Mt. Rainier: Summit trip in August

[tempe8]

Mt. Rainier has captivated me for a long time and this past August we finally got to the top of it. Our team of four was assembled from 2005 graduates of the AMC Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue Class (plug: highly recommended).

We huffed our gear to base camp (Camp Muir), under beautiful blue skies and gorgeous temps. We expected Camp Muir to be quite crowded, but were somewhat surprised to find only four other tents of non-RMI climbers. We picked our camp spots and broke out the snow shovel to level our camp and set up home for the next two nights.

All the regular chores of camping ensued, with one worth noting…water. We had to melt snow as there was no other drinking source, and this was a first for a few of us. Who could have known how much time and energy was required to obtain such a basic necessity? We rotated teams melting and pumping water for almost two hours to get a measly 12 liters of water! There’s got to be a better way…and we found one. Let the sun do the work…we filled a garbage bag with snow the next day and let the sun do the melting while we were out playing!

On our rest and acclimatization day we spent some time getting geared up and finding a nearby crevasse to practice our rescue skills. We rotated positions on the rope team so each member could drill the C and the Z pulley systems, self arrest, and prussick. This gave us all a high level of confidence in the team, getting a chance to work as a unit. Then it really began to hit home that I wasn’t an individual climber anymore…I was part of a team that depended on one another…we were literally tying our lives together on that rope team. But we had prepared, trained, and practiced…we were ready and it was time to do it!

We decided it would be best to get an early start and get ahead of the RMI teams, so we “woke up” at 11:30pm to begin our 12:30am climb. It was a cloudless night with the sliver of a new moon rising in the east, temps at about 35, and just a trace of wind…couldn’t be better! As we finished getting our last pieces of clothing and gear on, we heard the call from the assembling RMI climbers “A Team is leaving in 5 minutes!” That was our signal; we wanted to be out in front of RMI so we roped up and took off across the Cowlitz Glacier.

The first part of the climb crosses the Cowlitz glacier but it’s a shallow grade and the trail is well worn as it weaves its way up to the towering rocks of Cathedral Gap. Going up the Gap is straightforward except for the danger of kicking rocks loose on team members below. Here we made like an accordion and brought each roped team member close together, each coiling the rope for the next, so we could move up the scree chute as one.

At the top of the Gap our hearts were pumping hard from the steep ascent. We looked back over Cowlitz to see the RMI teams, lit up like a train in the night, weaving towards the base. This was the beginning of the unknown for us, we had scoped out the Cathedral Rocks route from our camp, but now we were on the ‘other side’ and the real adventure was to begin.

We flicked our headlamps on bright and turned toward Ingraham Glacier, searching for the route, scanning for trail wands. Things were well marked all the way to the base of Disappointment Cleaver, which is where the real elevation gain begins. The base of the Cleaver is notoriously rocky and scree filled so we had to draw the rope team together one more time. Here we had to do some 3rd class scrambling up the rocks while managing the rope in one hand and an ice ax in the other…all in the darkness of night of course.

We finally broke above the rock and were glad to see snow up ahead, where we could finally get good traction with our crampons and expand our rope team to be more efficient. My enthusiasm for the snow began to wane though as the grade quickly increased. This section of the Cleaver, the upper snow/ice field, inclines to a 35 degree slope. At 3am in the morning with a black sky, climbing the side of a thousand foot slope gets your adrenaline going. I experimented with using the ice axe in a ‘high dagger’ position to get a firmer grip on the mountain side, but this was slow and wasn’t necessary as my comfort level improved.

During a rest break, I craned my head to focus my light down the slope to see exactly what we were climbing up. My light only illuminated about 20 feet down, the snow and ice just faded into darkness below. Although I couldn’t see very far, I knew what lie below, either a cliff or a crevasse field…or maybe both! “Ok, focus on secure crampon placement and solid ice axe holds!”
As we moved past the Cleaver, the slope eased up and I was happy to be on more sure footing. The route was getting a little less clear this high up because the wands were spaced further apart, some had fallen with the snow melt and there were some criss-crossing trails weaving around crevasses. We came to a junction and decided to go one direction, below us the RMI teams had been gaining ground and their lights were getting close. As we took off into the darkness on our own, we noticed an RMI team go up the other route. Were we going off route at this point? We turned to see what RMI was doing when a voice shot out “You four climbers, independents, either route is fine” said the guide. With almost 30 climbers on this route, we were easily identifiable; we were the only unguided team up there!

We turned around and proceeded on our own and began the switch backing up the divide between the Emmons and Ingraham Glaciers. Right about this time, the sun finally broke the horizon and we were greeted to a spectacular sunrise. The snow began to glow with a pink and orange hue, the clouds in the valley around us seemed impossibly far below…it was a good day to be on Rainier.
As we switched back towards Ingraham again, we realized what the guide had already known, our alternate route was intersecting again with them near the top. We ran into another team there and overheard the guide say “those rocks up there, that’s the crater rim”. You mean no false summits to sap your morale? The crater rim was another 800 vertical feet up, we were almost there. Those last 800’ were tough though. By now we were in the rarified air of almost 14k feet and breathing was becoming tough. “Remember your training…pressure breath, rest step…one foot in front of the other”

We finally reached the East Crater rim at 7:30am and the feeling of accomplishment was pretty big. We all took a load off and rested a bit to take in the sites of the crater. I checked my zipper thermometer, 15 degrees and there was a breeze blowing, better put on the over mittens. We didn’t have much time to spend on top so we made our way across the bottom of the crater to the other side, the true summit. We tagged the summit, Columbia Crest, standing on top of Rainier, 14,410’ above sea level.

The trip down was easy in that you weren’t fighting gravity anymore and each step down brought more oxygen…but we also knew this was the most dangerous time, when you’re fatigued and can make simple mistakes. The sun begun to warm the snow, and the ice crust was melting which meant that our crampons wouldn’t bite anymore; they just pushed into the slush. Now that we could see what we had climbed up earlier in the morning I was taken aback by the size of the crevasses we crossed, the seracs and cornices we paralleled. The sunlight revealed a spectacular winter wonderland of blue ice and snow, on a scale I had never seen. On that glorious August day, Rainier gave us a taste of what big alpine climbing was all about…we were grateful and reveled in our good fortune.

Pictures are up:
http://www.arizonahikers.com/forum/modules.php?set_albumName=albve33&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php

[Dean]

Nice trip report and I enjoyed your pics. I climbed Rainier many years ago but it is an experience you never forget.
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[desertgirl]

Way cool...Thanks for sharing
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Photos: http://www.pbase.com/desertgirl/galleries
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