From 16-Jun-03 through 19-Jun-03 I participated in a summit climb of Mt. Rainier in Washington state. The climb was guided by Alpine Ascents International.
The trip started by flying into Seattle on Sunday morning the 15th. At the airport I caught a shuttle to the offices of Alpine Ascents for our gear check. Their offices are just a couple of blocks away from the Space Needle and the Experience Music Project museum.
The gear check is where we meet the guides, and they meet us. The gear check is to ensure that we have brought the proper gear to make the trip, including the right boots, crampons, pack, ice axe and technical clothing such as fleece and gore-tex top and bottoms. AAI provides all the food and "group gear" such as ropes, tents, stoves and fuel. Darn nice of them if you ask me.
After the gear check we have the afternoon off. I go to my hotel to check in, which is a short walk. Then I spent a couple of hours walking around the neighborhood and grabbing a meal. After that it's back to the hotel to load my backpack and lay out the clothes I will be wearing.
Got up early on Monday the 16th, checked out, and walked over to Alpine Ascents' office by 5:00. From there we loaded up the van with our gear and hit the road for about a two-hour drive to the trailhead.
We stopped at the White River ranger station in order to check in with the climbing rangers, leave names and an itinerary. The rangers are also up to date on the latest climbing conditions and route information.
Then we parked the van and put on sunscreen and our plastic boots. While we are doing this the guides prepared four different piles of group gear. At this point we need to pick a tent mate since there will be two people per tent and there are eight clients. I did my best to find someone that wouldn't snore since I am such a light sleeper. So anyway, you and your tentmate grab one of the piles of group gear and divide that between yourselves. This gear includes a tent, food, fuel bottles and possibly a rope. Dividing this up adds about 10-12 extra pounds to your carry weight. Total pack weight was about 55 pounds.
In addition to the eight clients there were three guides, Traci, Andy and Ben. Ben was the star of the group, having climbed a route on Denali known as "Czech Direct" which is a darn near vertical rock and ice route. It's a route that less than a dozen people have climbed.
There were supposed to be nine clients, but one person had to drop out. They said he hurt his back during training only a couple of days before the climb.
So finally on a bright, beautiful Monday morning we start hiking from the White River campground up the Emmons Glacier trail. Within a few minutes of starting our hike we encountered snow on the trail. The hike in was very nice despite the heavy packs as the area is very beautiful. After walking for 30-45 minutes we get our first glimpse of the mountain, and it was awesome. It was also really big.
After several hours of walking we put on our harnesses, roped up and started up the relatively small Inter glacier. We climbed to near the top of this glacier to an area known as Camp Curtis, roughly 8,500' elevation and just below Steamboat Prow. This was our camp for the first night.
The next morning we had breakfast and broke down our camp, then hiked up to the area of Steamboat Prow for our snow skills refresher class. This is where the guides want to be sure that we are all versed in the very basic glacier skills such as walking on snow, holding/using an ice axe the proper way and self-arrest using our axes.
"Walking on snow" sounds like no problem. But while wearing heavy plastic boots and steel crampons it can be a chore. There are several techniques for walking other than just a simple one foot in front of the other. These techniques are used when the terrain is too steep to walk normally. One method is called a "duck walk" because you turn each foot out slightly as you climb. Another method is called the French technique, which involves putting one foot over the other, essentially walking sideways up the hill. This is the one I prefer because it is less tiring. The other main method is called front-pointing, essentially keeping your feet level and kicking the front points of your crampons into the ice. (These techniques also work on snow without crampons.) Oh, one other method used for going downhill is the "plunge" step, where you exaggerate a heel-first gait, plunging each foot into the snow.
In general you don't use crampons unless the snow is frozen. When it gets soft or slushy the snow simply balls up on the bottom of your crampons and renders them ineffective.
After the snow skills refresher we pushed up to Camp Schurman at 9,480 feet. This is a rock outcrop that is the top point of a ridge that separates the Winthrop and Emmons glaciers.
After resting, eating and snapping some pictures we push up the Emmons glacier about another 300 vertical feet to our high camp at the Emmons Flats. Here we dug tent platforms, set up our tents and got our gear and packs together for our summit push. We rested, drank and ate some more and went to bed about 6 in the evening. It wasn't easy getting to sleep because the sun did not go down until almost 10:00 p.m. and because we were pretty excited.
The second day was a short push for two reasons. One was to give us a chance to rest before summit day, and the second was to give us an extra day to acclimatize to the altitude.
The weather the first two days was as good as it can get; warm and sunny with no appreciable wind.
Mt. Rainier is 14,410' tall and the highest point in Washington state. It is the fifth highest peak in the lower 48. It is considered the longest endurance climb in the lower 48. I can vouch for that fact.
Here is a list of the 5 tallest mountains in the lower 48 states:
| Mt. Whitney | 14,494' | California | |
| Mt. Elbert | 14,433' | Colorado | |
| Mt. Massive | 14,421' | Colorado | |
| Mt. Harvard | 14,420' | Colorado | |
| Mt. Rainier | 14,410' | Washington |
As you can see, there is less than 100 feet of difference between them.
The guides woke us up a little before midnight. We were leaving our high camp intact, so we got up and dressed, prepped our packs with a light load of water, food, an extra layer of fleece and down jackets. We had a breakfast consisting of oat/fruit bars and hot drinks and started climbing around 1:00 in the morning.
At night you climb with a headlamp to see. There were three rope teams with a guide leading three clients per rope. (Each rope is 60 meters in length with everyone evenly spaced).
The lead guide on the lead team puts out "wands" which are generally bamboo sticks about a meter in length with a red flag on top to mark the route. This is mostly needed on the return trip down the hill, at which time the last person on the last rope team picks them back up.
In general you climb for 50 minutes out of each hour and rest the other 10 minutes. During those 10 minutes you must eat and drink as much as you can because you are burning a phenomenal number of calories. It's also important to be well hydrated as problems such as AMS (Altitude Mountain Sickness) mimic and are exaggerated by being dehydrated. At times you will walk for an hour and a half before a break in order to pass through some areas where you could be exposed to rockfall or avalanche hazards.
An hour or so into the climb, while it was still dark, we could see flashes of lightning from the other side of the mountain. We knew that if it came our way we would have to turn around and get back to camp. Fortunately the storms moved off and we kept climbing.
Later in the morning, after sunrise, the clouds starting moving in as we moved higher. I was really hoping to have a clear day on the summit to get some great pictures, but it was not to be. A pretty strong wind was also blowing as we approached 13,000'. This wind gusted strongly enough on two occasions that it nearly lifted me off my feet.
The weather was pretty balmy for most of the trip. I never needed my 200-weight Polartec pants except for lounging around high camp. I only put on my heavy double mitts once and quickly took them back off in favor of lightweight wool gloves. Also I only used a lightweight wool cap, and didn't need a balaclava or heavier hat at all.
Finally around 10:30 a.m. we reached the summit. I was pretty tired and hungry, but mostly wanted a nap. Sadly the summit was totally socked in by clouds and high winds which I think were about 40-50 mph. I have a photo of myself standing on the summit, but because of being in a whiteout I could be in New Jersey for all anybody looking at it knows.
After a short break we started back down. I got to lead the middle rope team, which was cool. The descent was uneventful until we neared our high camp. About 1/2 mile from camp, maybe about 300 vertical feet above it, I was leading down the final slope before camp, and following the wands. I started to notice the snow was giving more under my boots when I "punched through" a snow bridge into a crevasse. Essentially this means that I was in the crevasse up to my waist but did not fall further.
This is the first time that has happened to me, and it was an interesting experience. I never felt like I was going to drop into the crevasse completely because we were roped up. But I was concerned about losing my pack, which did not happen. My teammates fed out a little rope to me and pulled me out. Then we used a "triangulation" pattern to move out of the area of the weak snow bridges. A few minutes later we cruised into high camp. It was about 4:00 p.m.
We were tired but happy. Everyone made the summit and returned safely. The only thing we were concerned with that night was getting a good meal and lots of rest.
I must have caught a cold on the airplane ride out because by the end of summit day I was feeling like I had come down with a cold. I seem to pick up stuff like that on airplane rides in the cramped close quarters.
I didn't put on enough sunscreen the second day and ended up with a sunburned underside of my nose and burned lips. A couple of days after the trip they were really ripe and I am sure I scared any small children that I came across. Heck, even the INSIDES of my ears got really red because I didn't think to put any sunscreen in there. Geez.
The following morning we packed up camp and retraced our route down the hill and back to the trailhead. We then drove back to AAI's office in Seattle.
Links for Mt. Rainier:
Mount Rainier National Park (National Park Service)
Picture Gallery
Click on a thumbnail to see the picture at normal size.
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Maggie and the kids made a cake for me before I left. Pretty cute. |
A map of our route. |
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The White River ranger station, where we had to check in and get our permits in order. |
View of the mountain on the hike in. We're starting at about 4,300' and lugging 55 pound packs while wearing plastic mountaineering boots. We may be crazy, but we love it. |
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Another view on the hike in.The true summit, called the Columbia Crest, is the left side of the mountain. The smaller mountain in the left foreground is called Little Tahoma. |
Yours truly on the hike in. Nice weather. |
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Taking a break on the snowfield on the hike up. The other teams are WAY behind, eating our dust (snow). That's Tony on the right; he's from Fairbanks, Alaska. |
Looking up the hill on the hike in. The true summit is at the top middle in the distance. On the larger picture you might be able to pick out a group hiking in front of us up the slope. |
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Trudging up the Inter glacier. Some people don't rope up here, and every year several people find out the hard way what a bad idea that is. |
Looking down the hill just below Steamboat Prow from our campsite #1, Camp Curtis. A beautiful day. |
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Bruce digs out a tent platform at Camp Curtis. This is necessary to make them level and also provides a small windbreak. |
Looking back down the hill from camp. |
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Mt. Ruth. You always want to camp above such formations if possible because of rockfall potential. As the sun heats up and melts the snow, it can loosen rocks and send them down on you. |
Two people per tent, except for the three guides who all were in one tent. The raised snow platform at left was our kitchen counter. |
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Day 2, looking up at the summit. The true summit is just beyond that rocky ridge. |
Looking back down the hill from Camp Schurman, an outpost on a rocky outcrop separating the Emmons and Winthrop glaciers. 9,480' elevation here. |
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An unnamed rocky ridge in the middle of the Emmons glacier. As summer progresses, the crevasses open up more as the snow bridges melt. |
Resting at Camp Schurman, Bruce (l) and Tom (r). Note the almost lenticular-shaped cloud formation around the summit. We could tell that it was windy up there. |
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Looking west from Camp Schurman at a rockfall. Note the fuzzy/grainy area in the center, this is where the action is. You don't want to be underneath that when it happens, which it did several times that day. |
The ranger hut at Camp Schurman. Behind it is a pit toilet, which was an upgrade of our normal accommodations of "blue bags" or "wag bags." Luxury is where you find it! |
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Lots of folks make camp at Schurman, sleep for a few hours, then attempt the summit. There were tents all around, dug into the glacier. Some pretty serious crevasses close by on the Winthrop glacier. That's one of the guides, Andy, on the right. |
This is after sunrise on summit day as we work our way up the mountain. We started out from our high camp, which was about 300 vertical feet above Camp Schurman, at 12:45 am. The clouds are moving in. |
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Summit day, looking back down the hill. You can barely make out our tents, the yellow specks in the middle of the picture. |
A rather large block of ice popping up out of the Emmons glacier. This was on a rest break. The ropes for the other two teams are in the foreground. The lighting is so flat it's difficult to make out much detail. |
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Clouds seriously beginning to move in on us, swirling, swirling... |
Starting to get some serious altitude here. I don't remember where exactly we were but I'm guessing this is around 13,000'. |
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Standing on the true summit, known as the Columbia Crest, at 14,410'. I may be smiling, but I'm really tired and hungry. Complete whiteout with about a 50 mph wind. I think this was about 10:30 a.m. |
Now we're moving back down the hill after resting and getting something to eat and drink. The weather clears a bit below the summit. |
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After summitting we returned to high camp to spend the last night. This is the last morning as we pack up to leave the mountain. |
Glissading down a snowfield. This is can be fun once you get the hang of it. |
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Group mug shot on the way out. L-R: Traci (guide), me, Tom, Mason, Bruce, Andy (guide), Tony, John, John, Gene. Ben, the other guide, is snapping the picture. Don't you just love my bandana? |
Some pretty wildflowers on the trail. Unfortunately it was too early in the season and there was still too much snow at this elevation for there to be many flowers. |
I hope that you enjoyed this page.
Kent Kersten.
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