After much anticipation associated with securing a spot in the early lottery process and then scoring a reservation for the group shelter at Summerland on the Wonderland Trail, our group of Brian, Dan, Joe, John, Mark and I headed out in anticipation of three fun days of skiing and riding in the Fryingpan Glacier area of Mt Rainier. Brian and I got picked up at the Harrisburg exit early in the am by Mark, Dan & John, and we made the trek up to Albany where Dan hopped into Joe’s truck and we caravanned the rest of the way to the park. After a brief stop at the exit on highway 12 for some coffee and supplies, and another in Packwood, we made our way into the park to pick up our permit at the White River Ranger station around 10:45 am. A few minutes later, we found ourselves with the last two parking spots at the Fryingpan Creek trailhead, and set about getting our packs and gear ready for the hike into Summerland.
The weather was overcast and cool, which was actually quite welcome from the heat we’d been having during the past week, and made for a pretty leisurely and non-sweaty approach as we hiked up the trail. The first miles passed quickly, and soon we found ourselves at the bridge crossing, which ironically was washed out again just as it was 2-years ago during our last visit. As we started to don packs and get ready to cross, I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye and noticed a big black bear with two cubs rambling down the trail across the creek. Definitely not wanting to get into the middle of that, we retreated from the creek a bit and yelled towards the bears to let them know we were there. The bears definitely wanted to cross, but finally decided to head down the creek and gave us passage to cross without incident.
After crossing, we followed the trail for a half mile or so and then began the switchbacks up the steep canyon wall towards Summerland. On the hike up the trail, I looked back across the canyon and we spotted another black bear, this one a big male, feeding in a meadow. Seems like the bears were definitely out and about with the cool weather. A bit later, we were able to don skins and get the skis and boots off our backs, and soon we arrived in Summerland, happy to have the shelter as a place to stay for the next two nights.
After getting the packs off our backs, we began to get our camp in order in anticipation of heading out to make some afternoon turns. The bear pole was up (thanks to the rangers for getting that installed a few days earlier), and after hanging our food out of the reach of any hungry bears, we donned skins and headed out towards Goat Cirque. The fog and clouds were still holding on and didn’t show any signs of loosening their grasp at our elevation, but it was still great to get out on the skins to make some turns.
As we worked our way up the snowfields of the Goat Cirque, we didn’t see any goats, but did see quite a few tracks in the snow. Visibility was anywhere from 100 feet to 100 yards, so I’m not sure if we would have seen them even if they were right on top of us. Regardless, we continued up and followed some smooth looking snow up to climber’s right of the bowl.
We worked our way up to where the slope steepened and the visibility worsened and decided that was high enough for our first lap. A few of the skiers headed down, and after I pulled my skins, I dropped in and snapped a few shots of Dan coming down.
The snow was a bit on the sticky side which was surprising given it’s smooth and firm consistency, but we figured it had to do with all the moisture in the air from the fog. Nevertheless, it wasn’t enough to keep us from heading up for another lap, although this time we elected to climb a slightly steeper pitch a littler lower down the bowl that was closer to our exit to camp.
Dan grabbed the camera through the steep rollover and shot a few pictures of me, and then I took it back and returned the favor as he headed down. The snow here was quite a bit better than on our first lap, and gave us good hope for conditions the following day up high. After exiting the bowl, we traversed back towards camp, making some fun turns along the way before arriving back at Summerland a few feet from our camp site.
Back at camp, it was time to cook up some dinner and enjoy some leisure time hanging out. It stayed a bit on the cold side, so everyone had their winter coats on, but the relaxation was taken to the next level when Brian pulled out his cot that also doubled as a bench for sitting!
A bit later, I cooked up what was quite possibly one of the worst freeze dried meals I’ve ever had (never again will I buy the Green Curry from Backpacker’s Pantry haha. It literally tasted like vomit but I had to eat it since I didn’t have a surplus of meals on hand having packed in a full 6-pack for the crew plus an extra beer for me. Even Fischer tasted my food and said it was really, really bad, which if you know John is really saying something! I managed to stomach the food eventually and then washed it down with a backcountry margarita made from an airplane shot of tequila, some crystal light lemonade and some corn snow. That took the bile/vomit taste out of my mouth and put me in a better mood for the rest of the evening, which was capped off by taking a few more photos around the shelter before we all hit the sack in anticipation of the following day.
After a cool, foggy (and even misty at times) night, we woke to cloudy skies that we could tell were going to succumb to the sun. I’d been telling Brian for the past 24 hours about the glorious views of Mt Rainier from Summerland, but we had yet to see the mountain. Finally, after breakfast, we were ready to head out around 8:00 am when the sun finally beat the clouds down enough for the mountain to pop out just as we donned skins and left camp.
As we started skinning higher and made our way towards Goat Cirque, the views improved and what a contrast it was to the previous day. I followed Mark who was out in front, and eventually we all grouped up in the cirque to continue our ascent.
Partway up the bowl, Mark and I donned ski crampons while the rest of the crew donned regular crampons. A bit later we all arrived at the top of the ridge, and the views to the south and west opened up nicely with Mt Adams looming large. Looking back towards the southeast, it always feels like I’m looking at something out of a Lord of the Rings movie – the scenery from this side of the mountain is just superb.
We enjoyed a quick break at the ridge, and then continued our approach up to a high point before having to drop down before more climbing. I took several shots as we headed out, including the ones below of Brian and Joe.
As we climbed, the snow was quite smooth and it looked like we were going to get not only a long ride on the way out, but a good ride on our way back down. A few more minutes of climbing and a few more pictures brought us to a point where it was time for a brief descent…
After putting the board halves together and removing skins, I motioned for Mark and Dan to drop in while I shot a few photos. The turns looked great the corn was ripe, and the two shots below show their signatures on the snow.
After shooting a few pictures, I dropped in next and harvested the perfectly ripe corn. At the bottom, it was time to don the skins again for my favorite part of the climb up to the Fryingpan and on to Whitman Crest. A couple of shots below include John threading the needle between a couple of patches of snow in the bowl and then a couple of the skiers looking pretty small below on the climb up to the Fryingpan proper.
Mark and I headed out ahead of the rest of the group and set the skin track up towards the Fryingpan, and partway up the snow was looking really good. With a few of the others still well below us, Mark couldn’t take it and decided he needed to get a few more turns in, so he pulled skins quickly and enjoyed some quality corn while I shot a few pictures. It was really tempting to pull skins and follow him, but I decided to to continue on up.
I headed up the slope and eventually worked my way out onto the Fryingpan, which was looking really nice, and found a good spot to take a break and refuel. A bit later the rest of the crew came up, and soon everyone was enjoying a break with a view.
Our break wasn’t too long — just enough to lower the heart rate, rehydrate and enjoy a snack — and then it was time for the push to the Whitman Crest. The views from this high on the Fryingpan are quite incredible, and looking across the glacier to Mt Rainier proper gives a commanding view of the Emmons Glacier.
We worked our way up the slope and were able to skin the entire way to the high point on the crest. My first order of business was to put my beer on ice, which I did. A few minutes later it was cold and ready to drink, and I’m not sure I’ve ever had a better beer than the cold Alpenhaze Hazy IPA from Icicle Brewing Company. Life doesn’t get much better than enjoying a cold beverage high on a volcano in the pacific northwest in late June with several of your best ski buds!
As usual, the views from the crest didn’t disappoint. Looking off into the Whitman Glacier to the west and up to the Little Tahoma, I didn’t even feel the urge to head off in that direction. It was just great to enjoy the view and get ready to harvest some of the best corn around.
While we enjoyed the views and our beverages, Brian and I hiked the ridge to the high point to get a commanding view of the mountain and the Fryingpan. Standing on the rocks high on the ridge and looking down at the valley carved by massive glaciers is a sight that I will never tire of.
A few minutes later we scrambled back down to the rest of the crew, and after getting the obligatory “sponsor shot,” it was time to step into the bindings and get ready to shred. As usual, Fischer took off first, and was so fast I couldn’t even get my camera out quick enough to snap pictures of him — all I got was his tracks heading way the eff down skier’s right of the Fryingpan with him as a small dot in the picture. Typical Fish!
Joe launched next, and I followed after he headed down. Brian elected to stay up at the crest (we’d all agreed to come back up for a second lap), and I stopped briefly to shoot a shot looking back up the crest before heading down toward John.
Partway down my run, I pulled over at a suitable spot for shooting some action shots, and waited until Dan and Mark came down from the crest. A few moments later, they dropped in and skied by me while I fired off several pictures of them enjoying a quality corn harvest.
The corn on the Fryingpan was definitely some of the best corn of the year, if not the season. I headed all the way down to John (as did Mark), and everyone was stoked on the snow quality. The climb back up to the Crest wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be with a slight breeze that kept us cool, and before long we were teamed back up with Brian and ready to drop in again for a second lap.
Mark, Brian and I watched as Dan, Joe and John dropped in and made nice turns down the creamy corn of the upper Fryingpan, and then clicked into our bindings to follow. I dropped in next and enjoyed the perfect corn before setting up to snap a few shots of Brian enjoying his first lap on the glacier as well as Mark’s second. Brian caught a little air right off the top and then ripped the snow down towards the rest of our crew.
The scenery for shooting photos was about as good as it gets, and I caught some shots of the guys cruising with Mt Adams in the background..
We rode down to Dan, Joe and John, and regrouped as we worked our way down the glacier. The shot below of John skiing on the upper Fryingpan with Whitman Crest in the background provides some visual evidence that we really enjoyed the upper reaches of the Fryingpan — lots of tracks were laid down!
We enjoyed turns on down the glacier before stopping to regroup at the headwall of the steep bowl on skier’s right of the lower Fryingpan. We wanted to head back down along our climbing route, and talked over what migh be the best way down.
After assessing it, Joe, Mark and John headed skier’s left while Dan, Brian and I went skier’s right. I did a ski cut across the slope and got a good release of some wet, newer snow that was clinging to the steep headwall, and after it slid safely down to the bottom we dropped in one by one. Brian dropped in first and made a few nice turns in front of the Goat Rocks, and then charged to the bottom.
Dan dropped next and I followed after him. I snapped a few pictures before putting my camera away and heading down, including the two below. I really like the second shot, where Dan is dropping over the steep headwall — it looks like he’s ready to drop off the face of the earth!
At the bottom, we regrouped with Mark, Joe and John, and linked turns down to where we’d stopped earlier in the day. At this point, the skins went back on our skis and a short climb was required to get back to the Goat Cirque bowl. Brian and I did our best to look for an entrance into the Goat Cirque on a line that a few of us have skied over the years, but the entrance wasn’t obvious and it was definitely a safer choice to ski out our climbing route.
After the short climb out of the bowl, we ran the ridge down for a quarter mile or so and dropped into the Goat Cirque. This time, Brian offered to shoot a few shots of me, so he grabbed the camera and setup below. The turns in the cirque were smooth and nice, and definitely worth the effort.
The ski out of the lower cirque was pleasant, and then it was the long traverse back to Summerland. My calves were burning by the time we finally stepped out of the board near camp.
I pulled out my camera and threw the wide angle lens on to grab a couple of sunburst shots of Brian and Dan (below), but forgot to take the filter off so the photos ended up with quite a few hexagon prisms. Nevertheless, they still looked decent…
That evening at camp everyone kicked back and relaxed after a long, fun day. I had another freeze dried dinner, this time it was much better (a Pad Thai meal from Backpacker’s Pantry) and it hit the spot, along with another corn snow margarita. The rest of the crew also cooked up some food, and we enjoyed the evening.
Brian and I spent some time talking about cameras, lenses and photography, since he had just pulled the trigger on a new Olympus camera a month earlier. We started talking about intentional movement and blur when taking photos, so I did a couple of quick experiments with a little longer shutter speed and rotated the camera 180 degrees (or as best I could) over about a half second. The resulting images are below….
It wasn’t too much longer before the evening wore on, the sun set behind Rainer and the light started to fade. Eventually, everyone crawled into sleeping bags and day number two was in the books.
The next morning dawned clear and sunny, and we enjoyed a leisurely freeze dried breakfast and some good coffee before heading out for some turns outside of camp. The goal for the morning was to ski the lower slopes below Meany Crest and the Fryingpan glacier, and then to get back to camp at a reasonable hour to pack up and hit the trail. We headed out somewhere around 8:00am or so, and after a short carry right outside of camp were able to skin the rest of the way. On our approach out to the slopes below Meany Crest, we ran into several Hoary marmots.
The sun was shining brightly, and our fears that the snow might not soften in time to corn for us before we had to leave were relieved pretty quickly after we set out. Mark set a nice skin track for us to follow, and soon we started gaining elevation and the views opened up nicely.
We worked our way up to our high point for the day, and as usual the views were excellent. The view of the Emmons glacier and Mt Rainier proper from this side of Meany Crest are incredible. The Emmons is quite a bit smaller than when I first laid eyes on it 15 years ago, but still the biggest glacier in the lower 48 and super impressive.
A few minutes later, after enjoying the views and a snack, Dan arrived (he’d left camp after us and skied a short line before catching up with us). I snapped a picture of him as he arrived, as well as a picture of Fischer before he stepped into his skis and headed down.
After watching Mark, Joe and John drop in and harvest some pretty tasty looking corn, Dan, Brian and I readied to enjoy some turns. We had a question as to whether or not our line went all the way to the bottom, but not seeing the others skinning back up was a pretty tell-tale sign that it went, so we dropped in.
We enjoyed good snow right from the top, and then worked our way down the wide open snowfields. There were a couple of spots that necked down and made for some spicy turns, but it was mostly just plain good skiing. I shot several shots of Brian and Dan as we descended.
We worked on down and made turns for quite a long ways. It felt like we were going to ski clear to Fryingpan creek before we finally rounded the corner and started traversing back towards Summerland. A few more photos from the action are below.
On the skin back to camp, we looked up and noticed that Joe and Mark were headed back up for another partial lap, and that Fischer was climbing a wild looking snow patch above us.
Although the snow that John was climbing up looked pretty hairy and not that good, none of us were surprised to see him booting up the couloir. A few minutes later after we had made the transition to skins, he clicked into his skis and began descending. The snow looked terrible, and for a minute we thought he might fall to his death, but he managed to ski down. When he got to us, we all laughed when asked him how the snow was. His reply: “not very good.”
A 20 minute skin and boot later, we were back at camp and it was time to get ready to break camp and hike out. I was looking forward to drinking my other beer that I’d packed in, a Tropic Haze IPA from Silver City Brewery. I’d strategically left it in a snow patch just behind the shelter, along with one for Dan and John as well, and the beers were ice cold when I pulled them out. They definitely hit the spot after a fun morning of turns.
After enjoying our beverages, it didn’t take long to break camp, load our packs and head out. The goal was to see if we could ski down a ways from Summerland, with the goal of descending as far as possible before having to put the sticks on our backs. None of us knew how far we’d be able to descend, but we headed out with hopes of reaching the creek.
To my amazement, we found a great line that went all the way to Fryingpan creek. The final stretch to the creek was in a small draw with shade that kept the snow protected and it worked out perfect. I caught a few pictures of Joe coming down with a loaded pack enjoying the final turns of the trip.
Once down to the creek, Fischer, Dan and Mark kept going, but it was kind of a skis on, skis off kind of thing, along with a bit of uphill shuffling. Joe, Brian and I elected to put the skis on the packs and walk the quarter mile or so down to the crossing, where we all met up, this time with no bears in sight. This time we were able to cross the creek without removing shoes, so it was a bit faster than when we came in a few days earlier.
After crossing the Fryingpan, the rest of the hike out went smoothly, and a few miles later we were back at the trailhead enjoying a cold drink and changing out of trail clothes and into flip flops and shorts. A few minutes later, everyone strolled in (Dan was last to the truck in typical Dan fashion because he had to stop and enjoy a beer on the way out — definitely didn’t want to pack that out), and we were all in the mood to grill up some brats.
The brats cooked up nicely on the grill, but our bread options were limited due to a mouse getting into the loaf of bread we had in the back of the truck, so in a pinch we used tortillas, which actually worked out quite nicely. I pulled out my tripod and got a shot of our whole group enjoying the grub after an epic trip, and that capped off a great three days on Mt Rainier.
A bit later, with the food gone, we loaded the trucks and made the long drive back down I-5 to the valley, fully satisfied with another good trip to the Fryingpan. I don’t know how soon it will happen, but I know it won’t be too long and I’ll be ready to head back for another trip to such a special place!
