Trip Date: June 24-25, 2022
Inter Glacier Climbing & Skiing Trip
Glacier Basin
Inter Glacier
Curtis Cleaver
Trip Report Summary
Region: Southern Washington Cascades
Sub-Region: Mt. Rainier Massif
Area: Mt. Rainier National Park
Starting & Ending Point: Glacier Basin Trailhead at White River Campground (Elev. 4350 feet)
Way Points: Shadow Creek & Inter Fork Valley & Lower Glacier Basin & Upper Glacier Basin & Inter Glacier & Curtis Cleaver (trail hike & snow hike & snow climb)
Campsite: Lower Glacier Basin at 5950 feet
Ski Run: Inter Glacier (ski descent from 9200 feet to 6000 feet)
Approximate Stats: 9.8 miles traveled; 4800 feet gained & lost.
Full Trip Report
Immediately following a Friday morning ski tour on the Paradise side of Mt. Rainier, I drove around to the White River side to meet up with Jon, Todd, Eric, Noah, and Marcus, who had scheduled a climb of the mountain on this sunny weekend. They were just leaving the parking lot at White River Campground when I pulled in at 4:00pm on Friday afternoon. I organized my overnight gear, strapped skis and boots on my backpack, and started up the Glacier Basin Trail at 5:00pm. Soon after, a trailside viewpoint of both Little Tahoma and Big Tahoma confirmed what we were all expecting: there is a LOT of snow in the Cascades right now!
The first mile of trail was bare, but large patches of snow appeared in the second mile, and the third mile was completely buried under deep snow. Fortunately, there was a well-trodden snow path leading up to Glacier Basin. I arrived shortly before 7:00pm and easily found “The Guys” camped in a snow-covered meadow (1.8 hours + 1600 feet from TH). While eating dinner, we witnessed a steady stream of hikers, climbers, snowshoers, skiers, and split-boarders moving through the basin in both directions. Obviously, we were not going to have a lonely experience on the Inter Glacier tomorrow!
In keeping with our long tradition of “country club starts,” we awoke at 7:00am and left our campsite at 9:00am. Numerous other parties could be seen heading up toward the glacier ahead of us and behind us as we marched through Upper Glacier Basin and climbed the snow chute, with Noah setting a brisk pace. I couldn’t quite keep up but did manage to elicit some “cool, dude” kudos from other skiers when they noticed my telemark gear. A pair of whipcord wool knickers would have really cemented my old-school image here.
Above the snow chute, the Inter Glacier took on the appearance of a huge training field, with more than a hundred people scattered across the slope—some going up, some going down, some going sideways. Seeing the chaotic pattern of tracks, I knew that my ski descent was going to be sub-par at best. Ughh. Eric kept me distracted with conversations about mathematical number systems and aircraft manufacturing.
Eventually, we cut left and ascended to the crest of Curtis Cleaver at 9200 feet. It was 12:30pm (3.5 hours + 3200 feet from camp) when everyone gathered on the ridge for lunch. From here, we could see a wide swath of footsteps going up the Emmons Glacier, and several parties were visible on the route. Hmmm. It seemed like a late hour to be so high on the mountain during such a hot and sunny day.
Having been here twice last year—once in early June and again in early July—I was struck by the great amount of snow covering the entire mountain this year. The “then and now” photo pairs below illustrate this dramatic difference.
After lunch, Jon, Eric, Todd, Noah, and Marcus roped up and began their trek over to Camp Schurman. I watched them until they dropped out of sight, then I donned my skis and headed down the Inter Glacier. The uppermost 700 vertical feet was very nice, with soft corn snow over a firm base, but the snow became considerably softer below 8500 feet. Pretty soon, my smooth telemark turns transitioned to shaky telemark turns as I was constantly dodging boot tracks, skin tracks, glissade troughs, and old avalanche debris. Around 8300 feet, the corn snow turned into porridge, and I broke a ski pole when it got buried in the bottomless glop. The rest of my descent consisted of survival skiing, booting down the steep chute, and then more survival skiing. I reached Glacier Basin in mid afternoon (0.9 hours from cleaver), feeling triumphant just to have all of my cruciate ligaments intact!
I quickly strapped skis and boots onto my backpack and made the 3-mile trudge down to White River Campground, arriving at the peak of late-afternoon heat. In my tired, sore, and sweaty state, it was difficult to objectively assess an Inter Glacier ski descent. I had thoroughly enjoyed the climb up, and there’s no doubt that the Inter Glacier is one of the classic ski descents in the Cascades, but timing is everything. My own descent had been very memorable—if not for the right reasons.
Post Script: The Guys had their own hurdles to overcome on the Emmons Glacier the next day, but Eric and Marcus were able to summit Mt. Rainier in a 12-hour round trip from Camp Schurman.
Route Map
Photo Gallery
Click to enlarge…
