Mount Rainier Climb- Aug 2011

My Mount Rainier climb with RMI began with an orientation and check in on Tuesday.  We met our guides, got our equipment checked out, and saw a presentation of the climb in general and our route specifically.  A lot of nice people! There would be 3 guides per team, and 9 people on each team.

Wednesday morning, we bussed up to Paradise for our mountaineering climbing school.  It was a total blast!  We learned how to arrest our falls using an ice axe, even if we were sliding on our backs head first, and that was exhilarating, since we were actually doing it.  We learned about crampons and how to be part of a rope team.  We also learned pressure breathing to better utilize what little oxygen/pressure we would have at elevation and the rest-step technique which my cousin, Holly, had taught my brother and I when she took us up to Camp Muir over 20 yrs ago.  It was a gorgeous day, and marmots were running around the hillsides.  We also saw one of the Cascades red foxes, although it was mostly white, silvered with gray.  I didn’t get a picture of it.

Time for the real thing.  Thursday morning, we bussed back up to Paradise, elevation 5400 ft, and readied for our first leg of the climb- getting to Camp Muir at around 10,000 ft.  Almost all of this climb was on snow, as the snow was so deep and is melting off so late this year.  The Muir Snowfield was HOT with the sun beating down and also reflecting off the snow and beating up as well.  We put on sunblock at each rest and were told to drink half a quart of water and a snack.  It was a long trek up, up and more up, but very rewarding with the fantastic views of the mountains around and felt good to be pushing up the mountain finally!  Rock and ice was falling almost continuously from the Nisqually Glacier/headwall.  I’m not sure I’m using the right terminology, but it was loud and awesome and I wish I could have stopped and watched it!

Camp Muir is along a little rock ledge between the Muir Snowfield and the Cowlitz Glacier.  There are a few “huts” full of bunk ledges for the climbing companies’ clients and a couple spots for guides.  Also some rather primitive privies.  Most of the buildings were built to blend in to the mountainside so they aren’t an eyesore up there.  Tiny brown birds hop around looking for crumbs that climbers drop up there.  I was surprised to see them. The views of Mount Adams, Mount Hood and Mount St Helens were breathtaking!  We were brought hot water to make our dinner and we had to be in bed and no talking by 6pm.  I don’t think anyone got much sleep.  Most of us admitted that we hadn’t really slept in days from the anticipation. 

At 11pm we were awoken and brought more hot water for “breakfast.”  We had to eat something to help fuel our bodies, so I choked down a packet of oatmeal that normally would have been yummy.  It was pitch black up there and no wind.  Dust sparkled in the air, so that it almost looked like snow.  I could see the lights of Paradise way down below.  By midnight we were geared up, roped up in teams of about 4 and starting out onto the Cowlitz Glacier.  Walking in crampons and on a rope team was a challenge even with the training.  Also, I was surprised by the narrowness of the trail.  It was no more than a foot wide and often less.  I wasn’t scared of slipping, because the crampons really seemed to do what they were supposed to, but it was hard to walk.  I also noticed that every bit of me felt oddly fatigued.  I figured it was just because I had not got warmed up yet and pushed on optimistically.  By the time we reached the other side of the Cowlitz Glacier I knew something was off.  I was really finding it difficult to make my muscles do what I wanted.  Then we had a steep steep climb up the Cathedral Gap.  It was rolling ankle-twisting size stones on deep layers of pumice and ash dirt.  With every struggling step we all slipped down and sank into it and had to really fight to climb, climb, climb.  When we reached the dark outline of that spot, we turned and started going up more stones and dirt.  My muscles were screaming, but not in the normal physical strain type way… it was all I could do to push on and now my balance wasn’t what it should be either.  I was really relieved to hit the ice again of the Ingraham Glacier, thinking this would make the difference.  It didn’t.  It was easier to get a grip with my feet, but all my ability to move forward was waning and I was really swaying.  I tipped a couple times and managed to prop myself up with my ice axe, but I realized that I was not safe and not an asset to my rope team at this point.  I knew I would just push on as hard as I could until we reached the point on Ingraham Flats where we would take the first break and then have to call that my summit.  It seemed to take forever and when we stopped our main team leader, Win Whittaker, said that we should feel pretty good at this break… I had nothing left, and Disappointment Cleaver would have been part of the next leg.  There was no way I could push myself to do it and endanger my team.  I and 3 others called it a climb at that point.  Oddly enough I didn’t feel sad.  I knew I had made the best decision… really the only choice, and that I had had a fantastic adventure.

The above picture is where I stopped... the "summit" for me this time.  The little lights are other climbers' headlamps coming up.  We waited there a bit until we could get back down and then one of the guides took the 4 of us back to Muir.  Even that was a struggle, but since we weren’t pushing for time, we got to stop and check a couple crevasses out with our headlamps in the dark.  They were amazing!! If I could do this again, I would just want to take my time and see all the cool things there are to see along the climb- the avalanches, the crevasses, the way the glacier ice looks blue where you poke it with an ice axe, the phenomenal views and the geology of it all.  It all just blew me away. 

When we got back to Camp Muir we all crawled into our sleeping bags to stay warm since we were drenched with sweat and it was quite cold out.  Another climber came down from the next break point.  I didn’t sleep really, and woke just before sunrise.  I went outside and saw another fox, dashing across the camp and down the snowfield toward Paradise- this one more of a brownish charcoal color. The world had been blanketed in a fluffy duvet of white clouds, with just the high peaks sticking out above, and the sun was touching the horizon with brilliant tangerine and peach.  It was stunning!  So incredibly worth every effort, every bit of training, every step I had taken to see that from even Camp Muir. 

The rest of the team came down around 10:30 (one guy had been hit with a soccer ball sized falling rock and had a huge lump and cut on his arm!!) and we headed back down to Paradise to wrap up our climb.  What an adventure!!