Rainier and Liberty Cap Spring Survey 2026

Rainier and Liberty Cap Spring Survey 2026

May 3, 2026

15.5 miles, 10.5kft gain

Eric Gilbertson, Olly Cohen, Tim Hambidge

Summary of results: Columbia Crest accumulated 1.3ft of snow and Liberty Cap accumulated 9.7ft of snow over the winter.

I’m continuing surveying all the current and former icecap peaks at max snow depth time of year in late April/early May. I’d recently finished surveying Eldorado and Colfax in late April, and next on the list were Rainier and Liberty Cap. The nearest SNOTEL site, at Paradise, has a 30-year mean peak snow depth date of May 1, so I usually try to survey the first weekend of May. Then I can compare the elevation to that of late August (min snow depth time of year) to get seasonal snow accumulation.

In December I applied for a research permit from Rainier National Park for the study, and got it approved before the trip. The weather looked perfect Sunday, with minimal wind on the summit and freezing levels up to 11kft. The plan was to take elevation measurements on Columbia Crest and Liberty Cap with Trimble DA2 units, and also take a measurement on the SW Rim, the highpoint of Rainier. I’d already measured the highpoint on the SW Rim three times with GNSS units, but that still wasn’t quite enough data to get the elevation officially recognized.

The most official-possible level of recognition for a mountain elevation in the US is to be “bluebooked” by NGS, the National Geodetic Survey. The main requirements are to have at least two GNSS measurements on separate days, with each measurement lasting at least 2 hours. There are other additional requirements and documentation required. My first two measurements in Aug and Sept 2024 were only one hour each, so those didn’t count. In August 2025 I took a 2.5 hour measurement, so that counted as the first measurement for bluebooking. On this trip I would take another measurement of at least 2 hours.

Additionally, Ethan O’Connor would mount another GNSS receiver on the Muir monument, at Camp Muir, to collect data at the same time as I took the summit measurements. This would be used to help correct for atmospheric distortions in the summit data, since the monument at Camp Muir is at a known location and elevation for comparison.

We carpooled up to Paradise Saturday afternoon, and filled out the self-issue wilderness permits at the Paradise Wilderness Information Center. Luckily for us winter regulations were still in effect, which means permits are self-issue for travel above 10,000ft. I think by next weekend it will likely change to summer regulations, where you need to pick up a permit in person during business hours.

We attempted to nap a few hours in the overnight lot (I’m not sure if any sleep actually occurred), then started up at 11pm. We made fast progress up to Panorama Point, where we had to take off skis for one short stretch of booting. Higher up there was one more melted out section, then we skinned up to Camp Muir by 2:15am. A few groups were taking a break there (the shelter is still closed), but we felt good so just continued up.

Shortly before Cathedral Gap we put on crampons and kept those on the rest of the climb. Olly had just climbed and skied Rainier a few weeks earlier on April 8, and he said things have changed a lot since then. On that trip his group was pretty much the only ones on the mountain and they found their own way up Ingraham Direct. But now guided groups are already leading trips, and they’ve wanded a good route up Ingraham Direct. So it’s much easier now. They’ve even put a wooden plank across one of the bigger crevasses.

We passed a few groups going up, and one coming down, and topped out at Camp Comfort at sunrise around 5:45am. From there we passed two more guided groups ascending and one group descending, and we reached the summit by 7:15am. This was pretty far ahead of schedule. Based on my timing from previous trips I thought we’d top out by 10am, and that’s what time I’d told Ethan to start logging data at Camp Muir.

There was no reason to wait, though, since any data is valuable for Rainier, so I quickly set up the first unit on the SW Rim on a 2.0m tripod. I then moved over to Columbia Crest and set up the second receiver on a tripod around 8am. The wind was light as expected, maybe 5-10pm, which is about as low as you can ever hope for on Rainier based on my other nine trips up there.

Tim took the important job of sticking around guarding the equipment while Olly and I skied over to Liberty Cap. I then mounted a third receiver on the summit, and we hung out for an hour collecting data. I had a fourth DA2 receiver as backup, but it wasn’t needed. By 11am we packed up and skied back down the Rainier-Liberty Cap col, then skinned back up by noon.

Ethan had gotten a bit delayed and started logging data at Muir around 10:45am. So we needed to wait a bit longer to get at least 2 hours of overlapping data. I skied around the crater a bit and we chatted with other skiers coming up. Tim counted at least 40 people skiing Fuhrer Finger! Other groups were skiing Kautz and the Tahoma Glacier, and some were skiing back down Ingraham Direct. I think this might end up being one of the most popular ski days on Rainier this spring, since conditions were great.

By 2pm we packed up, having logged 5-6 hours of data on SW Rim and Columbia Crest. I think we were the last ones on the summit that day. We decided to ski down Fuhrer Finger, since it sounded a lot funner than Ingraham Direct and conditions were perfect. It’s also the most direct way down from the summit and we’d each previously skied it once or twice (though never with surveying gear yet). Olly led the way since he’d just skied it a few weeks earlier and had the route dialed.

The top was nice and soft, and we followed dozens of other ski tracks. It was almost like a run at a resort with moguls forming! Last time I skied the finger in May 2019 with Colie we were the only team on the route, so it’s a lot different now. We went straight down the Nisqually Glacier, weaving through crevasses on some narrow snow bridges, then cut down skiers right to the edge. From there we skied down the Fuhrer Finger, then down the Wilson Glacier. It was getting pretty slushy, but it’s not really possible to have perfect snow conditions the whole length of a route that’s 9000ft of descent. Temperatures are just too different from top to bottom (about 31.5 degrees F assuming a 3.5F/1000ft lapse rate).

We soon made it back below Glacier Vista, then skinned up to the vista and skied back down to Paradise. Some years in early May it’s possible to get a full 10kft descent down to the Nisqually Bridge crossing, but it’s way too melted out this year for that to be possible. We got back to the parking lot around 3:15pm, so just a little over an hour to ski back.

I processed the data with TrimbleRTX and measured 1.3ft snow accumulation on Columbia Crest and 9.7ft accumulation on Liberty Cap. These are both higher than last spring, when 0.5ft and 6.6ft had accumulated respectively. One finding that is consistent between this spring and last spring is that the taller the icecapped peak, the less seasonal snow accumulation it sees. (The four icecapped peaks with current or remnant ice summits in order of increasing elevation are Eldorado, Colfax, Liberty Cap, and Rainier, with snow accumulations 30.5ft, 16.2ft, 9.7ft and 1.3ft).  One possible explanation for this is that the higher peaks are windier, and snow gets blown off more.

I’m working with professional surveyor Larry Signani to process the SW Rim measurements for submission to NGS.

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