It's hard to believe I was stepping off Mt. Rainier 24 hours ago. I thought it best to write my accounts of this adventure while still fresh in my mind. I'll start from the day we le
ft Denver, CO and end the day we left Seattle, Wa for home. I'll write it in the style of a journal. Here goes my story...
Thursday June 22nd 2013
I rose at 5:45 am (which was the start of many a early mornings), dressed, ate a quick breakfast and loaded my vehicle with gear I packed up the two days prior. My climbing compadre Jeff arrived at my house on time at 6:15 am. We loaded up his gear and drove to my parents house where my father shuttled us to Denver International Airport. Our flight was delayed getting out, but we made time up and arrived in Seattle 20 minutes ahead of schedule. We collected our checked gear and jumped on the Link (Seattle's light rail). At the Link's terminus we took the monorail to the Seattle Center. Little did we know the Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon finished at the Seattle Center. It was quite a busy place. We got a lot of strange looks. From there it was a ten block walk to Alpine Ascents International's headquarters lugging our gear. 
Jeff and I were the second group of our team to arrive. We were directed by one of our guides, Dylan Cembalski, to a large room and found a bench each which had our names and climbing permit for Mt. Rainier National Park on it. We unloaded our packs as the rest of our team arrived. After introductions and a synopsis of our climb we began the gear check item by item replacing them in our packs as we went. We lined our packs with large garbage bags for water proofing (a technique not needed in Colorado and much appreciated for Rainier). I had almost all the needed gear- renting only glacier sunglasses and plastic boots. The gear check took about a hour and forty-five minutes. We left our packs at the headquarters and were dismissed with instructions to meet back there at 5:50 am the next day. That evening Jeff and I explored Seattle Center, Sculpture and Discovery parks. The Lower Queen Ann area of Seattle is a neat place. We retired early at the Marqueen hotel.
Sunday June 23rd
Jeff and I awoke at 5 am and made our 2 block walk to Alpine Ascents. All 8 of us that made up our climbing team loaded our gear into Alpine Ascent's van and trailer which would get us to the mountain. We were off at 6 am. Adam was our driver and one of our guides that we hadn't yet been introduced to rode shot gun and slept the entire way (he turned out to be our lead guide
Matt Hegeman). We were all a little sleepy, but chatted a bunch to get to know one another. I learned that Shannon and Andre (husband and wife) were both doctors, Andre just finishing his general surgery residency, Shannon a family doc/hospitalist. They have lived in Seattle for 5 years and are moving to Houston for Andre's fellowship in surgical oncology. Shannon has a brother who just moved to Colorado, in the Black Forest area, as the fire broke out. What a welcome to Colorado! Nathan and Will Holland are brothers. Will is from Indiana (near South Bend) and Nathan lives in Virginia. Will lost a daughter a year ago and was climbing in her memory. Chris Yelton and Mike Wilson were from Northern Kentucky near Cincinnati. Chris is a video editor and Mike is retired U.S Army. Chris is a one year cancer survivor. Kudos to Chris on this climb!
We reached
Ashford, WA, the staging area for most of the guiding services on Rainier, and got out for breakfast, stretching, and potty break. We met two of our other guides here, Dylan and
Nick Mullan. Alpine Ascents owns a house in Ashford were guides stay. After breakfast we gathered in the parking lot of the breakfast spot under a drizzling sky and reintroduced ourselves, officially met the guides and went over our climbing agenda and goals. Goal number one is being safe on the mountain. Goal two is to have fun. Goal three is to summit. Matt stated "I get grumpy if I don't summit." We then loaded back into the van and entered The Park.
The drive up to Paradise (our starting trailhead) was very scenic, wet and lush with green trees, plants and moss. This is refreshing from the arid dryness of Denver. We pulled into Paradise after about an hour and forty-five minutes of drive time. The drizzle was now turning to rain with a temperature of 45 degrees, PERFECT! (a little facetious humor here). We unloaded our gear and packed into the lodge to change and gear up. We had one more team talk by Matt on what to wear and that we would climb in five legs with four breaks today. He mentioned we were short one guide, so our fourth guide would be from the team coming off the mountain today. That guide was
Tom Chambers, who would stay at camp Muir and wait for our arrival.
Packs were donned and after walking across the parking lot we set foot on snow. In single file we started our climb at 10:40 am with Matt in the lead and I was right behind him as I would be for most to the day. Our first break was after a hour and thirty minutes and 1500 feet elevation gain putting us just above treeline. It was now necessary to put on all outer shell jackets and pants as the rain intensified. At each break we were instructed to take off our packs and sit on them, eat and drink. The break lasted 10 minutes. I got a little chilled at the end of each break.
Back in line we went on climbing. The rain was steady and the clouds began to descend on us. Our second break occurred an hour after our first. We had just got on the Muir snow field (
Backpacker Magazine rated the Muir Snowfield as one of the top 10 most dangerous hikes). Everything was now white. Visibility was limited. We did the usual of taking our packs off, sitting on them, ate and drank. Matt mentioned we probably would take only one more break and push on to our destination of
Camp Muir due to the deteriorating weather. Matt said this was almost the worst weather he had climbed the lower part of the mountain in, only if the wind picked up would it be the worst.
Our route from Paradise to Camp Muir
On our third leg, in the middle of the snow field, we continued to work on our climbing technique- scuff stepping and rest stepping. This is where you kick your boot into the snow scuffing the boot's sole allowing the lugs to grip the snow.
Rest stepping is where you keep your uphill leg bent at the knee and locking your down hill leg pausing to support your body weight on it. Methodically, you repeat on the other leg or every other step. This is an efficient way to give your body rest and conserve energy to sustain a long climb. I was matching Matt step for step when he got a radio call from Nick that one of our team members, Mike, was struggling. The call was made for Mike to descend to Paradise with Nick and catch a ride back to Seattle. That was the last we saw of Mike. Dylan descended to pick up some of the shared gear and food Nick and Mike had. Nick would spend the night back in Ashford and meet us at Camp Muir the following morning.
Our third break happened another hour later. The usual manner took place though this break was shorter. The wind was kicking up and the rain was hard. We all felt good and were tired of the rain. We ran into some climbers coming down saying that the rain turned to snow at 9200 feet. We were at 8500 feet. We pressed on in a total white environment. All you could see were wands in the snow indicating the proper route. They were spaced about 25 yards apart. If it weren't for the wands you couldn't tell where you were. We ran into the Alpine Ascents group that got to the mountain three days before us. They had summited that morning in bad weather and the summit was also in a cloud. This gave us some hope that we may get there, however when the upper mountain is encased in clouds climbing is difficult.
Dylan caught up to us as it started snowing. We were close to camp and ready to be there. The clouds lifted a little to show us Camp Muir- hurray!! We made it after 5 hours 54 minutes of climbing in rain and snow.
Matt led us to the "Gombu." This is a building structure erected for guided groups to sleep and seek refuge in. This would be our sleeping quarters for the night, all seven of us and Matt. Dylan and Tom would sleep in the separate cooking tent. The Gombu was named after the well known Tibetan climbing Sherpa
Nawang Gombu. We all took off our wet gear, hung things to dry, unpacked and laid out our sleeping bags.
I slept on the middle shelf in the left corner.
After we settled our stuff we walked in the blowing snow to the cooking tent for some hot drink, food and good conversation. I was not tired at all. I guess the climbing pace and rest stepping technique really work!
Looking down the Muir snow field as some of the clouds lifted.
Opening the cooking tent's door brought delicious smells to my nose and warmth to my body. Tom had been at work boiling water and getting burritos and fresh guacamole ready for us. What a treat! We all sat, drank hot beverages, sweet and spicy tea for me, relaxed and chatted. Tom had great music going- Bob Marley!! Ahhh the comforts of camp after a great wet journey today.
Matt getting dinner ready in the cook tent
My climbing partner Jeff in the blue puffy
Panorama shot of with me to the far left
After dinner we retired back to the Gombu where I used the solar toilet and brushed my teeth.
Panoramic shot of the toilet and Ranger Shelter
We all crawled into bed by 8 pm with a wake time of 7 am. I slept in my baselayer clothing, sock liners and hat. I had a hot water bottle in my sleeping bag, boy was I toasty. The best item in my bag with me was my pee bottle. I'll just say it is so nice to not have to get out of my bag in the middle of the night, especially when it is windy and snowing outside. I dozed in and out of sleep through the night even with ear plugs in. I'm not the best camp sleeper. Poor Nathan didn't sleep at all. Still, lying for 11 hours gives the body rest.
Monday June 24th
Matt woke us right at 7 am. Today would be our relaxed day. I got out of my bag and found my hanging outer layers still wet and half frozen. We packed up our backpacks again. Stepping outside, it had snowed more overnight and winds were harsh. I carried my pack and gear over to the cook tent, where opening the door my nose met the delicious smells of breakfast- eggs, bacon, blueberry pancakes and coffee! I drank hot spiced cider. I've never eaten so well on a mountain- YUM!! A guide from International Mountain Guides (IMG) came into our tent to let us know they made a summit attempt early this morning and were turned around at 12,300 feet due to unstable snow and avalanche danger. Our guides made light of it saying IMG guides are a bunch of ski patrolers and not climbers and are too conservative with the snow pack. Nick arrived at camp around 10:30 am as we were cleaning up.
After breakfast we went outside and found the weather had improved. We could actually see the mountain around us. We began our snow school taught by Tom. He first taught alpine walking techniques (German, French and American) with and without crampons. Next we went over the anatomy of our ice ax and its uses. We practiced walking and self arrest techniques with it.
Self arresting is basically stopping yourself or your rope team on a steep slope when you fall.
After breakfast at Muir and the Cowlitz Glacier
Tom would yell "FALLING" and we would all hit the deck controlling our ice axes, getting onto our bellies, digging the ice pick into the snow and kicking our feet into the snow. Tom was impressed with our skill. The snow school last a hour and a half. We went back into the cook tent and Dylan instructed the team on avalanche transceiver, or beacon, wear and use. Jeff and I had our own transceivers and had previous practice so this was a review for us. We then move onto to the use of our climbing harnesses and appropriate wear. After all the discussion was done, we hydrated and had snacks before heading back outside to talk about ropes and rope travel.
Our team after snow school
The weather was still holding in our favor, so we prepared to head up to high camp. We divided into three teams of three and one team of two. It was about 1:30 pm. The guides led each of the teams. Jeff and I had Dylan out in front. We were the last team to depart. We started our traverse of the Cowlitz Glacier and headed up to Cathedral Gap. A few
crevasses could be seen below us. Our route was very solid. Up into Cathedral Gap we climbed on a mix of rock and soft snow. We crested the ridge and continued to climb up it on rock and snow. The Ingraham Glacier was now on our right. The crevasses were more plentiful and larger than the Cowlitz. We climbed pretty close to them too, a little intense initially. The clouds socked in around us again and visibility was significantly reduced. The wind had also picked up again.
Cathedral Gap and Cathedral Rock
Our route above Camp Muir
We arrived at a vacant high camp on the Ingraham Flats. This is a safe zone on the glacier. There were large crevasses above and below us. Seracs bigger than houses were a short distance to the North of us. Four tents were arranged next to one another dug into the glacier. This would be our home for the next 20 hours. The guides had two tents up hill from us and there was a cooking tent, called the pausch, which looked like a tee-pee planted in the snow- much less sophisticated than our cook tent at Camp Muir. It was very close quarters in there.
Our high camp on the Ingraham Flats
Our high camp Pausch
Seracs close by
Jeff and I claimed a tent and unloaded our gear before resting a couple of hours. We were still encased in white without visibility. The wind was now calm and it was warm. Even though it was cloudy the snow was radiating heat up at us. I was able to just wear my baselayer top while still wearing soft shell and hard shell pants. Inside our tent it felt like 75 degrees. We hung our wet items and they dried within a hour. I sat on the glacier talking to Andre and Shannon for a while. The clouds started to burn off and we had some amazing views of the mountain. Little Tahoma sat right below us and was my view from my tent door...breathtaking.
My tent with a view
At about 4 pm we were summoned to the pausch for dinner. Tonight's dinner was chicken noodle soup, loaded with all kinds of veggies- carrots, mushrooms, green onion, asparagus. Another delicious meal on the mountain. We chatted for a while and Matt gave his summit speech. We were told go to bed and focus on rest, not to worry when we will wake up and start climbing the upper portion of the mountain or the weather. With full stomachs we headed to our tents for bed at 5:30 pm. It was fairly clear out and you could see the route up Disappointment Cleaver's face to the North of our camp. I'll admit it looked intimidating. It was on a steep slope and was said to have fixed ropes on it.
A picture of the Disappointment Cleaver face/route
Jeff named this shot Juneuary(hope that tomorrow we will summit)
I got into my sleeping bag and pulled my hat below my eyes. I stuck my boot liners in the bottom of my bag with a hot water bottle to dry them out. Wet feet are blah! It was difficult to sleep. It was light until almost 10 pm and I was transfixed on the remaining route and if the weather would cooperate. I must have eventually dozed off because I was woken by the flapping of our tent. The wind had picked up and it was snowing again. I fell back asleep and was woken again by the wind/weather and Matt.
Tuesday June 25th
It was 12:30 am- time to climb. I was fully dressed in 10 minutes when Matt came back and said to get back into our sleeping bags, the weather was bad. We would reacess in 30-60 minutes. I fell back asleep. Next thing I knew we were woken at 4:30 am to get breakfast. The weather was worse. Nevertheless we geared up thinking it may still be a go. We gathered in the pausch for hot drinks and oatmeal. We talked about the weather report which didn't look like it would improve. At 5:30 am we made the decision that the summit would not happen for us today. We returned to our tents and packed up for the climb back down to Muir. The winds knocked us sideways walking back to our tents and the snow drifts were deep causing us to posthole. Andre and Shannon's tent was damaged by the wind, snapping poles. Nick and Tom stayed behind to fix them.
Jeff and I clipped into the long rope with Matt as our lead and Will and Nathan also roped in. Just as we were about to depart, Chris set his mitts on the ground which the wind picked them up and ushered them toward the crevasse below us. Chris started to go after them and was stopped abruptly by Matt. Matt and all of us attached to his rope carefully made are way toward the crevasse and rescued the mitts, whew!
So, our rope team led first and the second rope team of four gave us space. The down climb was exhilarating! I was positioned second to the end of the rope and Jeff was at the end. The wind was ferocious, sustained at 30 mph with gusts of 40. It was blowing sideways at us throwing stinging snow at our face. Even with helmet, goggles, balaclava and hat, it was uncomfortable. The wind made it hard to get a breath in. The snow was deep, wind blown and soft. You sank in every step. To make things more exciting the wind blew us toward the crevasses that were now on our left, the same direction the slope fell toward. Needless to say a misstep could be a bad thing. Steps were taken carefully and not perfect. I learned later Shannon took a fall, but was able to control it and get back up (no one could hear her yell "falling" because the wind was so loud). Once we got onto Cathedral Gap the wind was more tolerable. It was difficult to negotiate the switchbacks stepping over the rope while the wind blew it. After about 40 minutes of down climbing we strolled back to our Camp Muir base camp, took off our gear and entered the cook tent. We had hot drinks and snacks, took pictures and videos. It was about 6:15 am.
After a long break we packed our gear for the descent down the Muir Snowfield to Paradise. Matt said it would take about two and a half hours. The clouds rolled in again creating a whiteout. We descended in a non-uniformed way. Tom, Nick and I led. It was a game again of finding the next wand marking the route that would magically appear our of the whiteness. We descended rapidly taking one break for the team to collect together again. The temperature warmed a little and the falling snow turned to rain, UGH! I was so sick of rain by then. Luckily it wasn't a hard rain like we had climbing up; it was more of a constant drizzle. On the way down we found a few glissading spots including some that resembled straight shot water slides. That was fun!!
We made great time back to Paradise, the fastest Tom and Nick had guided- One hour and thirty minutes. We were at Paradise around 9:30 am. We all congregated at the visitor center to gear down and change/wash up in the rest rooms.
We all got into the van and headed to Ashford for brunch.
I have been asked many times why I climb. My reply usually is I do it for exercise, adventure, thrill, beauty of the scenery, the self accomplishment and so on. The British answer, now a cliche, is "because it is there.". I have jokingly referred to my passion for climbing and being amongst the mountains as my 'sickness.' It is a chronic infection that gnaws at my insides pulling me to the mountains. The more adverse conditions the mountains produce and the more uncomfortable I am my sickness becomes stronger. I sound sick don't I? That's why I call it my sickness.
During this climb I had time to internalize what my true answer is. I got down right philosophical;
'To dwell low is to only know what is low, even if you can peer at the beauty above. To be above is to truly know both above and below, thus making your knowledge and experience whole.'
We had a great brunch at a local restaurant in Ashford. They are known for everything blackberry, especially pie. Our team shared stories and good times before heading back to Seattle. We dropped Dylan, Nick and Tom off at the guide house. We wished them well and were off. Nick and Tom were to have a dueling banjo session on their porch.
We arrived in Seattle at 2:45 pm. It took some time to unload the van and collect our gear. We said farewell to one another and went on our ways. Jeff and I headed two blocks back to the Marqueen Hotel and unpacked our gear to dry. We headed up to Fremont Brewery and of course got caught in the rain- UGH! If ever you are in that area go to RoRo's and order their BBQ sundae. It is amazing!
The following two days Jeff and I explored Seattle- caught a Mariner's game, took the ferry to Bermerton Island, stuck gum on the gum wall near Pike Place Market, ate good food and drank good beer. Am I upset that we didn't summit? We'll I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed. However, remember goal number one...safety first. If you were in the weather we were in you would have been thankful to get down safely. The mountain will be there (if it doesn't blow up, as they say because it is a volcano) for me to climb again. It gives me good reason to go back next year!
As for this blog? I will keep it going since I am going back to Rainier to summit it. In the mean time I will chronicle my 14er hikes and climbs in my pursuit to climb all of Colorado's 54. Thanks for reading and happy adventures to you!
