May 31, 2018

The busy weeks continues on Mt. Rainier!

Our Kautz team summited on Tuesday and made their way down to the trailhead yesterday. Our next Kautz team meets this Sunday and will be on the route early next week.

The Liberty Ridge team topped out yesterday and made their way down to Camp Muir for the night. They slept in a bit this morning before making their way down the Muir Snowfield and onto Ashford to celebrate.

Luke Reilly and his DC team summited this morning and will be a few hours behind the Lib Ridge team on the snowfield. Mike Haft and his team are en route to Camp Muir now hoping to summit on Saturday.

And over on the Emmons, the team gave it a good go but ended up turning around at 12,700ft. The Emmons route doesn’t see the boot traffic that the DC route does so the team likely ran into some deep snow coupled with low visibility, or a myriad of other possibilities. We’ll get a full report from Anna Hicks tomorrow when the team gets back to Ashford. One thing is for sure, they gave it all they had, but it just wasn’t to be. Not this time anyways.

Tye Chapman

May 29, 2018

Take a deep breath here we go…

On the DC Route (currently the Ingraham Direct), Dallas Glass and his team summited this morning and are now back down in Ashford. Taking their place on the mountain is Luke Reilly and his team. They’re up at Camp Muir doing well with a plan of moving to the Ingraham Flats tomorrow.

On the Kautz, Jonathan Schrock and Co. summited a little while after Dallas. After the earned handshakes & photos on the summit, they descended back down to their high camp near Camp Hazard (10,000ft), where they’ll have dinner and hit the sack pretty early. A few hours downhill to the van tomorrow is their next objective.

On Liberty Ridge, Peter Dale and Max Lurie are on day two of the climb and at are tucked in at Thumb Rock. If conditions are right tomorrow morning they’ll ascend Liberty Ridge to Liberty Cap and then on up to the summit, Columbia Crest. From the summit they’ll descend to either Camp Muir or Camp Schurman.

And on the Emmons Route, is Anna Hicks and her team. They’re safely at their first camp on the Inter Glacier. Tomorrow they’ll move up to Camp Schurman and rest up for their summit day (Thursday). Along for the climb is IMG Partner Eric Simonson and his daughter Audrey.

And as an added bonus this week we have some guides going up onto the Disappointment Cleaver to do some prep work for the eventual transition off of the Ingraham Direct onto the cleaver. Mix in some helicopter resupply flights and that’s enough for this week!

Tye Chapman

May 25, 2018

The good weather continues here in the PNW allowing our Rainier climbers to enjoy some great climbing!

Andy Polloczek and his Fuhrer Finger climb had a great summit day yesterday. With an extra day built into this program they opted to take advantage of the good weather and camp on the summit! They descended the Disappointment Cleaver (DC) route today.

Joining Andy’s team on the summit today was Luke Reilly and his DC team. They climbed from The Flats this morning and summited in good form. If I was a betting man I’d bet that Luke made sure to give Andy’s tent a good shake to wake him up.

All is well on Mt. Rainier!

Tye Chapman

May 23, 2018

The climbing season is steadily ramping up here in the Pacific Northwest. On Mt. Rainier’s Disappointment Cleaver Route (currently the Ingraham Direct) IMG Lead Guide Betsy Dain-Owens and her team stood on top, on another absolutely perfect morning. Hot on their trails will be Luke Reilly and his team who left the Paradise Parking lot early this morning en route to Camp Muir. The met Betsy & her team on the snowfield for some handshakes, hugs and the guide info download.

On the south side of Mt. Rainier is Andy Polloczek and his Fuhrer Finger Team. They’re on day two of the climb and have established their second camp at the top of the Finger. With some thunderstorms in the forecast (and a feel in the air) they opted to dig in vs. climbing any higher today. They’ll see what develops then plan accordingly. They’ve got a few days to play with.

Meanwhile, things continue to ramp up later this week/weekend with our first Kautz, Emmons and Liberty Ridge climbs heading into the field. Looking ahead, next Tuesday stretches the bandwidth a bit when we have five teams on Mt. Rainier on four different routes!  Soon after, the North Cascades & Baker seasons jump off. It’s going to be another busy summer!

Tye Chapman

May 21, 2018

Last week was a busy week on Mt. Rainier, but not so busy we all couldn’t stop and appreciate the tremendous moment Andrew and Sarah shared on the summit. As you’ve already deducted from the headline, Andrew proposed and Sarah said yes!

A little background, the couple met seven years ago while working at an equine summer camp in Kentucky. It was there they bonded over the love of nature and all things outdoors. Since then, they’ve spent much of their time together horseback riding and backpacking in Red River Gorge.

A recent move to Utah for Sarah to attend veterinary school opened a lot of opportunities for some bigger adventures into the mountains of the Western US. With their new love of the mountains, along with a recommendation from Sarah’s father, they arrived at IMG to climb Mt. Rainier.

Sarah will be the first to tell you that they had zero mountaineering experience before arriving in Ashford and that the climb was a little more challenging that her father let on, but they toughed it out made it to the top, where Andrew dropped to one knee and proposed! They’ve been above the clouds ever since.

Sarah made sure to tell me that she and Andrew are sincerely grateful for the support of IMG Guides Andy Polloczek, Anna Hicks, Jay Lyons and Grant Henarie. She also wanted me to let them know that if they’re able to find the time to get to Kentucky for the wedding, there will be four seats with their names on them.

Congratulations Sarah & Andrew!

Tye Chapman

May 19, 2018

IMG climbers are on a roll here at Mt. Rainier. With successful summits on the last three trips and more good weather coming our way we’re having a heck of a May climbing season. IMG senior guide Austin Shannon snapped a few photos early this morning during their successful summit bid. The mountain is in good shape!

Robert Jantzen

May 18, 2018

IMG Senior Guide Mike Haft checked in from The Flats this afternoon reporting calm conditions and fluctuating cloud layers. The winds are calm, and are forecasted to stay that way, so it looks like they’ll get chance to climb tonight/tomorrow…only one way to know for sure though, get up at midnight and take a look.

Tye Chapman

May 17, 2018

Yesterday IMG Guide Peter Stone along with RMI Guides Ben Ammon and Grayson Swingle set the logos aside and took full advantage of a day off & good spring skiing conditions on Mt. Rainier. Their agenda was a climb of the DC route (currently the Ingraham Direct) and then a ski of the Kautz, but conditions & time pushed their objective over to the Fuhrer Finger. The skiing wasn’t optimal, but still a great ski nonetheless. Roundtrip clocked in at just under 12 hours.

While we’re talking Mt. Rainier – if you’re looking for a climb on an intermediate route on Mt. Rainier, we do still have some availability on our Kautz & Fuhrer Finger programs.  Drop us a line and get signed up!

Tye Chapman

May 14, 2018

The team on the upper mountain on Sunday (Nickel Wood)

After a couple bumps in the road, our third team of the Mt. Rainier season summited via the Ingraham Direct in good form yesterday morning with IMG Guides Rikki Dunn, Willie Webster, Nickel Wood and Peter Stone leading the way. The reports are that it’s a steep, but direct route to the top, taking the team about 5 hours to get to the summit from the Ingraham Flats.

In addition to our scheduled climb, we had 5 of our new guides up on the mountain on a personal climb. Forrest Baldwin, Leanne Sebren, Keith Rumburg, Nicole Sims and Porter McMichael all summited and are looking forward to a busy summer on the mountain.

On the mountain today is our DC team. After some training at Camp Muir they’ll move up to the Ingraham Flats to get in position for their summit attempt tomorrow morning.

Down lower on the mountain are IMG Guides Justin Merle and Dallas Glass along with several of our new guides. Justin and Dallas are taking them out for some continued training. On the agenda today will be a refresher course on short-roping techniques and some advanced crevasse rescue work.

Never a dull moment on Mt. Rainier!

Tye Chapman

May 11, 2018

Little Tahoma (Luke Reilly)

Things looked promising for our first two climbs of the Rainier season, but as she always does, Mt. Rainier had the final say, which meant no summits for our teams. High winds and low visibility being two of the deciding factors. The good news is that both teams got a good dose of Mt. Rainier, and will surly be back!

Our third climb of the season is heading uphill to Camp Muir now, and if the weather forecast holds, they’ll likely get a fair chance at a summit attempt on Sunday. Only time, and Mt. Rainier, will tell!

Tye Chapman