View of Rainier from the Trail Map of Emmons Glacier Ski Route Skiing Up the River Valley Inter Glacier and the Summit Inter Glacier and White River Valley View across the Inter Glacier Emmons Glacier Panorama Traverse down to Emmons Glacier Camp Schurman Hustle and Bustle Last Rays on the Summit A Fox Invades the Camp Dawn and Crescent Moon Climbing the Emmons Corridor A Serac Ready to Fall... Climbing the Upper Emmons Glacier Seracs at the Bergschrund Traverse Below the Bergschrund Bergschrund Crossing Panorama Final Steps to the Crater Rim Rainier Summit Photo Panoramic View South from Summit Panorama of the Main Crater Skiing Down the Upper Winthrop Glacier Skiing Below Seracs on the Emmons Last Light on the Seracs Skiing Past Little Tahoma Descent of the Emmons Corridor Camp Schurman in the Morning Skiing the Lower Emmons Glacier Traverse Back to the Inter Glacier A Fine View from the Inter Glacier Skiing Down the Inter Glacier Skiing Down the Inter Glacier 2 Skiing Through Glacier Basin The Summit and the White River View of Rainier from Sunrise Zoomed View of the Climbing Route Zoomed View of Rainier from Sunrise

Above the Corridor the route angled left again before heading straight up a huge bowl, which again provided crevasse-free travel. However, a few hundred feet to the left a series of massive seracs (blocks of glacial ice separated by crevasses) hung over the edge of the bowl. This serac is well over 100 feet high, with massive annual layers of snowfall visible across its face. This very serac collapsed at 8:30 AM, shortly after this photo was taken, producing a large ice avalanche. Car-size blocks of ice tumbled and slid thousands of feet down the slope, disappearing out of sight. This type of unpredictable serac collapse represents the most severe objective danger along the Emmons-Winthrop route. Avoiding this hazard depends on cautious route selection and not traveling below dangerous seracs during warm afternoons, when collapse is more likely (although seracs can fall at any time, as demonstrated by this one).
(Photo by Tom Demshki.)