Mt Rainier and Snow Travel Training
Friday, May 10th, 2024
Today we trained on ice axe arrest, traversing steep snow slopes, sitting glissades and plunge stepping. Most of the training was a complete success, but the snow conditions made learning one of the four arrest positions nearly impossible to perform. No worries, we always stopped :).
Click on the link below for a video of our trip.
On our trip were Roger Matthews, leader, and Jerry Martin and Robert Smith
One of the main reasons that people climb Mt Adams over and over, is the amazing 2,500' snow glissade from the false summit back to the Lunch Counter (the half way camping spot). Here is a YouTube video from July 2022, showing the entire amazing glissade. This video is 12 minutes long, and this 12 minutes shows you why people climb Mt Adams. It starts at the false summit, at 11,000'. The summit is behind the videographer, about 1/4 mile away and 800' further up. The false summit has a snow lip, and the rocky area below is the 1/2 square mile flat spot half way up the mountain, called the Lunch Counter. He is basically glissading from the false summit to the Lunch Counter. You can see the snow trough he is in. This is formed by hundreds of glissaders. You can make your own path, but the existing one is smoother and faster. You control your descent with your heels pushing snow, and by leaning against your ice axe like a rudder. If you must, you can roll over to ice axe arrest. But you'll notice he never needs to do that :). This is a climb that takes 2-4 hours to climb, but 10 minutes to go back down :). Yee Haw!! :):):) Great fun!!
Here are some instructional videos:
- The sitting glissade (and the amazing standing glissade)
- Ice axe arrest from the four positions
- Ice axe arrest techniques
- Proper plunge step technique
- How to walk on frozen snow or ice with crampons
