The Rainier season has been incredibly dynamic as always, dictated in large part by the mountain weather and conditions. Over the past two weeks, no team from any of the three concessionaire guide companies have summited the mountain via the Disappointment Cleaver route due to a combination of poor weather and route conditions. Challenging weather on the upper mountain also prevented guides from performing necessary route maintenance, making it unreasonable for teams to attempt the route until the work was done once the weather improved.
The good news is the weather has cleared, and through a major effort of all three guide companies, there is a workable route in place ready to be climbed! The first Alpine Ascents team to use the newer route variation made their summit attempt in the early hours this morning, hopefully with great success. We will post another update as soon as we hear from them.
There are guides from each company working to improve the route and retrieve gear from the old variation over the next number of days as well. If you're signed up to climb with us in the next couple weeks, you may get to witness the efforts and collaboration that keeps the route running as smoothly and safely as possible.
