Mount Rainier National Park officially closed

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With all the roads closed, it would be an interesting time to try to climb the mountain, would certainly be more of an expedition to get to the base and then climb... Like mentioned in the article, would appear to me more like an Alaskan expedition...

Jay
 
Interesting article, and it sounds like by the height of the climbing season in June/July the road will be re-opened to Paradise/Camp Muir. I couldn't get a clear idea of whether the other popular route (White River/Camp Shurman) is impacted or not - I think you could still approach it from the east. The southern approach (and definitely the western) are iffy.
 
We've had some pretty extreme (for here anyway) winter weather here in Western Washington--floods, windstorms, week-long power outages, snow, and below freezing temps. (And that's down here at sea level!)

They are letting people in to the park for 7 hours each Sunday (from the Nisqually side) so your choices right now are a day hike or a week-long trip. You can also snowshoe or ski in from the Crystal Mountain entrance at the northeast corner of the park.

Hwy 123 on the east side and the Nisqually-Paradise road both experienced cave-ins in multiple places. The Kautz creek changed its course and is flowing through the woods and over the road.

No reports yet on most of the Wonderland Trail but the Carbon River trail is washed out (as is the road) in many places.

It will take a lot of time and money to repair the damage.

One of the absolute best sources of information about the Mountain is Mike Gauthier's blog.

He is the lead climbing ranger at the park. Check it out, he lives at Longmire and has some awesome pictures of the damage (see the November 2006 section).

Mike's Blog

RSS Feed for the blog
 
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In answer to Kevin's question, the White River road seems to be in pretty good shape, but the White River campground had some flood damage. That route should be fine when they open that entrance again.
 
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