The Blue Family: Mount Rainier Climb

Doug and I recently took an adventurous trip to Mount Rainier National Park. We got to Seattle late Tuesday night and drove to the Northeast side of the park. There we camped at the White River campground. It was a pretty wet night out, but fortunately we stayed dry in the tent. We got up pretty early the next day and took a hike up the mountain and along what used to be the White River Trail. This trail has been largely destroyed by the flood a few years ago. Below is a picture of Doug at the trailhead. The width of this river and the size of the trees was remarkable.

We hiked for about 3 hours up to Glacier Basin. From here we could see up the mountain (and would have been able to see the summit of Rainier if not for the clouds). Below is a picture of the basin.

We finished our hike and headed back down the mountain to the town of Ashford. In Ashford we quickly grabbed some lunch and headed over to International Mountain Guides' (IMG) headquarters. There we went through all of our gear and left some things behind that we would not be needing. It was also here that we first were introduced to our double plastic boots that we would be wearing for the remainder of the trip (think ski boots with a little more give, but not much). We met our team and our guides and then headed out for the night to get some dinner. After dinner Doug and I headed back to Alexander's Country Inn. Below is a picture of the inn, isn't it so romantic?

The next morning we woke up to a nice breakfast of french toast, took our last shower and headed back to IMG to hitch a ride to the mountain. We loaded up our gear on a 15 passenger van and headed up the mountain to Paradise. Below is a picture of Doug at Paradise with the mountain in the background. I don't think we saw but a few glimpses of the top of Rainier the whole time we were there.

We all donned our 40 pound backpacks and hit the trail. Paradise is around 5,600 feet in elevation and we were heading up to Camp Muir at 10,300 feet. Along the way we would rest every 1 hour or so (it ended up being a little less than this because of a storm that was approaching, but more on that later). Below is a picture of Mt. Adams at our first break site. The views were amazing the whole time and magnitude of everything was awesome.

We hiked for about 5 hours and 15 minutes until we reached Camp Muir at 10,300 feet. Our guides pushed us pretty hard up the mountain as there was a storm that was hovering right above Camp Muir and was threatening to drop in on us. It was a good thing that we were pushed because not long after we arrived at Camp Muir the cloud descended on us and the winds picked up. Below is a picture of the Camp Muir shelter that we stayed in. This picture was taken on our summit day, not the day when we arrived - trust me though, it was nasty outside.

Once in Camp Muir we situated our gear and headed over to the cook tent for some dinner. IMG really knows how to bring food along as we had some wild rice soup and chicken pasta that was very tasty. The picture below shows the cook tent where we spent quite a bit of time. After dinner we headed back to our shelter for what we hoped would be a long night of sleep. While we did lay down for a long time that night, the winds really picked up and made everything around us move which made sleeping rather difficult. The winds were howling around 50-60 miles an hour all night long and while some sleep was had, it was not a lot.

We woke up to more of the same bad weather, but we packed up our gear and headed over to the cook tent for a yummy breakfast of pancakes and bacon. The winds continued to howl and it was misting something or other outside. We decided to wait and hope the weather cleared before heading up to our second camp. Around 1:30 our guides decided it was time to move and so we donned our gore tex, went outside to rope together and looked up and saw blue in the sky - yeah!! We were very lucky and struck out for the 1.5 hour hike to our second camp on the Ingraham Glacier. Below is a picture of our campsite - our tent is in the foreground and a peak called Little Tahoma is in the background. It was an unbelievable spot to camp!

Below is a picture looking up the mountain from our campsite. The top or the snow in this picture is called Dissapointment Cleaver and would be our first rest on the way to the summit. It is called Dissapointment Cleaver because the first people who climbed the mountain thought it was the summit, oh were they grossly mistaken.

We got into camp, unpacked and then went to an early dinner. We again ate until our hearts were content, topped off our water bottles and headed back to our tents for bed. We got in bed around 7:30 and were anticipating being woken up around 12. Well, the weather was not happy again that night and around 10:00 the winds picked up and it got really ugly again. Our guides checked the weather through the night and around 2:00 came by to say we were going to wait a little longer and hope that the winds died down. If not, we were going to give it a shot anyway (thought without much chance of making it very far). Well the weather again cooperated and around 4:30 we were up, we had eaten and we were roped up ready to go. Below is a picture of some of our group getting ready to head out.

We set out for the summit around 4:30 and anticipated a 5-6 hour hike with 4 breaks. With the late start and a strong group, our guides decided to push us a bit and try to get to the summit quickly. We went through Dissapointment Cleaver, along 12 inch ledges with not much below you - let me tell you that when you are doing that with a headlamp to see, it is a little intimidating. We made it through there, not sure if we would be able to make it back, and headed for the long back and forth route to the top. We made excellent time and only were given 2 breaks, but after 4 hours and 15 minutes (apparently the fastest the guides had ever summited with a group) we made it to the summit. Below is a picture of Doug and me in the summit crater (14,411 feet) just after we arrived. As you can see we are a little tired.

Once in the crater, I headed across the crater to the "true summit" to sign the register and get some photos. While not that long of a walk it takes about 45 minutes round trip and was a bit taxing after the climb. Below is a picture of me on the "true summit." Just below this picture is a video of the summit. The views were astounding, and the feeling of being above the clouds was amazing.

Below is a picture of the summit crater as viewed from the "true summit." You can see our group at the very edge of the other side. It may just look like rocks.

After summitting, we had the long trip all the way back down to Paradise. While descending is a whole lot easier than climbing, it was an 8 hour trip down and therefore exhausting. Below is a picture of 2 of our guides with Doug in the middle descending to Camp Muir. This was the last place we would be roped in and all danger was over, we had made it (only 2.5 hours to the car).