We learned a couple months prior to the climb by checking the lunar calendar that we'd have a full moon. We were pretty excited about this especially once we realized we were going to have nice weather. We had low winds and everyone had a sense of excitement an anxious energy. We could hear Nolan numerous times firing up the group with a booming "SUMMIT DAY!" The rope teams were lead by JJ with myself and Nolan, anchored by Casey. Team two was guided by Eryka with Trevor and Jake (keeping the Cougs together). The third team was lead by Tim with Ron and Tripp.
This image captures almost 6 hours of climbing
parties on Rainier going for the summit under starry skies. Wind shifts
during the night would cause bands of smoke from fires 100 miles away on
Mt Hood to pass over Rainier. This intermittent low-level haze caused
the red glow seen in the sky and a Rainier that looks like it was almost
painted on. Lights from Sunrise can be seen in the lower right of the
frame. (© Chris Morin)
The route begins with a rising traverse across the Cowlitz Glacier and then ascends the pumiced switchbacks of Cathedral Gap. This allows us to gain the mighty Ingraham Glacier, from which we will then access the Disappointment Cleaver (DC). Our guides told us that the DC will be the physical crux of the route. The remaining slopes and hours are whittled away as we zig and zag through the crevasses of the upper mountain. As we make our ascent, we climb steadily for one to two hours at a stretch, and then break for 10 to 15 minutes with our guides reminding us to eat and drink fluids. The trick to this is stuffing food in your larger down parka which you must put on as soon as we break to keep our body temperature level. Our first break comes in "The Flats" which are on the Ingraham Glacier. The trail this late in the year is clear even to the most novice climber. Even before our first break we've already hopped over a couple crevasses.
After eating and drinking we're off again as we approach the DC. We soon learned that the reason everyone talks about the DC is because you're climbing on rocks in your crampons which isn't the easiest task. There are many parts of the cleaver that we have to climb with both hands to pull ourselves up some steep rocks as we scale up the dusty trail. At this point our guides have shortened the ropes for safety measures incase one person falls or slips the shorter rope will mitigate the danger. JJ is all business as we climb up the cleaver and our next scheduled rest break.
Once we reach the top of the DC (12,500) Tripp asks JJ to talk with Tim about Ron. What happened next was difficult to watch. Ron is a very fit, mentally strong and a close friend. We could tell instantly that something was wrong with him. He was slurring his words and began puking in the snow. JJ said the puking was as good sign as the altitude raises the acidity in our body and by vomiting it helped reset his ph levels. The guides met and asked Ron if he wanted to continue and Ron said emphatically "yes" and that he was feeling better after our break. We switched out Ron with Nolan to climb in front of Casey and myself to anchor him. We stuff our heavy parkas back into our packs and head out. After only a couple of steps Ron is stumbling and clearly affected by Acute Mountain Sickness brought on by the altitude. JJ had to make the call that none of us wanted to hear. He congratulated Ron on his efforts but told him that he was going to have to descend which was the only way that he was going to feel better. Ron has three kids and an awesome wife. He has too much to loose by putting himself in further risk. I know next year Ron will be back and will make the summit. That's just the kind of guy he is.
We get Nolan back on our rope in front of me and Casey and add Tripp to Eryka's rope team with Jake and Trevor. We then head out on the longest part of the climb to "High Break". We all have agreed that this was the toughest part of the climb.
The reason the stretch from the DC to "High Break" was tough is because the switch backs just keep getting steeper and steeper. The trail by this late in the year is one large rut making it difficult to rest step without side stepping the whole time. My feet were too big to use the duck walk technique that we were using lower on the mountain. Duck walking saves your calves from getting burned out when using the rest step. We are all doing as much pressure breathing as we can to make sure that we don't get hit with AMS. Right after we left the DC I felt a nice knot forming in my right hamstring. The cramp started to worry me but with the rest step and some massage while climbing I was lucky enough to work out the cramp and continued on by putting the concern out of my mind.
All of our minds start to wander as we climb for the next 90 minutes. There is no more chatter between the group everyone is focused on climbing. I personally started to think about the amazing people in my life. My beautiful wife and the rest of my amazing family who've always encouraged me to be adventurous. It's during this part of the climb when I realize just how much climbing this mountain is going to change me forever. All you can do is keep going, keep moving forward. One step after another. People with a background in the military have referred to this as "The Suck".
The sun is starting to come up as we hear JJ tell us that we're ready for our final break before the summit. Once we get to "High Break" we see an independent climber standing by himself as we approach. This was an eery sight was we throw on our heavy parkas and suck down some food (gummy candy) and water. We ask this guy if he's ok and he says yes so we move on. After a quick 15 minutes we head back out and make our way to the summit. As the sun is getting closer to rising we start to really appreciate the scenery and the crevasses really start to appear.
Looking south at Little Tahoma as we grow closer to the summit.
We quickly learn to stop looking up as all it does is give you false hope that the summit is near. Too many times did I think I could see the summit only to be fooled by the false peaks.
We were told that there were two crevasses that were too wide to jump over and there were ladders that we had to walk across. No one wanted to lose our footing going over these ladders and you also had to watch the tension of your rope to make sure you weren't yanked by someone on your rope team. JJ got some great photos.
As we close in on the summit we see another guide company starting their descent and they are congratulating us on making it to the summit. But with all the false summits we've seen to this point we don't know whether to believe them or not. But then we see the crest of the crater and hear Lloyd Christmas's voice in our heads "We're there!" Just before 7am on 9/12/11 we've just summited Mt. Rainier. It just use just around 6 hours from Camp Muir to the summit.
The summit of Mt. Rainier is spectacular. A large crater dominates the summit, with steam rising out of the cavernous summit vents. The bare ground near the summit can be warm to the touch. At 14,410 feet, Mt. Rainier is the highest point in Washington. We all told that we have an hour at the summit. We reflect on our achievement and realize that to get to the highest point on Mt. Rainier we need to walk across the crater. We drop our packs, grab our heavy parkas and a bottle of water for some more walking...Great. After some photos and plenty of high fives we head out to the highest point in the state of Washington.
Once we're at 14,410 feet we take multiple photos and are surprised that we can see Puget Sound but can't make out Seattle. It was an impressive view for sure but the haze from the fires in Oregon made the visibility poor when looking down to the lowland.
Obligatory handstand photo. Which was challenging in mountaineering boots and crampons.
Pretty amazing to see the steam coming out of the vents. The steam was very hot and helped change our minds that Mt. Rainier was not as dormant as we were led to believe.
As we walk back to our packs across the crater Nolan rolled over his knee on the icy terrian which wasn't a good sign for him. We drink some more water and eat some more food then realize we're only half way.
We begin the descent to Camp Muir. This takes about half the time of the ascent, and also requires significant effort with only two breaks. One at the top of our good friend the DC and once in the "The Flats". In the light of day the crevasses were breathtaking and in lower places looked like a huge clawed animal had slashed pieces of the glaciers.
Climbing down the DC was no joke in the light of day it was impressive that we'd scrambled up it in the dark. As we got off the ice of the glaciers we were in some very soft slushy snow which was no fun for anyone as we worked our way down the mountain.
Crossing the Cowlitz Glacier and the trail down the Cathedral Gap
Once back at Camp Muir, we will take a break for an hour and pack for the final hike down to Paradise. Everyones feet were beat up and we were dreading the last decent to Paradise. We pulled off our crampons and packed up all of our left behind items. Just as we're leaving Camp Muir we learned about boat skiing (basically skiing in only your boots) which was much better in fresh snow than in the ruts. Then we were taught how to glissade. Glissading is best performed by putting on your gore-tex pants and sliding down the mountain in pre-made tracks. This truly made the end of the trip much more enjoyable as our feet were killing us by this point.
We flew down to the final break point where I threw on my flip flops and headed to Paradise to catch the shuttle. It was pretty cool to see people gawking at us and asking if we'd been to the summit while we responded with a smile and a "yup".
We jumped on the shuttle and most people slept on the way back to Ashford. Once back at RMI we turned in our rental gear and grabbed some food and beers for a quick summit certification ceremony with our guides.
As we head our own separate ways we can see the massive mountain that we'd just scaled earlier that morning. The rush of emotions flew through us as we moved unwillingly back to reality.
The real question is "What's next?"
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