Glacier Climb - Whitman Crest/Fryingpan Glacier

We left the Summerland TH with headlights on.   The switchbacks when almost at Summerland was icy in the early morning.  Views of Little Tahoma, Rainier and Meany Crest were beautiful.  All had new dusting of snow.

After leaving a few things at the shelter, we headed towards Meany Crest/Point 7573'.  The thin layer of snow on the boulders made for slow going.  Thankful it was the dry kind as the boulders could have been more slippery. 

Roped up and put on crampons at Point 7573' with 2 rope teams.  One with 3 and 1 with 4 people.  The snow was soft, anywhere between 1-3" of snow over ice.  Sometimes broke in sheets when stepped on.  As we neared 8000', the clouds came in and the breeze picked up.  Glad the predicted 20-30mph winds never appeared, just a bit breezy.  Two large crevasses that were easily avoidable below the summit. Glad we were able to see them before the whiteout as had to navigate with GAIA after that.  Started snowing too.   Unroped at the base of the summit block and scrambled the rock to the summit, some with crampons off and some on.   Followed our tracks back to Point 7573' for the most part, but sometimes the tracks were already gone with the new snow. Amazed how much new snow fell in that short time.  Scrambling the boulders back to Summerland again took some time, with a few slips, but no accidents thankfully.   Half inch or more of new snow at the shelter, a total winter wonderland.

Quite a day with a great group of Mountaineers.

Estimated times:

Left TH 5:30am/Shelter 7:30am/Departed Shelter 7:50am/Arrived Point 7573' 10:20am/Departed Point 7573' roped up/10:45am/Summit 1:15pm/Return Point 7573' 3pm/Back to cars 6:30pm