Summer ‘09 in Pics vol. 10

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 | Photos

Burroughs Mountain, Mount Rainier National Park

For my second (and last) whole day in Seattle, I went hiking with four other friends. We went to Mount Rainier National Park, and hiked the three peaks of Burroughs Mountain, directly adjacent to Mount Rainier itself. It was a fun hike, with lots of snow left from the winter and unbelievable views of Rainier. The weather was also wonderful; it was warm the whole day, but with lots of very interesting clouds that made for great photography opportunities. I also got to introduce my friends to the joys of glissading; the trail to the third peak of Burroughs Mountain was entirely on snowpack, so coming down was fast and fun.

I took more than 400 pictures during the 8-mile hike, the majority of which were profiles of Mount Rainier itself. I’ve tried to pick out the best ones, but I had a hard time limiting myself.

The first expansive views of Emmons Glacier and the White River valley.

There was a lenticular cloud capping Mount Rainier for the entire day.

Shadow Lake.

The path to Burroughs Mountain is ridiculously scenic.

Perhaps a bit nervous for the first snow crossing?

Almost done with the first part of the hike...

Near the top of First Burroughs.

Enjoying the view from First Burroughs.

Burroughs Mountain is an ancient lava flow.

Skyscraper Mountain is on the right.

Looking up the side of Second Burroughs.

The flat top of First Burroughs is in the background as we make our way up Second Burroughs.

Enjoying the view from Second Burroughs. Left of center is Steamboat Prow, which divides the summit ice cap into the Emmons Glacier on the left and Winthrop Glacier on the right.

The beginning of the snowfield up the side of Third Burroughs.

Justin seems like he's enjoying the wet snow.

Nick, Kevin, and Rahul working their way up the ridge.

Made it.

Dust rises from a debris fall on Rainier's northern flank.

The nose of the Winthrop Glacier.

Most of the length of the Winthrop Glacier.

Relaxing at the summit.

Having fun glissading off the summit. Next time I'm bringing skis; I saw some great lines around here.

Kevin is breaking out some kind of move. Our glissade tracks are visible all the way from the top.

I was only about 8 inches away from this guy.

It was about at this point that I really missed my tripod; these conditions are extremely hard to capture without HDR.

The aptly named Frozen Lake.

I have no idea what those lines in the sky are, but they sure looked cool.

Less than a mile left to go now.

I also stitched together eight panoramic images from the hike, and I’ll include some of them here. Click on each of these for a larger view. These are very large images, although they have been scaled down a lot from the originals.