Search trip reports
Placeholder Routes & Places

Trip Report    

Mount Rainier/Ingraham Direct

Ingraham Direct was the established standard route at the time of this trip.

Carolyn Graham Carolyn Graham
May 28, 2018
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • Mt Rainier via Igraham Direct 05-26 to 05-27-2018

    This trip was planned for 05/26 to 05/28 (all 3 days of Memorial Day weekend) in order to maximize our chances of getting walk-up permits and a suitable weather window. We climbed the Ingraham Direct route, which was the established standard route at the time of this trip. The route was in good condition and looks like it will still be viable for at least a few more days. Our party of 3 was armed with 60m of rope and 6 pickets.

    There were about a dozen fixed pickets along various portions of the Ingraham Glacier. Some locations made more sense to clip than others depending on your rope spacing and whether you were traveling up or down. On ascent the temps were still below freezing and the Ingraham Glacier had a very hard crust. You typically could not get the spike of the axe to penetrate more than a couple inches. Using the pick as a third point of balance often made more sense. Had there not been an established boot path zig zagging up the glacier, it would have taken much more time, gear, and skill to get up and down this route.  We clipped pickets where it made sense and used one of our own pickets while crossing a snow bridge on the way down.

    The attached photo is from the Mount Rainier Climbing Blog and represents the approximate route of the Ingraham Direct at the time of our climb.Map - ID may 15-MtRainierBlog.jpg

     

Saturday 05/26: Met at South Renton Park and Ride at 4 AM. We arrived at the Paradise Wilderness Information Center at about 6:30 AM. We were the second group in line when we arrived. Prior to the PWIC opening at 7 AM, a ranger verbally informed us that all permits for Camp Muir and Ingraham Flats were filled for the night of 05/26. We were able to get Muir Snowfield zone for the night of 05/26 and Ingraham Flats for the night of 05/27 (overnight visibility was good, so we did not need the second night).

We camped at about 9,600 on snow near Anvil Rock. This was a nice and quiet place to camp. No other parties were nearby.

Forecasted freezing level was 10,500' and forecasted summit winds were around 20 MPH. We were unsure about night-time visibility since forecast was for cloudy conditions. As it turned out, we were camped above the night-time cloud deck.

Sunday 05/27: Skies were clear and the moon was nearly full when we departed Anvil Rock camp at 11:30 PM  Saturday. Stopped at Camp Muir to gear -up and use the bathrooms. Departed Camp Muir at 1 AM. Arrived at Summit Crater at 8 AM. Departed summit crater at 9:45 AM. We were back at Anvil Rock Camp at 1 PM.  Departed Anvil Rock camp at 3 PM and arrived at Paradise at 5 PM.