Rainier hike with the kids

[Terry]

My grandson Mason hiking with me at Mt. Rainier on Monday


My son Taylor smelling the flowers along the trail


Taking a litlle break at the overlook.

[Cass]

Looks like you all had a good time............realy nice views.

[Verdeboy]

Does that trail go all the way up to the top?

If so, I bet you need to put a shirt on at some point.

[D.Smith]

How old were the kids/gc? My son is now almost 5 and wondering if he is ready.

[Terry]

The one on the left is 15 and the right 7
Five years old should be fine for this. The nice thing about this hike, is that there is so much to look at, so they don't get bored. We did a five mile loop that got up to 7,000 feet. The top is 14,412 feet



http://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisi...ise_trails.pdf
Skyline Trail


If you go higher, you get into a lot of snow and ice.
When I climbed it five years ago, we left the parking lot at 4:30PM and by the time we got to Muir, my fingers and toes were numb with cold. That was a June day, the sun was hot in the beginning, but got very cold when the sun went down. I made the top in August, left earlier in the day, it was much better that way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFldJ5xwmSQ
My video of the Rainer climb in 2002

[Cookie]

Nice view Terry and great pictures of the boys. You son looks so much like you!

[Terry]

Septempber 2008 with Taylor, a year later and Taylor has put on a bit more muscle.


Passing by the snowfield. I thought this was pretty interesting how the snow had melted out.

[Steve_P]

great pics! Congrats for getting those kids out of the house and into nature- looks like a great family outing.

I think I've hiked to where you went- panorama point?

I'd like to climb Rainier some day- I've done 40 14ers in CO but very little steep snow experience.

[Terry]

May 31st had snow to the parking lot. Lot's of people were having fun playing in the snow. A few climbers were coming down from the Summit that afternoon, and a few going up to climb Rainier.

[Terry]

Kaitlyn, Amy, Cathy, Chloe, and Terry at Paradise, Mt Rainier National Park, November 1st, 2009


Terry with two of the grandkids.


The women hiking ahead towards the viewpoint on the trail.
There were a lot of guys coming down the trail, having skied down from Camp Muir.
Camp Muir is located to the left of the second pyramid looking peak from the right and just in front of the darker gray rock ridge behind.
It's around 10,000 feet.
The top of Rainier is 14,411 feet.
It's a fairly nice run of snow on the right for a few thousand feet of vertical before the snow runs out.


Throwing snow in the parking lot.
I noticed later that the pockets of my ski jacket were filled with snow.

[Cookie]

Really, "cool" pictures Terry!

[Inspektor Ludwig]

Very cool pictures! I've never been to Paradise, I'll have to talk my hubby and the little ones into going! The most amazing part (since I'm new to the forum) is thinking "He's got grandkids? Good lawd, he doesn't look old enough to have grandkids!"

[Terry]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...imbers06m.html

One person is missing and presumed dead after an avalanche came down on climbers on Mount Rainier on Saturday morning.
The slab avalanche occurred at about 4:45 a.m. on Ingraham Glacier on the east face of the mountain, said Patti Wold, spokeswoman for Mount Rainier National Park.
The avalanche, estimated at 100 to 200 yards wide, started at 12,500 feet and sent snow sliding another 1,000 feet down the mountain.
Eleven climbers in all were overtaken by the avalanche, Wold said. Ten made it out safely, including one who was able to walk to Camp Muir.

The video below taken in 2002 takes the Ingraham Glacier route.
It's near the "Cleaver" that most of the avalanches take place, just above Ingraham Flats, where many of the climbers set up a base camp. In the video where you see one of the guys putting his drink into the snow, that's below the Cleaver. In 2002, the year I climbed someone died in that spot from a falling rock the following week.

This is much higher elevation than the hikes I took the kids on.