and Sherpa Peak behind us.

The Colchuck Glacier consisted of hard icy snow. We were numb by the time we finished glissading down to the lake!

Dave takes a lot of flower pictures. Here is just one. We hopped back on the bikes, made good time coasting down to the pickup, ate some real food and headed for home.

Mt. Rainier, DC 9-24-06

We wanted to see what it was like to climb Rainier in September. So we chose a date, made plans and drove to Paradise. There was a menacing cloud cap over the mountain threatening to change our plans! We made it up to Camp Muir later that day in good weather.

We were very pleased when we got up at midnight and started our summit bid under clear skies!

There is nothing like watching the sunrise from 13,000 feet!

The storm that almost stopped us left beautiful ice formations all over the upper mountain.

These palm sized formations were all over the crater area.

This 5 foot tall icicle was found inside the steam caves that are under the snow and ice in the crater.

A blue light illuminates the upper portion of the caves.

The view looking down one of the caves. Farther down the cave, it is completely black.

The view looking up from farther down in the cave. These caves go down hundreds of feet and all the way across the crater.

Dave, Doug, Mark and Jim on the top. We were blessed with awesome weather on our summit day!

More ice figurines on the way down.

The long traverse back to

Disappointment Cleaver.

The mountain is a jumbled mass of crevasses and seracs in the fall.

This part of Disappointment Cleaver is made up of crumbly red "rock."

We made it home later that day. As always, we were a little dehydrated, famished, sunburned and tired. But it was well worth it!