The May 22-24th 3-day Rainier climbed was given a first-hand look at how long winter conditions can remain on the mountain. The May 20-22 team descending the mountain reported 18 inches of new snow in places around Panorama Point, with snow continuing to fall. The May 22-24 ascending team made a great effort, but eventually turned around when calculations showed the group would not reach Camp Muir until 9pm at the absolute earliest. This was deemed potentially unsafe given the continuing snowfall, and the group returned to Paradise, and then returned to Seattle late last night. A good resource for weather and route conditions is the Mount Rainier Climbing Blog, maintained by the NPS climbing rangers: http://www.mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.com/.
