We try to plan a ski trip for every Memorial Day weekend since a long weekend at the end of May lends itself well to big spring ski tours. This year was no exception. We initially set the weekend aside as a potential Rainier summit attempt via the Emmons, but on Thursday the Rainier climbing rangers posted a blog post detailing how sketchy the route currently is. Recent snow created shallow snow bridges over big crevasses, and there were reports of highly capable parties taking their skis off and belaying each other down the most precarious sections. This did not sound like something we wanted to do, so we looked for other options. After quite a bit of waffling, we decided to keep it chill for the weekend and go on a couple of half day ski tours in Mt. Rainier National Park.

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During our Olympus climb Sander, Dan, and I talked about trying to climb/ski Mt. Rainier via the Emmons Glacier during the long Fourth of July weekend if the conditions were right. We thought it would be the perfect cherry on top of an incredible ski season. Unfortunately, the conditions were not right and a huge heat wave was forecasted to sweep through the state with highs in the 80s and 90s over the weekend and a freezing level above 16,000’. We didn’t want to climb the mountain during such an intense period of heat but we also didn’t want to let a long weekend go by without at least a little adventure so we pivoted to a day trip to Steamboat Prow and a ski of the Inter Glacier.

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