On to Camp Schurman

After dropping from Camp Curtis to the Emmons glacier (circumventing and stepping over crevasses for the first time), we followed the Montanans up to Camp Schurman. Along the way, it started to snow....





After some unpleasant standing around in the wet snowfall, we pitched our tents and settled in. This would be home for the next few days.

Bob and Rob's camp:



John's camp:



We tried to be perky and glad. But the truth is, it was a hard, hard day.

Brief Rest at Camp Curtis

After the endless climb up the Interglacier, it was great to look over the far side of the ridge to look down on the flowing, crevassed Emmons glacier.







Looking back down the ridge: John, Bob, the Camp Curtis tent sites, Mount Ruth, and the lower Emmons. We had ascended the Interglacier from the left.

Conquer Childhood Cancer Act to Become Law

From the CureSearch Blog, Tuesday, July 29, 2008:

We did it! YOU did it! After years of relentless effort by so many in the childhood cancer community, including thousands of Congressional visits, and tens of thousands of letters, calls and emails to our nation’s leaders, the Caroline Pryce Walker Conquer Childhood Cancer Act has become law! You, the nation’s “champions for a cure,” deserve so much credit for this remarkable achievement.

Full story here.

Camp Curtis: Brief Rest

Between Glacier Basin Camp and Camp Schurman lies bare-bones Camp Curtis (not that anyone was camped there), on the ridge above Glacier Basin and the Emmons Glacier beyond. We stopped here briefly before dropping down to the Emmons and then climbing up to Camp Schurman.

These guys were Montanans, on their way to Camp Schurman and beyond, and we graciously allowed them to pass us by at this point. "We're dumb," they said, "But we're good at carrying stuff."

The mountain waited in the clouds.

Climbing the Interglacier

Urgh.



Well, Bob was still smiling.



More Urgh.

Moraine, Glacier Basin

After waking on Day Two, we left Glacier Basin Camp and headed up into Glacier Basin proper, leaving behind the evergreen trees to hike up the moraine seen below, climb some relatively gentle snowfields, then roping up to climb the Interglacier itself--a long trudge with 60-pound packs--to the ridge that connects Steamboat Prow to Mount Ruth.

Sunday Evening at Glacier Basin Camp

Little Tahoma:



Rainier behind the ridge: