Live in Sunset Amphitheater (Act I)

Sunset Amphitheater

Standing on the Wonderland trail between Mowich Lake and Longmire in Mt. Rainier National Park I fell in love. The millions of visitors every year do not get to see this part of the mountain. The west side of Rainier although easily visible at a distance, is one of the more remote areas in the park, making access an issue for those unwilling to hike mileage into the double digits. Sunset Amphitheater’s alpine glow can be seen from afar, but the “backstage pass” is reserved for those willing to see a show at the amphitheater, live.

Our plan, after much deliberation about the approach, was to traverse around the mountain from Paradise. We would set up a high camp near St. Andrew’s Rock at 11,000′ and summit the following day via the Sunset Amphitheater Headwall Coulior (shown in the shadows on the left of the above photo). Our descent would then take us back to our high camp by skiing the Tahoma Sickle, the obvious fall line gently curving around the cliff on the right of the above picture. Day three would allow us to traverse back around to Paradise and then head home.

We arrived late Thursday night and bivouackedin the lower Paradise lot. Waking early the next morning, we donned our packs, cursed at how heavy they were, and began to make our way over to the Nisqually Glacier, the first of many we would need to cross. The weather was nice, occasionally shading us with a large lenticular which would in turn dissipate making room for the next one. As we methodically made our way across the various glaciers, we came to the conclusion that our “easy traverse” was going to be much more difficult than we had anticipated. The intense hot weather the entire previous week had melted a lot of the snow, revealing more hazards for us to navigate. Arriving at the Kautz glacier, our route-finding capabilities were tested as we worked our way between the upper and lower ice falls, skirting a precipice which led a long, long way down.

Brad Kwasnowski smiles a sigh of relief.

Prioritizing our hunger, we decided to rest and grab a bite to eat. We were all famished and the traverse was taking much longer than we had planned. Due to the remote nature of our trip and the inherent dangers that come with it, we had planned on a number of options had things not gone according to plan. We unanimously decided that once we reached the Success Cleaver, we would seek out a good spot to bivouac around 8,000′ and engage in our first backup plan – climb the SAHC with all of our gear and do a carry over and ski back down to the car from the front side. After hurriedly crossing the sun affected slopes of the Pyramid and Success glaciers, we found a sheltered enclave of massive boulders with views up the Success Cleaver and the South Tahoma Headwall. Rainier was doing a fantastic job of wowing us into wonderment. The area surrounding us was filled with nothing but the sound of nature, and we had not seen another soul for hours. Dinner, comedic relief, and an amazing sunset finished our itinerary for the evening, allowing us to lay our heads to rest nestled in the comfort of our bivvies.