The FIFTY - Mt. Rainier - From Giant Surf to Giant Mountains

and I personally have a rule don't walk on a glacier you don't know in a whiteout it's uh less of a ruling just like common sense well hello there just right here at Mount Rainier National Park we've got Mount Rainier behind us we are trying to go ski the Fuhrer finger it's about like May late May it's little late in the season but hearing good reports there's a bit of weather may have a weather window coming up but the coolest part about this is we've got a special friend Ian Walsh professional big-wave surfer from Maui Hawaii he just flew in this morning and we're gonna be taking him up the mountain he actually is planning on doing Denali and we were talking earlier in the season and he wanted to get some rope work some training some play sure navigation all that stuff he's not done much of that so I invited him along and we'll do do probably the perfect mountain that's a warm up mountain for Denali Oh today we're going to school we're gonna go train them how to use ropes and spiky stuff and begley things so I'll be retiring this this little kit here I'm gonna be way too shiny for that mountain say knowing someone's not on a rope see them plunge em what are we gonna do from check on them first for sure but before we even check on them because you don't want to exactly person selling this way and I can kind of just walk gingerly like this and just come to the edge like this and let's have her to fall yeah like you just want to know a 3 2 1 and a 5 to 1 because a 5 to 1 is most likely what it's gonna take to pull someone up if you're by yourself if you have two people you're probably gonna be able to pull them out with a feeding there's been an avalanche there's one person buried yeah where does this go this goes we're looking at the fear finger which is the route in the book is the classic descent what we're trying to scout right now is whether we go up the fear finger and back down it where we go more the classic up route which is the mirror to the Engram headwall and then wrap around and come back down the mirror head wall there's a couple different pros and cons that comes with that kind of figure it out right now I'm sort of leaning on we go over the mirror out [Music] [Applause] [Music] boiling warm yeah just making our way slowly up hoping this thing doesn't lightning on us yeah it's like beautiful Hawaii weather over here and then like Mordor back there so it's really hot like hotter than I thought it was I'm resorting to drastic measures because my I don't have underwear on under my long johns I never wear that and then I didn't really think about that so I'm gonna cut these into shorts nice and good we're about ten thousand four hundred feet up clouds are kind of moving right in on us and beautiful 6 p.m. this is our little zone right here that we're gonna spend the night in we had a change of plans from our original camp set up because the weather's been a little suspect and variable so we're gonna spend the night here and then we'd have a different approach to the summit tomorrow so hopefully we wake up early and the weather cooperates and we can make it to the summit and then conditions pending in the snow if Cody feels comfortable then we'll head down the line he wants to hit and beautiful up here do you think Cody we're in a castle the highest folks got in the past five days was about 12 6 gotcha we got up to like 12 5 we did a couple stability tests on the way up and what we were seeing was progressively more reactive as we increase in elevation interesting there a high point we got a ectp 12 about 1220 down and there's a that was kind of a storm density change just coming off of that those are my main concern that gives me pause for sure another thing I want to bring up is so we've had Rangers kind of out about on the mountain and that's a couple days on the Sherman side yeah we've had folks punching through just because those ridges are masked but not really not only there's nothing to it it's kind of loose in here that's a we were talking about that Baker last week when we got exactly that as my escape a scariest thing to me always is when you got a little snow and a lot of wind and they just flatten out and you can't see anything yeah I think you guys should definitely continue to just assess conditions as we go I wouldn't be fully committed to that's not good there is a big big cloud Cody what do you think what do you think about the by they're not super favorable how's it right now but you never know with these kind of spring caps of clouds it could be it could burn off it could get worse as the Sun comes up this wind is a little disconcerting you just don't know so we're just gonna keep going until it doesn't make sense anymore [Music] [Music] altitude well we just I don't know hike 2,000 feet above camp got to this Ridgeline and we are kinda in it we're in this cloud layer just sitting on the top of the mountain and I don't know what it's gonna do so I think we're gonna sit here and wait it out unfortunately my gut instinct says it's only gonna get worse because at 3:00 this morning when I walked outside I could see stars about four as it was starting to just the temperature warms up a little bit all of a sudden the mountain had a cloud on it this kind of reminds me of those like convective style caps but you don't know so I think we'll sit on this Ridgeline and wait it out but I do know I'm not gonna go up onto that glacier not knowing what's above me and knowing that there is a be hazard and a whiteout seems like a good rule to follow you can't really force your way up there and try to hit a line that might be smoking in Sun right now and we wouldn't even be there for three to four hours and maybe you know that's the way the mountain telling us to pump the brakes you know they'll give you a sign to go up the same in the ocean like you see so many signs that are just telling you up maybe today is not the day and then when it is a day it's like the doors are just wide open and you can sprint right through them yeah yeah here's like all these tiny little doors you're like me if we could get through that door and then then that door and then if that door opens then we're good but you're like no I want the big I want the French doors opening up I mean I I always say in the mountains it's like I ride with the mountains let me ride and today doesn't seem like they're wanting to let me ride I don't feel the same way in the water I feel like the wave catches you and John is more than you catch the wave like that way you need to be on like a three-foot triangle so it's either coming right to you and catching you or you're not anywhere near it put yourself in the right position and like that's what we did today we we put ourselves where we thought in the right position with timing of the right route I still think this is the right route even though I know we're gonna get around the corner it's gonna be sunny I just know from winds lap potential exposure this was the correct route for a safer up we're probably gonna have to walk down quite a bed yeah before we put on our stuff so yeah any tips for the the downhill yeah the beauty of skiing is that you might fail on your objective then good back at the car for 25 hours exactly we're back a lot yeah you got the hiking the weather sleeping in the mountains the only thing you probably didn't get was being scared shitless I don't know maybe maybe maybe you did have that because those bikers are terrifying but did finals it off with the classic turning around overall I hope that some way to prepare for Denali [Music] [Music]

Channel: Cody Townsend

Views: 365,312

Keywords: the fifty, the fifty project, cody Townsend, Cody Townsend the fifty, mount rainier, mt. rainier, fuhrer finger, skiing mt. rainier, fuhrer finger ski, Ian Walsh snowboarding, Ian Walsh

Id: 7Myx_PJOfjI

Length: 14min 44sec (884 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 25 2019