Mount Rainier is a wonderful (and huge) mountain with many personalities and I'd highly recommend climbing it and also spending some time in the National Park, its a beautiful place.
On a nice day after a period of snowfree weather, Rainier can be deceptively easy. On a bad weather day,
it could be simply miserable up there with no clear direction where to go and visibility so low that you can't see anyone in front of you to follow
and any new snow will cover the track pretty quickly. Lot more moisture in the Pacific NW then elsewhere in the lower 48.
I had planned to climb Rainier for a long time, though I wasn't able to get anyone nearby in NY who even had a remote interest in climbing Rainier so I went alone.
After contemplating it, I opted to join a guided group with RMI fairly last minute and it worked out great.
If you are lucky enough to know people who either have climbed the mountain before and/or have solid glacier experience, you
probably don't need a formal guide if they are willing to go with you and be on a rope with you.
If you have no glacier experience or have little snow climbing experience OR have no friends who have climbed it
or who lack such experience themselves, I'd suggest joining a guided group.
I've done a lot of solo snow climbs and have taken mountaineering, rope travel and snow travel classes in the past and looking back,
in the fairly good weather in good visibility we had, I could have climbed Rainier that day without trouble, but felt climbing alone on unfamiliar glaciated terrain was not smart.
So, for me, the choice was to climb it alone or go guided. Pretty simple choice. Could I have climbed out of a crevasse?
Perhaps, yes, or no...I also could have broken my neck falling into one. Would I have known ahead of time that the route was moved
300ft higher the day before due a crevasse opening? Or which serac above was seen as weakening and give a wide berth? Probably not.
I don't have to be a hero and my family would like to see me again.
Call me conservative, I can live with that.
Route
If you have some decent snow experience on higher altitude, glaciated terrain, particularly in the wet Cascades, and are in good shape, the Emmons Route probably won't
be that tough for you. If you don't, you might want to stick with the Disappointment Cleaver/Ingraham Direct Routes to maximize the probability of a
successful summit attempt, then attempt the Emmons route on a subsequent trip.
Rainier sees a lot of guide activity, either from guided groups or Guides going up themselves to create and pick a route after conditions have changed.
The DC does get traffic, but ask anyone who has been there in new snow, where other parties or Guides haven't had a chance to pack it down and there won't be too much guidance on
route and no boottrack to follow, especially after a few bad weather days prevent anyone from going up high or when crevasse conditions change.
Before my climb I hiked up to Camp Muir to acclimatize - there were a couple of private groups that didn't make it up as they were unsure of the safe route
around the crevasses and turned back in blue bird skies a few days before our climb up. Bad avy conditions also turned around two large guided groups.
Timing
Early Season (late Spring/early summer) will see more snow, greater snowpack over crevasses, but more volatile weather and possibly increased avy risk,
but not necessarily.
Later in the season will see thinner snowbridges over crevasses, maybe higher chance of rockfall, but also a higher chance for nicer more stable weather and
warmer temps; ladders might be used later season where wider crevasses open.
After late September/October winter type conditions return and weather patterns generally are not too favorable until Spring.
Before our climb, I was there for a week or so and it rained/snowed the whole time and didn't even see the mountain, I thought they moved the parking lot.
...then it suddenly cleared and we had a three day window before the next front moved in.
Of the four people that got lost on the Muir snowfield earlier this year - they just found three of them last month:
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Camp Muir is the cut off where the Muir Snowfield breaks and the "upper mountain" climbing begins where most rope up.
For RMI, above Camp Muir, our rope team was 3 climbers to 1 guide, below Muir, everyone hiked together casually. You carry basically everything you'd normally carry on an overnighter except rope and snow pickets. Some might have an option to stay in one of the huts if there is space using your own sleeping bag, if not, you bring your own tent. Five people were turned around before 13,500ft on this day from our group for various reasons and two never went higher than Muir. In such a case ratio could be 2:1 or teams reshuffled.
Whatever you choose, good luck!!