The Old Schoolhouse

WHEN GRANDPA AL AND LORENE came to visit in May, we rode the ferry over to Andersen Island and found an old schoolhouse with one of those old BIG SLIDES that the playgrounds used to have back in the day. The kids just loved sliding down the big slide,swinging on the TIRE SWING and going up and down on the see-saw. We now often hear the boys ask, "When can we go back to the island with the big slide?" Need I say more about how much fun they had!

MT. RAINIER summit

Mabye its the fact that we see it everyday (or that we finally went crazy), but for some reason, on Memorial Day Weekend, we decided to climb Mt. Rainier. We met up with a group of six like minded souls in Seattle and roped up for a three day early season climb. The weather was perfect and the mountain was still completely covered in snow. On our first day, we hiked 4.5 miles and almost 5,ooo vertical feet from Paradise to Camp Muir. With the sun reflecting off the snow, it made for one hot day. However, the views of Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Hood were excellent. On day 2, we had a crash course in climbing, how to use an ice ax, and why its important not to fall. At the end of our lesson, we packed up our tents and gear (Sara's pack was about 60 pounds) and climbed across the Cowlitz Glacier up to the Ingraham Ice flats at 11,200 feets. After checking for crevasses and securing a safe spot on the glacier, we spent the rest of the day digging in our high camp and preparing our gear for what would be a long, long day.

At 0200, with bright stars shimmering down, we roped up, turned on our Avalanche beacons, and started up the Ingraham direct route toward the crater rim. As we started up the glacier, it became clear to us that this was no day hike in the mountains. With sincerely steep grades and an endless maze of crevasses, we made sure that with every step our crampons stuck in the ice and our ice axes had a good grip. With every step up, it seemed to get colder, windier, and the air a little thinner. After six hours of up, we came over the lip of the crater and into the caldera. Nothing can describe how truly tired we were. After crossing the crater to sign the summit log, Mike sat down on a steam vent and took a little nap. With the summit firmly under our feet, we could begin the hard part of our journey: 9 miles straight down the mountain. As we walked out of the snow into the parking lot, Andrew, Peter, and Emma were there to meet us. Nothing was better than having our little family safely together again.

MT. RAINIER trial by fire

AT 6000 FT THIS IS WHAT MT. RAINIER looked like on Saturday. In an attempt to get ready for our Summit trip at the end of this month, we decided to try and climb the first part of the mountain to Camp Muir which stands at 10,080 ft. The weather was beautiful and there were many hikers climbing to Camp Muir as well. We met some really nice people along the way.

SARA all geared up and ready to put some good training to use.

MIKE all ready to climb one of his favorite mountains.

WE ARE HALF WAY at this point and are very happy to stop and rest and snack a bit. The weather did fluctuate a bit, but for the most part, we were warm enough in our running tights and light undershirt. During rests we ended up pulling on a warm fleece. We really couldn't have asked for better weather to climb during this time of the year.

WE MADE IT TO CAMP MUIR. Even at 10,080 ft we are still smiling. We were happy to finally stop and eat lunch, even though it was almost 3:00pm. It got a little cold and so we had to pull out our warmer gear. It's a good thing we packed warmer clothes.

MIKE glasading down the mountain

THIS IS WHERE OUR STORY GETS RATHER INTERESTING. The first 30 minutes of heading down the mountain were a blast. The sun was shining and we were able to slide down parts of the snowfields. It's called glasading and it is so much fun. Just when we thought going down the mountain was going to be filled with lots of glasading, giving our feet a rest, we walked right into the cloud cover. Our visibility was about 15 ft and the red flags that marked the trail going up were nowhere to be found. The trail was marked pretty well, but there was a section that lacked these red flags of comfort and guidance. Luckily for us, we brought a GPS and used that as our guide to find our way down the mountain. It really does pay to be prepared. We finally did make it down the mountain and after 10 hours of hiking, we were ready to go home and hug our kids. We were so thankful to have grandparents watch our kids.

Click here to see some more PICTURES from our adventure.