A lil more Rainier

As someone who grew up in the Seattle area, Mt. Rainier has always been a part of my life. As far back as I can remember, I can see it looming in my memory. My grandmother always called it 'The Lady' and would talk about how her 'dress' looked on a certain day. There are at least two times in my life when I have sworn I never wanted to climb Mt. Rainier. Once I even went so far as to tell Matt that if I ever told him I wanted to climb Mt. Rainier not to let me. I was dehydrated on top of my first 14er in Colorado. But on 7.17.10 we both made it to the top. Yay.

Disclaimer: You know how batteries die very quickly in extreme cold? I made the wise decision to take out my camera battery, put it in a cute little chest pocket my sleeping bag has, and keep it warm during the night. Then we woke up at 2am and I packed my two pound camera in my backpack and climbed to the top of Mt. Rainier. Two pounds. That's a lot at 14,000 ft. And guess what? That's right, my battery stayed back at camp in my sleeping bag. Sooooo I have pictures from the hike up to high camp, the hike down from high camp, and a few that Steven e-mailed me from the summit. Sorry, it's going to have to do for now. Of course, they don't even begin to do justice to how beautiful it was.


We climbed Mt. Rainier with our wonderful friends Steven & Ashley (the same ones from our Peru trip). Leading the group was her dad and three of his friends, all members of Olympic Mountain Rescue. That means they fulfilled the 'someone who knows how to drag me out of a crevasse if I fall in' element necessary for such trips. They were fun guys.

Ash & I

We took the Emmons Glacier route, which is on the opposite side of the mountain from Camp Muir, the more common route. While this route is longer and has more elevation gain, it is much less crowded, which means less waiting around at snowbridges and other bottlenecks.

We met up at White River Campground on Friday morning and began the hike up to camp. 5000 ft of elevation gain brought us to Emmons Flats at 9,800ft where we set up camp. Day one was a mix of hiking on a dirt trail, climbing through snowfields, climbing the Prow to avoid having to rope up (not worth it!), and then camping on the glacier. After dinner (de-hydrated Chicken Saigon Style Noodles mmmmm) and hours of melting snow to get water for the next day we headed to bed.

The dark line on the slope is where we glissaded down the next day. Sure was a lot easier that direction!

Steep

My cute hubby. With his dorky 'glacier glasses'. Thanks G&G.

Matt & the mountain. They belong tongether.

Look closely. See all the cracks?

We camped at the dark spot just up and right from the bottom left corner. You can see our path straight up the next day.

Sunset, Little Tahoma & Rainier's shadow.

More sunset. Love it.

Camp.

Looming above us as we sleep

We woke up at two the next morning and got started about an hour later in the pitch dark after putting on all the clothes we owned, putting on crampons (the metal spiky things that attach to your boots so you can walk on ice) and roping up.

Soon it was dawn and there was an amazing sunrise. We had perfect weather: balmy (for 14,000ft) and no wind. Around 6am it was light, and some very low clouds started to roll in on the west side of the state but nothing that blocked our view much at all. We could not have asked for a better day. This is why I climb mountains. While I like the exercise and the challenge, days like that, on beautiful mountains like Rainier are why we sometimes torture ourselves.

Climbing on a glacier was incredible. It was gorgeous. Very different from the Muir side of the mountain, if you have been there. There were giant crevasses everywhere. We would be walking along and just come up to a giant crack in the ground. Then you turn and walk until a) it ends (except you know its still beneath you, its just not opened up) or b) you find a snow bridge and walk gingerly across it or c) sometimes its small, and you just jump.

The air was thin, thin, thin. Everyone was feeling pretty good as far as altitude sickness though and we had all been pretty active this season (see here) so it was a good time. We just kept plodding along and reached the top to a fantastic view. The crater is gigantic. Adams and St Helens were out. I was finally standing on top of Mt. Rainier.

Me.

Matt & I.   Mt. Adams right over my head.

Ash & I

 

Matt, me, Steven & Ashley

The way down was longggggg. And hard on the feet. We did have some sweet glissading though. After getting through a somewhat torturous/hilarious glissade up on the glacier while still roped to five other people (imagine being the rope in tug-of-war) the 20-minute-straight glissade down to where the dirt trail started was heaven. This was, of course, followed by burgers and beer at the first restaurant we encountered.

Where did I find him?

Now I've climbed Mt. Rainier. I think it actually looks bigger after having walked my two feet all the way up it. It was truly gorgeous. If you're not one for ice axes and falling into crevasses, I would still recommend just hiking up to Emmons Flats some day. Mt. Rainier is the most glaciated peak in the continental U.S. It's pretty amazing and you have a great view of it without having to go all the way up. But hey, if you enjoy lack of oxygen and large cracks in the earth (or you put up with them for good views) I would definitely recommend taking any chance you get to climb the thing!