Mt. Rainier - Fuhrer Finger
Route Details
Area - Mt. Rainier, WA
Access - Access to Fuhrer Finger is via the Paradise area. Paradise is accessible year round, although only from 9am-5pm during the winter months. There is quite a bit of red tape (permits) involved, although it is much easier before the high season starts around late May.
Total Trip Time - Single day push is possible but not usual. Total roundtrip climb/ski trip time usually 12-15 hours.
Total Distance - 13 miles
Main Ski descent - 9000 ft
Elevation Gain/Loss - 9500 ft
Max Slope Angle - 40-45 °
Guides
onXBackcountry (shows variation going to the Nisqually bridge)
FATMAP (below)
Local Beta - Copper Creek Inn is a great spot to grab food on the way out of the park. Their restuarant used to have an espresso milkshake that made the drive back a lot more tolerable. Recently you can get an off-menu coffee milkshake.
Trip Report 4/14/2024
Fuhrer Finger is a super classic line, and being one of the 50 classic ski descents of North America makes it high priority on many ski mountaineers bucket lists. Fuhrer Finger offers 9k feet of fall line skiing from the mighty Mt. Rainer and a bonus 1k extra feet of descent if you take the Nisqually drainage all the way to the bridge. Antoine and I had skied the line last year and were ready for round 2.
We got a leisurely start on Saturday. We parked and permitted up at Paradise and then headed up the mountain. We had a favorite spot to camp just between the Wilson and Nisqually glaciers, right below the Wilson Cleaver. This spot is more direct and avoids the steep ascent onto Castle Rock which is the typical camping spot for the routes in the Wilson/Fuhrer area.
We got to our camp spot without much trouble. There had been a lot of wet slide activity, resulting in a little less direct routfinding than normal, but nothing too crazy and the cravasses were still mostly hiding under the deep snowpack.
We had learned our lesson from multiple previous trips, and spent the whole afternoon drying out boot liners, clothes, gear, and melting lots of snow to get hydrated.
A couple weeks prior we had made a failed attempt to climb and ski Fuhrer Finger in waste deep powder. We had gotten off course by turning to the right a little too early to head up the main chute of the finger. This time around we knew exactly where to go.
At 4:30 am we were in the middle of the main chute, making good progress. There were no climbing parties in front of us, and a single party was far behind us slowly making their way uphill from their camp at Castle Rock.
By 5:45 we were at the top of the main chute and beginning the transition onto the Nisqually with alpenglow lighting our path around the crevasses.
The main crevasse field was around 11k ft. Things slowed down a little as we climbed to higher altitude and had to navigate around crevasses.
The final 1k feet always seems the hardest for me on Rainier and this time was no different. I was able to keep my skis on and finish the last ~2k feet by skinning, helping me to maintain a better pace than last year.
The ski descent was super nice. The sastrugi on the upper mountain wasn't bad at all, and below 12,500 ft the snow had softened just enough. It wasn't perfect corn by any measure, but great spring skiing all the way to the tent. We got back to the tent in just over 20 minutes, quickly packed up and then headed back to Paradise. Coffee milkshakes at the Copper Creek Inn of course on the way out :)