Five Days on a Three-Day Climb Mount Rainier’s Liberty Ridge
By Jim Rickard
Kurt Wibbenmeyer (left) and Jim Rickard ascending lower Liberty Ridge. Photo by Doug Kruesi
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n 1998, I planned a climb of Mount Rainier via Liberty Ridge. A team member cancelled, the trip was off, and I ended up in Baja California. I revived the idea in 2007, but a CMC trip to climb in the Alps was just too good to pass up. Another cancellation; this time my fault. Still, on my “list,” I planned again for Liberty Ridge in May 2008. After recruiting a couple of good climbers and good friends, Doug Kruesi and Kurt Wibbenmeyer, it looked as if this one was a go. We 26
Trail & Timberline
scheduled vacations, bought airline tickets, did training climbs, and registered with Mount Rainier National Park. This time it was going to happen. Two days before our flight, the Washington State Department of Transportation announced Cayuse Pass wouldn’t be open by Memorial Day weekend, and a park ranger called to tell us the road to the White River Campground (our trailhead) was still under several feet of snow and wouldn’t be open. We did some desperate Internet research about other approaches to Liberty
Ridge—all of which were long—looked into other routes, and did some general grumbling. On the morning of Friday, May 23, the WSDOT Web site was revised to say that Cayuse Pass would be opened at noon. Our flight was that evening. Maybe we could get close? The park gate is about six miles from the trailhead; could we handle the extra distance? In keeping with the theme of the trip, our flight was over an hour late. We got our rental van in Seattle, found our hotel in the dark, and woke the night attendant
