Mt. Rainier - Steamboat Prow

A camp Muir training hike is getting old, so Al and I decided to hike on the other side of the mountain. Starting at the White River campground, we hiked up towards Camp Schurman, the base camp for the Emmons glacier route. Up above Schurman is Steamboat Prow, with a beautiful view of the north-east side of Mt. Rainier and a great spot to relax. Another benefit to hiking this side of the mountain is that it takes us through Enumclaw, home of the Rainier Bar and Grill - best bacon blue cheese burger in Washington. 

The valley was snow free all the way up to glacier basin and the start of the Inter glacier

Trekking up the Inter glacier, glad to be in someone else's tracks in the sloppy snow

This is the ridge where you drop down into Camp Schurman

Perfect view showing the Emmons route track

View north from the top of the prow

Little Tahoma Peak

Sun bow over the top of Rainier

Clouds started rolling in as we headed down

Mt. Daniel

This weekend our original destination was Sloan Peak, but we felt the snow conditions were a bit sketchy, so we opted for Mt. Daniels. Jon & Rhonda drove over from Boise, and while Jon, Al and I went off to climb the peak, Rhonda, Donna and Margaret enjoyed a weekend of shopping and knocking around Seattle.

Heading out on the Cathedral trail

First view of Cathedral peak

Relaxing around camp at Peggy's Pond

Up and out at 7am

View of Mt. Daniel's East peak

Church mountain

Margaret and I got out on our own for a great hike up Church mountain. This peak is directly north of Mt. Baker, off the Mt. Baker Highway. I don't have any shots of our slog up the switchbacks in the trees, but as soon as the trees opened up, the snow became solid and we left all the day hikers behind. We saw no one until returning to the trees some 3 hours later.

First view of Mt. Baker to the south

Pinwheels - tell tale signs of unstable snow conditions. We stayed away from steeper slopes.