On the upper half we roped up and traversed the glacier to the
notch between Whitman Crest and Little T. From there the summit
looked really close and we progressed quickly up the final steep
snow slopes of the upper Whitman Glacier to the summit rocks.
The upper Whitman Glacier
No point in roping up on the final scramble, there was just no
protection to be placed on the loose volcanic rock. Just before
the summit, we peeked over the summit ridge down onto the Emmons -
a mother of a glacier for sure!
The massive Emmons Glacier flowing below Little T
The final meters were pretty scary, loose rock everywhere and a
few thousand vertical feet of air under your butt! I imagined the
free fall onto the Emmons below...aeeeh...forget these thoughts i
told myself and moved on to the summit where Dany was already
writing stuff into the summit register.
Scramblin' the final meters to the summit
Danny & the lower Emmons Glacier
The views from the summit were really cool, especially of
Rainier which was right opposite from us. It was so close from
this perspective! And it did look really white, a giant sugar
cone!
from l. to r.: Gibraltar Rock - Ingraham Glacier - Dissapointment
Cleaver - Emmons Glacier
You could actually see the boot track to the summit and a
number of parties along the way. Some tents were also visible at
Ingraham Flats. Hopefully everyone would make it back in time
before the forecasted storm would move in. No clouds were visible
yet but things can change quickly at Rainier.
Glissading down the lower Frying Pan Glacier, Summer Land below
We glissaded most of the way down and by the time we reached
Summer Land, the clouds were moving in quickly on the upper
elevations. By the time we reached the car, the weather was foul.
Good thing we listened to the weather report and chose to climb
Little Tahoma instead of Rainier.
Clouds movin' in as seen from Summer Land
For some reason Danny got a disgusting blister on his heel even
though his climbing boots were well worn in. He popped it right
away and the sight was pretty gross.
Gross!