King & Queen of the Mountain

Mount Rainier - 14,410 feet

We made it up all 14,410 feet.  And it was HARD. Period.  Our summit is registered on RMI's site here: http://www.rmiguides.com/blog/summit-registry/certificate/four_day_summit_climb272

We headed down to Ashford, WA on Thursday the 20th to meet our guides and our fellow climbers.  The team was 9 total, plus 3 guides.  That night we got an overview of what the route was going to be like, and what to expect throughout the next few days.  We then did an equipment check and showed our guides all our gear.  There's a lot of stuff needed to climb a mountain!  After cooking dinner on our little camping stove, we relaxed in the hot tub and then got a good night's sleep.

Yum... red beans and rice!

The next day we headed out to Snow School for the day.  On the hike up to snow, we saw a few marmots, two bears, a deer and a few birds. It was interesting to see how much the landscape had changed since the last time we were there only a few weeks ago.  It's looking like fall on the lower mountain.  At school, we learned various techniques and skills that would help us on our climb.  We already knew how to self-arrest with an ice axe (from our crevasse class), but learned new things like the rest step, pressure breathing, how to walk when roped in, how to short rope, walk on rocks with crampons etc...  

One of the most important things when on snow is sun protection!
You don't typically think about that b/c it's cold, but snow is reflective, so sunscreen
and a hat of some sort is necessary!!

That night we had a delicious dinner at the bar and grill at Whittaker's Bunkhouse (where we stayed) and then packed our big packs for the climb.  We had everything we needed to get by on for the next two days, including about 20 mini-meals :)  You have to eat a snack at every stop, which is roughly every hour and a half, so our bags were loaded down with Clif bars, gummies, croissant sandwiches, pizza, cookies and so on. It's kind of a free pass to eat a ton of bad food for three days because you're burning so many calories.  I think it's estimated that during the summit climb you burn between 5,000 - 10,000 calories.

So, we awoke early on Saturday morning and met up with our group around 8 am for the 40 minute ride to Paradise.  The bus pulled in the parking lot and off we went.  That day consisted of hiking ~4.5 miles and gaining 4,700 vertical feet.  We started at 6,000 ft and ended at just over 10,000 ft.  Luckily, this day wasn't that hard for either of us and we knew what to expect since we'd skinned up and skied down a few times from there.  The weather was nice, sunny and warm.  I was already sweating through my clothes that I'd be wearing for the next two days :)  Lovely.

Hiking in - Will's on the right, our guide, Zeb, is on the left.

'Maintenance break' on the Muir Snowfield.

The destination.

Hiking in a line up to Muir.  I'm the 4th one.

Nisqually Glacier

At Camp Muir

Looking at the first part of our route.

Sunset at Muir.

After a nice dinner of pizza and Trader Joe's Maple Cookies, we went to 'bed' in the bunkhouse with 14 other people.  The bunk has plywood beds with sleeping pads.  We brought up our sleeping bags and giant down jackets to use as pillows.  Lights went out at 6:30 pm and we tried to get a few hours of shut eye before the big summit push in the early morning.

The guides don't tell you exactly when we will leave on the climb -- they say it's because they don't know the exact time (b/c they are checking the weather and waiting until it's just right), but I think it's more because they want us to try and sleep a little bit.  Needless to say, I hardly slept at all.  At 12:30 am on Sunday morning they came in with hot water and said 'Rise and Shine!'  Nerves were all over the place.  I felt like we were a bunch of caged, rabid hamsters or something.  We had to get ourselves dressed, fed and ready to climb within an hour.  So off we went, putting on all our layers, packing our backpacks, putting on our mountaineering boots, gaiters, and crampons all while eating oatmeal and drinking coffee.  When I said you need a lot of 'stuff' to climb a mountain, let me give you an example of just the stuff I was wearing/had in my pack for our summit push.

Clothing
Base layer bottoms
Base layer top
Softshell pants
Liner socks
Thick wool socks
Mountaineering boots
Gaiters
Crampons
Softshell jacket
Insulated jacket
Hardshell rain pants
Hardshell rain jacket
Huge down jacket
Light weight gloves
Medium weight gloves
Expedition weight gloves
Neck Buff
Wool hat
Goggles
Sunglasses

Equipment
Backpack
2+ liters water
16 snacks
Toiletry items
Sunscreen
Lipbalm
Ice axe
Helmet
Head lamp
Avalanche beacon
Climbing harness
Locking carabiner

You get the picture... and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things.  Plus, we had other stuff that we left at Camp Muir for the day.  So, off we go.  Leaving for the summit in the dark.  It was pretty cool :)

Teams were in sets of four; so each guide led a rope team with three climbers.  Our leader was Zeb Blais, then on our rope was Rob (guy from Orlando), me, and Will.  Looking across the glacier you could see the teams in front of us --- they looked like little ants in a line.  All you could see were their headlamps.  I couldn't find a map of our exact route because it's so late in the season that it's changed.  Below is the typical climb up to the top during this time of year.  Our route deviated just a bit:  We crossed the Cowlitz Glacier, went up Cathedral Gap, crossed the 'Flats', went up the Disappointment Cleaver, then went across the Emmons Glacier, to High Break, then over Columbia Crest to the top.

www.rmiguides.com

Will chillin' at the first maintenance break.

 At the second break, after climbing up the aptly-named 'Disappointment Cleaver', I was feeling pretty exhausted.  It was a combination of climbing on rock with crampons for an hour and a half, lack of training, altitude, and climbing giant steps with men at least a foot taller than me.  I really wanted to make it to the top and didn't want to leave Will.  At this point, 4 of our team-members had already turned around, so our team was down to two guides and 5 climbers.  With some encouragement from Zeb and Will, I decided I could make the push to the top.  Zeb promised that the steps weren't as hard as the rock climbing we had just done was.

We continued our trek up the mountain, crossing over mini-crevasses along the way and over three ladders above the Ingraham Flats (over bigger crevasses).  There were a few fixed lines and one ice-wall we had to climb up, but nothing too technical.  The biggest surprise for me was that the ice/snow wasn't smooth.  I imagined it to be one type of snowy/icy flat surface, but it wasn't at all.  There were many crevasses and mostly choppy ice.  There were lots of large seracs and most of the time was spent winding in between the spiky sheets of ice.  The sun started coming up after our last break around 7 am and Wow!

Photo credit: mountrainierconditions.blogspot.com
I don't have any of my own images of the ladders,
but here's an example of one of the ones we crossed.

These look like giant sun cups; we also crossed through huge
ice sheets and seracs.
Photo credit: foursquaremountaineering.blogspot.

Looking down at Little Tahoma.

Mt Adams in the background.

And we finally made it to the summit at 8:00 am, six and a half hours later.  I was exhausted so took a break and laid on my pack all bundled up, while Will and our guide walked across the crater to the other side to sign the official summit registry.  The inside of Mt Rainier looks like a giant bowl.  It's got a rock-edge and is filled with snow.  It's still an active volcano, and the last time it erupted, it blew off a few thousand feet, leaving a concave shape to the top of the mountain.

Inside the top of the crater.

Looking across to the other side. Will hiked across,
I laid on my pack and rested!

A big cloud moving in on the summit.

One of our guides, Nick, handing Will the 'official register.'
(It's just a spiral notepad kept in a metal box!)

Looking across the 'bowl.'

Ahh...sweet success!

So, we made it.  And then we headed back down the mountain with speed.  There were clouds and wind moving in rapidly.  We made it back to Camp Muir in about half the time it took us to get up to the summit, total round trip to/from Muir in about 10 hours, 45 minutes.  The cloud followed us down the mountain and by the time we got to camp, it was covering the top --- we were there and gone just in time!  Winds at Muir were probably 50-60 mph, so we packed up the rest of our belongings and headed out to Paradise.  The hike down was easy, and we were feeling pretty good.  By the time we made it to the parking lot, my feet were screaming at me to get off the rental boots I had been wearing for about three days straight.  We both made it down safely and successfully.  

All three of our guides throughout the experience, Jeff, Zeb, and Nick, were fabulous.  I felt safe and well looked after throughout the experience.  If you're considering going up the mountain, check them out www.rmiguides.com, then give me a ring so I can fill you in on all the 'insider tips.'

Thank you, Zeb, for pulling me up that behemoth of a mountain!!!

Olallie Lake Hike

Yesterday I decided to test out my knees and go on an easy hike.  I've been having knee issues and got a cortisone shot to 'help' but ended up getting cortisone flare from it, so am just now starting to feel back to normal.  Anyways, the hike was really pretty and gradual elevation gain so it was perfect for the amount of effort I was looking to exude.  We parked at the Pratt Lake trailhead and hiked in old growth forest for about 6 miles total.  We passed a few waterfalls along the way and had an amazing view of Mt Rainier from our top elevation.  It was pretty amazing to look at and think 'Wow, I'll be at the top of that next weekend...hopefully!'  The weather has been great and we have a great forecast so far for our trip, so knees willing, we'll make it to the summit :)

At our high point yesterday, we looked down at Olallie Lake and even saw some signs of fall in the reddish and yellow leaves.