Rainier Climb Recap

Well... we made it safely to the summit and back! We had absolutely perfect weather (especially by Washington standards) and our guides from Alpine Ascents International (AAI) did a superb job getting us up and down the mountain. Cody put together an excellent play-by-play of the climb, which can be found here. I look forward to the next climb and learning more technical skills (e.g., route-finding, crevasse rescue, evaluating snow-pack). I thought I'd provide a few of my observations and lessons learned from the whole experience. Hope these are of use to future climbers. Keep in mind that the following are simply my conclusions/opinions based on my own limited experience; get out there, experiment, and find what works best for you. Good luck!

Training:

     Physical.

     (Profile: age 28, 150 lbs, 5'9", asthma)

     The two primary concerns I had while preparing for the climb were that my asthma would make me more susceptible to acute mountain sickness (AMS) and that my hiking in the upper midwest (MN) would not be adequate for Rainier. My training regimen is summarized here and was based on information from guide companies, Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills and Training for Climbing. Basically, I spent an equal amount of time working on cardio (mostly aerobic) and hiking, with little core strength training, and no flexibility training. How did I fare? Much better than expected. Asthma was not a problem. Aside from a slight headache and nausea at Camp Muir (which went away after taking ibuprofen, eating, changing my socks, and resting a bit), I wasn't affected by AMS. Key factors are likely that I stayed well hydrated (0.5 L per 1-2 hr, while moving, 1-2 L at camp each evening), we spent two nights above 10,000' and I breathed deeply while moving and while at rest. My hiking training was more than adequate for the conditions. I had worked my way up to hiking with 50 lbs for 4 hrs with a 2-3000' gain in elevation a few weeks before the climb. I made one last training hike in WA (Heather Lake, 1.5x, thus 7 mi, 1650' gain) with 60 lbs a few days before the climb and gave myself two days recovery. When we set out from Paradise, our packs weighed ~40-45 lbs and we moved at ~1000' vertical feet per hour. This was much less strenuous than I had trained for. As result, I did not feel muscle fatigue (legs, shoulders, or back) at any point during the ascent. This let me focus on my feet and the rope as we made our way up the mountain.

Hiking in skunk cabbage at Heather Lake, it's one of those things only a true Washingtonian would appreciate

The only painful part of the trip for myself was late in the day during our descent. My knees were very sore by the time we got to Pebble creek and as soon as we left the snow and hit the dirt trail, the plastic mountaineering boots really hurt my feet. No blisters though as I had duct-taped my Achilles tendon and heel earlier that day. Really not a big deal though considering the mileage and elevation change for the day (9 mi total, gain 3000' to summit then lose 9000').

     Mental.

     I'd recommend reading the chapter in Training for Climbing on mental training. Discusses the importance of maintaining your focus while climbing and suggests mental exercises to help get you into your "zone." Also agree with the statement in Training that "the 'no fear' attitude is for buffoons." Climbing is dangerous and you should be on alert for hazards and how to avoid or react to them.

Gear:

         I followed general guidelines for mountaineering gear from AAI, RMI, and Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills. Overall, I was happy with the gear I used. The gear lists provided by the guide services gave me an idea of what I was looking for and specific products to start with. With that info in mind, I shopped around at both REI (Bloomington, MN) and Midwest Mountaineering (Minneapolis). I  spent hours trying on different items, constantly comparing and thinking of how (in)practical the different features of each item were and tried to get as much info from experienced sales associates as I could. In the end I was happy with everything I bought. I decided to rent the items I knew I would have little use for in MN (e.g., avalanche transceiver, crampons, mountaineering boots, helmet...etc). Otherwise, only a few comments here:

     - Rent or invest in true glacier glasses. My climbing partners complained of eye fatigue towards the end of each day and had sunburns behind their sunglass lenses. Turns out both were using polarized glasses w/o reflective lenses. I rented glacier glasses and was not squinting or fatigued at the end of each day.

Glacier glasses (left) vs cool shades (right)

     - Leave most of your compression sacks at home. When I flew out for the climb, I had everything compartmentalized into about four or five compression sacks and everything was a tight fit. Guides had us line our packs with heavy plastic garbage bags and stuff everything together. Seemed like I could fit twice as much in my pack. Turns out (obviously now) that stuffing everything together fills all the space, whereas the compression sacks act like hard spheres (recall the atomic packing factor from crystallography, anyone???).

In Ballard the night before the climb, reducing pack weight and ditching most of my compression sacks

     - I brought two pieces of 60" webbing. I've read posts where people didn't have a use for the webbing, thought I'd share my need for it. On the way up, I used one to fix the spike of my ice ax to the top of my pack (REI Mars 85) as there was not any easy way to do this using the pack's factory settings. On the way down, I used one to fix my ice ax, and the other to fix my crampons to the outside of my pack. The only thing I'd change is to bring 25-30" webbing instead of 60".

Food:

     The food AAI prepared for us (breakfast and dinner at Muir and Ingraham flats) was excellent. Hot tasty meals provided a huge boost. I could imagine that any form of MRE or instant/minute-ready type foods would not have tasted all that good. We were responsible for lunches and calories at each break. I brought the following and had no complaints:

Cold take-n-bake pizza from the night before (a few cold Alaskan Ambers would have been nice...)
Bagel/cream cheese/smoked ham sandwiches (very tasty and filling)
Fruit-filled cereal bars (didn't freeze and were palatable)
Cliff espresso shots (used on the summit push... really felt the diuretic effect of all that caffeine that day)
Hershey bars
Powdered Gatorade and Nescafe

Technical skills:

     We spent the morning at Camp Muir practicing the following skills relevant to steep slope and glacier travel:

     Self-arrest
     Climbing with crampons (pied en canard, pied à plat, pied troisième)
     Ice ax grips (self belay vs self arrest)
     Travel as a rope team

The lessons were brief and I know I'll need to practice them again the next time I'm on a glacier.

Mission Accomplished

Its been ten days now since we got off the summit of Mt Rainier and it is almost sad that its over. Six months of training and buying gear, countless hours on the internet gathering information and blogging is all over now. What a great trip!

The actual summit trip started with gear check at Alpine Ascents International (AAI) in Seattle. We met the other five members of the team that would be going up with us as well as the lead guide. It turns out, Cyrus, Pat and I were the members of the team with the least experience. Two of the other members had already climbed Rainier, 2 more had tried at least once and one guy had even spent a month on Denali and summited! Our lead guide, Matt came off exactly like a mountain guide should... total badass yet very calm and collective. My intuition would later be proven true.

After pulling out all of our gear one by one and getting the ok to climb, we left AAI and went to get groceris. Our menu for the trip would consist of bagels with ham, turkey and cream cheese, cold pizza and random snacks such as chocolate covered almonds and sour patch kids. We assembled our food and went through our packs for the next six hours, making sure everything was perfect. The next morning came and we took a cab to AAI where our gear was loaded into a van and we were shuttled down to Paradise.

After a quick introduction of ourselves and the other guides we started up for Camp Muir. The weather was wet but from rain. The guides kept a steady pace and would stop after every 1000 vertical feet which would take about an hour and fifteen. At every break the packs came off, we drank and ate. Around 8500 feet the clouds broke and the mountain started to come into view. Gorgeous! Soon after we would arrive at Camp Muir where we made camp for the night. The guides told us to relax and get settled in while they made dinner.

Muir Snowfield

The mountain coming out

When we were told that the guides made breakfasts and dinner I figured it was freeze dried meals... Wrong. The dinner call was made and we hoofed it to the AAI kitchen tent where hot chicken quesadillas were waiting with rice and beans and fresh guacamole. After dinner we enjoyed the views, snapped some photos and tried to get some sleep. Excitement kept me from getting a good nights rest. As did the ear plugs in my ears.

The next morning brought a completely clear sky with gorgeous views. Breakfast call was made and we were greeted with hot coffee and chocolate, bacon, scrambled eggs and blueberry pancakes. Awesome. We enjoyed our hot breakfast, told dirty jokes and just enjoyed ourselves at 10,000 feet. We were told after breakfast to pack our stuff up and meet by the AAI tent for some snow school.

June 19, 2012

June 20, 2012

Snow school was about two hours and consisted of learned to walk in steep terrain with crampons, self arrest and belay, rope skills and tag lines, avalanche transceivers and glacial safety. It wasn't very in depth but was enough to get us to the top and back safely. After school we saddled up and tagged into each other and started for high camp at 11,300 feet. We traveled across the Cowlitz Glacier, up Cathedral Rocks and onto the Ingraham Glacier where high camp was waiting. We were told to get a couple hours rest at high camp, then we would eat dinner and go back to bed. We were waking up at midnight to summit...

AAI tent next to Cowlitz Glacier. Notice the team crossing under the rocks in the distance

Crossing the Cowlitz

Top of Cathedral Rocks

Ingraham Glacier with high camp in distance. Disappointment Cleaner is to the upper right.

The guides at AAI took excellent care of us. While the team was sleeping they were cooking and even managed to fill everyones water bottle. Dinner consisted of pasta with cream sauce and of course bacon (awesome). We had a summit talk and were back in bed.

The alarm went off at midnight and hot water was waiting for us. Some coffee, a bagel and water was all I needed. My gear was packed and only consisted of food, water and clothing; everything else stayed at high camp. We tagged in to each other and set off in the dark towards what we hoped was the summit. Our path took us up the Ingraham Glacier and across the "flats", then up Disappointment Cleaver. We had our first break there which was brief and cold. We continued up at the same steady pace. The excited kept me going without any problems. My fear of being stricken down in my tracks by altitude wasn't happening. I didnt want to stop for breaks even; Get me to the top!

High Break

Final push

Two more breaks and the final push led us to the east side of the crater. What a desolate world up there. The crater provided a little protection from the elements. We shed our packs and tag lines, through on some warm clothes and grabbed a snack; then we made the 15 minute walk across the crater to Columbia Crest. The only word I can use to describe sitting on the summit of Mt Rainier at dawn is amazing. It was the most amazing thing I have ever done.

Summit with Mt Adams to our back

The trip down went in the exact reverse order and at a much faster pace. We stopped at high camp to get our stuff and fuel up as well as pick up the one team member that had to turn around at the Cleaver. A jog to Camp Muir (literally a jog), some quick lunch and we were off down the mountain. The weather was much warmer so the trip down went slower because the Muir Snowfield was very soft. Each step created a new post hole on already sore legs. After a few hours the lodge at Paradise came into view. I know why they call it Paradise: after descending off the mountain there is no greater site!

The boots and three day old gear came off, fresh clothes went on, the packs were loaded and we were off. Burgers and beers were enjoyed by all after leaving the park and a toast to our trip was made by lead guide Matt. His trip prior to ours brought rain, the forecast for the group going up after us is rain with high winds... We hit the perfect three days for a summit.

Although our trip was perfect for us tragedy did strike the mountain. While we were coming down from high camp to Muir, there was a group that went missing and fell into the Emmons Glacier. We saw the Chinook helicopter get launched but didn't know what was going on. Later we found out that a Park Ranger fell to his death trying to rescue the stranded climbers. RIP Ranger Nick Hall.

Weather moving in

If anyone wants to climb Mt Rainier I recommend getting a guide. I never once felt that I was in danger and the guides at AAI couldnt have made our trip any more enjoyable. It was worth every penny, and the experience is one that I will never forget. We are already looking at our next course with AAI next year; The 6 day Cascades training course. While we were on the summit, we also were able to see our next project in the world of mountaineering and climbing: Mt Baker.