This was the last spot for me to hike on the Mt. Rainier Grand Tour, a self concocted trip forging up ridges and cleavers to afford astounding in-your-face views of Mt. Rainier's exquisite glacial topography. If done all at once as an orbit, the Tour entails 150 miles of hiking and 50,000 feet of vertical. However, you will do a bit more than that if taken in sections as I have done. This day trip turned out to be 15.5 miles with 4700 feet of elevation gain/loss. With tricky weather of late, I tried to take advantage of favorable conditions on Saturday September 24, hitting the trail at 7:45 AM after enduring the washboard road from hell to Mowich Lake. The weather held well enough but trended towards clouding up as the afternoon waned. However, I was able to summit Observation Rock (8376') with still open views; only the upper mountain was clouded over. After Observation I made my way up Ptarmigan Ridge to an obvious prominence and was rewarded with stunning vistas all around on the tiny summit, which my GPS put at 8670 feet. Like so many of the other points on the Tour, getting to these elevations allow one to gaze down upon the glaciers for intimate viewings of the world of rock and ice. Then just turn around and survey away from the mountain, picking out points passed on the Wonderland or climbed on the Tour. My objective in concocting the Grand Tour was to experience Mt. Rainier National Park both high and low, without the need for technical gear. I have hit every point on the Tour wearing trail runners (no microspikes or ice axe) and only aided by trekking poles or my ZPacks staff. Granted, on today's hike the Flett Glacier was a bit consolidated in the morning, so I crossed it twice on low angled spots, starting out climbing the ridge on the left, then right, and finally crossing over to Echo Rock and beyond. From that point I stayed on the rocks, scree, and pumiced marbles; just using the Flett Glacier would have been much easier, but I had already witnessed a booting skier slide into some rocks when he lost his footing, requiring some minor bandaging. My somewhat convoluted ascent and descent kept me off any hazardous angles. Complete photo set here.

When I arrived at a saddle giving access to climbing Observation rock, a cold 20 knot wind necessitated donning 3 layers, a beanie and mittens. My clothing combo was perfect in that I was not cold and never came close to over heating while climbing. After Observation Rock I found Ptarmigan Ridge to be mild and low angled, making for a very pleasant ascent to the prominence. However, the tiny summit had me sitting down for most of my photography because of the airiness. I had left the option of climbing Echo Rock last but the clouds were moving in on the descent and I elected to save that summit for another day. Fog accompanied me from the bottom of the Flett until I reached lower Spray Park, and in the process I happened upon 3 mountain goats. We all exchanged looks and went about our business, and 11 hours after I set out I was back at my vehicle, ecstatic that I was able to finish the Tour before schedules and weather shut the door.

*frozen tarn in Spray Park, looking at Echo and Observation Rocks*

A few years ago I crafted a trip around Mt. Rainier which would provide (in my opinion) the most intimate connection with the park, using the encircling Wonderland trail as the main avenue but departing in appropriate places to forge over largely unvisited areas like the Elysian Fields and probing up the myriad cleavers and ridge lines for in-your-face views. One such prominence, The Colonnade, is a place where an overnight bivy was in order to soak in the west facing flank of the mountain in sunset alpenglow. This ridge is accessed about 1.5 miles out of Golden Lakes heading CCW. As is typical for such "off trail" travel, there is an unmaintained trail that pops in and out of view on the way up the ridge, sometimes faint and sometimes obvious. My destination was a flat area on a high point affording a commanding view of the mountain and 360 degree views with the Puget Sound metropolitan city lights aglow behind me. Remnants of some structure were evident there, with rusted cables and old bolts, and further research uncovered the fact that an old fire lookout occupied the site, built in 1930 but quickly abandoned and dismantled for another spot. A discrepancy exists in that the lookout was listed as occupying a spot at 7,176 feet, yet my map and GPS indicated I was at 6,700 foot elevation. Continuing beyond my bivy spot would require much more scrambling and rugged terrain, but I did scurry out on an adjoining fin of rock, at one point just a few feet wide, to experience a more lofty environment. Oddly enough there was a bench mark on this fin from the National Center for Earthquake Research. See complete photo set here.

*The Colonnade, Mt. Rainier National Park*

*Overview of the Grand Tour, Mt. Rainier*

With perfect weather I was able to bike the West Side Road to its end (9 miles), then hike the remaining 9 miles or so to my spot on the ridge, arriving at 6 PM with plenty of time to set up my bivy and prepare for the coming pinkathon on the rock and ice before me. I set up my GoPro to time lapse the sunset, snapping photos with abandon and climbing out on the fin. When the color faded from the mountain, I crawled into my bivy to await darkness for some night photography. However, the rising, nearly full moon tracked most of the night from behind the mountain over my right shoulder, finally setting behind me around 5 AM. Bright enough to cast deep shadows and see details, I sometimes had to turn to my left side because it was like trying to sleep with a flashlight shining directly on my face. Such problems are good ones, though, and despite abundant light from the moon and predawn glow, the night was starry nonetheless. The temperature was crisp enough for me to don my shells inside the bivy with my 30 degree quilt, and I stayed cocooned until the morning sun was assaulting me, once clearing the rock obstacle before me.

Most of the high spots on the Tour are designed to be visited by day, retreating to lower elevations for slumber, but this perch on The Colonnade demands an overnight. Another such spot comes to mind, that being Curtis Ridge. I have but one more high point to hit to complete the Tour, and if weather cooperates that may come next week. But if not, The Colonnade will be fresh in my memory as one of the most spectacular spots to spend a night on the mountain.

Mt. Rainier Grand Tour: Observation Rock, Ptarmigan Ridge

Mt. Rainier Grand Tour: The Colonnade