MOUNT RAINIER. Attempt #1

We had a plan to climb Mount Rainier at the end of June. The plan had structure. Train, climb Baker at the end of May, then climb Rainier at the end of June. But last week, the last week of April, major trauma was inflicted on the well thought out plan. A rare good weather weekend was forecasted. A possible summit window was emerging as tempting as a (pick your metaphor).


Our fearless leader, James, said ‘let’s go this weekend’. Two months early. Gulp.

We met a few times through the week and the plan evolved a bit, but Friday morning 6 of us drove in twos to Rainier. We got an early start, but when a coworker and I arrived at Paradise, the others weren’t there. We waited. And waited.

Stephanie, pointing out the goal(s).

In retrospect, the ‘we’ll wait for you at Paradise, you wait for us at Longmire’ was probably a flawed plan, but it all worked out well. We finally connected at around 2 in the afternoon set out for camp Muir.

I thought my pack weighed plenty before James said, "here, carry this portion of the group gear".

The original plan was to get to camp Muir Friday evening, train and practice skills Saturday, then get up at around 1am Sunday morning, summit, then come all the way back.

That was the plan.

We compounded our late start with a couple of detours on the way to Muir. There was snow all the way and under the hot afternoon sun, it had turned very soft, so with 50 pound packs, we sloshed on soft snowshoes up some steep slopes on the approach to Muir. It was slow going. Very slow.

Reed.  He was the only one on skis.

Michel.  A runner, he had been hit by a car last January and was in the final stages of recovery.

James, doing the navigation thing.

A sketchy part of the trip.

As we approached the 7500 foot level, we took stock. It was getting late. We could press onward and get into what seemingly would be a crowded camp Muir or we could set camp at a lower altitude and leapfrog Muir setting up a camp Saturday higher on the mountain making the summit day a little easier.

A new plan was formulated on the spot and one of the team members found a great spot and tent plat forms were dug, tents were erected, and camp was set.

What I didn’t know then, but found out later, that our leader, James was observing the slopes above us with growing unease. We were hearing avalanches and some thunderous booms, but there was still quite a bit of snow that hadn’t sloughed off. We were seeing avalanches, but paradoxically, not enough.

James

Sarah and James -- getting married next year!

We had a great party Friday night. Great conversation, funny stories, and a ‘small world story’ that was unbelievable. As we were discussing backgrounds, anecdotes from the past, it turned out that Sarah, our leaders fiancé, went to the same private boarding school as Michel’s girlfriend. The school was in Connecticut, and they were one year apart. They knew each other. What are the odds?

Reed, taking a picture of the sunset

Michel, sipping a Rainier, on Rainier, with Mount Adams in the distance

James, with Adams in the distance

The sunset, behind Rainier

Mount St Helens, or what is left of it, in the distance

Adams

Friday night we stuffed 4 into a 3 person tent. Cozy, but it worked. The wind picked up during the night and we got hit pretty hard by strong winds but having the gear people on the team really helped. They built the tent, the sleeping bags, and really knew how to properly pitch a tent. It was bomb proof.

Saturday was a fine morning and by then the die was cast. The wind had picked up considerably and as James scanned the slopes above he just didn’t like the look of it. The avalanche danger just seemed too high. We might have been able to summit, but in truth, there were probably two in our party that were truly physically ready to summit in good form.

Reed with morning coffee (Starbucks Via rocks!)

 Home for the weekend

 Mount Adams

 St Helens

So we spent the day training. Self arrest, crevasse rescue, how to handle ropes, tie knots, and general climbing techniques. The James school of mountaineering. Stephanie, who had climbed with RMI, said she learned more in a few hours with James than a full weekend with RMI on her previous summit bid.

Reed practicing the German, American, or the hybrid move up the mountain.

Michel, with Stephanie in the background practicing the moves.

 The James School of Mountaineering.

Stephanie taking a running leap to self arrest

Sarah demonstrating her skills!

A pause in the action

  Me, using a texas prussek system for crevasse rescue

We had a fine day of training and really learned a lot. It was a great day and after the training we broke camp and headed down. We envied Reed who had skinned up on back country skis. He took the skins off his skis, donned his pack and with a few thrusts on his skis was back down the mountain. That’s the way to go.

We didn’t summit. We didn’t get to camp Muir, but the late start on Friday turned out to be a god send. Muir would have been crowded and stinky. We had a pristine, secluded camp site all to ourselves. The training area turned out to be perfect right by the tents. Friday nights party was great and the team really had a great feel about it. The 6 individuals blended well and conversation flowed easily with many laughs. We didn’t summit, but we did have a great time.

I learned a lot. I learned I need to train harder, and I need to tweak my gear a little. I’m looking forward to the next adventure.